Laudetur Iesus Christus! We just wanted to send a quick reminder of the revised schedule over the next few days due to the Thanksgiving holiday.

Latin Masses This Week (Note Cancellations)

• Thursday November 24 – NO LATIN MASS at St. Thomas Aquinas, Canceled due to Thanksgiving holiday
• Friday November 25, 12:30pm St. Mark (NO 7AM LATIN MASS at St. Ann), feast of St. Catherine of Alexandria
• Saturday November 26, – NO 4^th SATURDAY 8AM LATIN Mass at St. Ann, canceled due to Thanksgiving holiday weekend

Advent-Christmas Schedule:

If you are planning ahead, please see our webpage for the most recent announced Latin Masses during Advent and Christmas: https://charlottelatinmass.org/mass-times/

Thanksgiving: Catholic Origins

Since tomorrow is the secular holiday of Thanksgiving, we wanted to reshare our annual post regarding the Catholic origins of Thanksgiving.

Around the feast of Martinmas (November 11), we shared a few articles examining the European-Catholic origins of the American Thanksgiving, which was modeled after the feast of St. Martin (Martinmas) and was sort of an end of the harvest commemoration. That is likely where the pilgrims developed the idea of an American thanksgiving. With the American Thanksgiving upon us tomorrow, we wanted to provide some Catholic background on the topic, both liturgically and historically. We reshare the Martinmas articles and some additional ones:

• Thanksgiving Day Mass: Thanks or No Thanks?: Dr. Mike Foley gives the liturgical history of the Mass of Thanksgiving offered in the U.S.: https://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2020/11/thanksgiving-day-mass-thanks-or-no.html#.YZnOArpOmHs
• Forgotten Customs of Martinmas and St. Martin’s Lent: https://onepeterfive.com/forgotten-customs-of-martinmas-and-st-martins-lent/
• Feast of St. Martin (Martinmas): https://www.fisheaters.com/customstimeafterpentecost15.html
• Saint Martin of Tours: The Man and His Feast: https://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2022/11/saint-martin-of-tours-man-and-his-feast.html#.Y37CjX3MKHu

While, as we note above, the American Thanksgiving holiday was organized by protestants, the first true Thanksgiving on this land was actually Catholic in origin, and held 50 years earlier in newly discovered San Augustine, Florida in 1565 by Spanish explorers. Their priest offered Mass (Latin Mass of course) – the first on American soil, and then held a feast. Here are a few articles that explain the origins:

• The Catholic Origins of the First Thanksgiving: https://taylormarshall.com/2009/11/catholic-origins-of-first-thanksgiving.html
• America’s First Thanksgiving Was in Florida — Seriously. It Was!: http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/americas-first-thanksgiving-was-in-florida-seriously.-it-was

The Mythical Thanksgiving Indult by Pope Pius XII: As we approach the Thanksgiving Day holiday, we share with you a magnificent piece penned by Sharon Kabel, who examined the mysterious legend of the Friday-After-Thanksgiving Indult, supposedly granted by Pope Pius XII to allow American Catholics to eat meat on the day after Thanksgiving. It should be stated this is a moot point now since the 1983 Code of Canon Law and the US Bishops Conference has sadly allowed a “substitution” for Friday abstinence.  Anyhow, for traditionalists, this is an occasionally debated topic each Thanksgiving and Sharon does good research to find out the truth: http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2020/11/on-mythical-pius-xii-thanksgiving.html

Happy Thanksgiving and God Bless