November 25: St. Catherine of Alexandria, V., M., III Class

 Today, in the 1962 Dominican Rite Calendar, we celebrate the feast of St. Catherine of Alexandria, Virgin and Martyr.  The feast is III Class, so the ordinary office is prayed according to the rubrics.

Prior to the mid-20th Century revisions of the calendar, her feast was celebrated as a Totum Duplex with an octave (December 2), and her office contained a partial set of propers (the office did not include proper antiphons for the psalms of Matins, and only included three of the original nine responsories).  The antiphon at 1st Vespers for her feast in the 1909 Breviarium S.O.P. was "Hail! O Catherine, thou gem of virgins.  Hail!  O glorious spouse of the King of kings."

Due to the circumstances of her martyrdom, as one defending the Faith against pagans, and the fact that she is reputed to have been a philosopher, she has traditionally been referred to as one of the two "protectresses" of the Order, the other being St. Mary Magdalene.  In a future post, I will give the account of their intervention in the miracle of St. Dominic at Soriano.

The Elusive Dominican Cuff-Link

For quite some time now, I have been searching for cuff links that use the shield or crest of the Order.  So far, I have come up empty. And I find this quite frustrating because this seems like a no-brainer to me.  The shield, after all, is ideally shaped to be a cuff link.  And I refuse to believe that I am the first person in the past few hundred years, to have had this inspiration.

After all, you can find the Jerusalem Cross (symbol of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem) on cuff links, as well as the Maltese Cross, which is the symbol of the Knights of St. John.  You can also find Benedictine cuff-links.  So why not the Dominican shield?

I have the lapel pin, which I purchased from this online store.  But I have searched in vain for a set of cuff links.  I would be most grateful to any reader, particularly outside the United States (since I believe I have scoured the US via the internet unsuccessfully) if you could forward me a weblink to a store that sells this elusive element of sartorial esoterica.

Dominican Gear

I have been meaning to do a post on this for over a year now.  Sorry for the delay.  A friend of mine sent me a link to this site some time ago.  A young Catholic woman in Ann Arbor, Michigan makes fine leather products, including breviary and missal covers, and rosary pouches.  She sells them via her online store on Etsy.