WASHINGTON, D.C. — When Erin Bullock steps in front of the altar at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, she is there to sing parts of the liturgy and to guide members of the congregation through song.
Her role as cantor at the church is as visible as the priest's during an October Mass and much of the music she intones with her striking soprano -- along with the choir and people in the pews -- is the unadorned resonances of Gregorian chant.
The melodic sounds are unique and often called mysterious.
When performed by the choir, the chants are typically sung in unison without rhyme, meter or musical accompaniment, with the tones rising and falling in an unstructured fashion.
The tradition of sung prayer dates back to the first millennium, with Gregorian chant becoming the proper music of the mature Roman rite, said Timothy S. McDonnell, director of the Institute of Sacred Music at The Catholic University of America in Washington.
Gregorian chant was standard in the Mass in the 1950s, but fell out of favor after the Second Vatican Council, when the traditional Latin Mass was changed to the dominant language of each country.
Though it has regained popularity in the past few decades, the chant is not the principal music in most U.S. Catholic parishes, McDonnell told Catholic News Service.
Categorically speaking, Gregorian chant is sacred music, but not all sacred music is Gregorian chant.
What distinguishes the chant is that the songs are actual prayers and text vital to the liturgy, said Elizabeth Black, assistant music director of St. John the Beloved Catholic Church in McLean, Virginia.
For instance, when the priest sings, "the Lord be with you," and the congregation responds in song, "and with your spirit," they are performing Gregorian chant, because those holy texts are an essential part of the Mass, Black told Catholic News Service during a recent interview.
Most Catholics have performed Gregorian chant, whether they know it or not, said David Lang, music director of Theological College, a national seminary at The Catholic University of America.
"If you are singing a part of the liturgy that is an essential part of the Mass, you are singing Gregorian chant," Lang said. "Even if you are singing a simple response, that's chant."
Though hymns -- often layered in rich harmonies -- may be liturgical in nature, those songs are meant to decorate the Mass with meditative spirituality and are not a crucial part of the liturgy, Black said.
It's one of the reasons the chant is traditionally sung a capella in plain, monophonic tones, McDonnell said, making the text the focal point of the music. However, there are exceptions to that unofficial chant rule, and some choirs add harmonies and occasionally insert musical accompaniment.
Singing has been a part of the liturgy since the early days of the Catholic Church, but Gregorian chant -- which began to take shape in the ninth century -- is the earliest form of liturgical music that was written and preserved for the historical record, he said.
Gregorian chant is named for St. Gregory the Great, who was pope from 590 to 604.
It's unlikely that Pope Gregory I had any direct involvement in developing Gregorian chant, but he was a building pope who helped reorder the liturgy in a more practical way, creating an artistic environment necessary to establish some form of plain chant, McDonnell said.
The music we identify today as Gregorian chant really began to develop several generations after St. Gregory the Great's death, "and in fact, most historians think it's Pope Gregory II (715-731), who reigned about 100 years later, who was the Pope Gregory who actually had more of a hand in formulating this body of chants that we call Gregorian chant," he said.
"You might call it poetry in music, it's very simple in some ways," said Thomas Stehle, director of music ministries at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle, "and yet complex at times."
Throughout the centuries, the chant became a natural part of the liturgy, because of the simplicity of the sung recitation from the priest and response of chanted text by the congregation, with the choir handling the more complex music, said James Senson, music director of St. John the Beloved.
"Gregorian chant can be incredibly advanced, complicated, involved and with a high level of artistic value," McDonnell said. "At the same time, so much of its beauty resides in its simplicity and the fact that much of it can also be accessible to the congregation and by children.
"Anybody can learn to sing some amount of Gregorian chant," he said, "and the church over the years has categorized the chants according to their accessibility. So, there are many chants that are expected to be sung as part of the liturgy by the faithful and those chants really are every bit as much Gregorian chant as the more florid and elaborate ones."
The music was seen as enhancing the sacred texts with an art form.
"As St. Augustine noted, when we pray in song, it's almost as if we're praying twice," Stehle said. "In some ways, it helps carry the emotion of the chant more effectively."
Though Gregorian chant eventually became the music of the church, it's use has had periods of intense popularity throughout the centuries and eras when it receded, McDonnell said.
The causes of these waves are variable, he said.
"In many cases it simply was things like the fall of cities and the fall of Rome," McDonnell said.
"In the 15th century, when the popes came back from Avignon (a period from 1309 to 1376 during which seven popes resided in Avignon, France, rather than in Rome), the city was in absolute ruins, so the culture of Rome had to be rebuilt," he said. "Whenever you take time to invest clergy, to invest resources in the cultivation of sacred things, the art grows again. So, we saw Gregorian chant flourish again."
However, in the 16th century, after culture was put back together, Renaissance polyphony -- with its elaborate texturized harmonies -- became the dominant music in the church and eclipsed Gregorian chant for a time, McDonnell said.
The chant underwent another revival in the early 20th century with liturgical reforms in Pope Pius X's "Tra Le Sollecitudini" ("Among the Concerns") in 1903.
Then in 1947 Pope Pius XII issued his encyclical "Mediator Dei" ("On the Sacred Liturgy"), encouraging active participation by the laity in the liturgy, further reinforcing Gregorian chant, Black said.
"He has a very specific paragraph on Gregorian chant," she said, "where out of the blue he actually says Gregorian chant enables people to participate actively and that this is the people's music and they should be singing it."
While documents issued during Vatican II in the 1960s supported the use of Gregorian chant, the switch from the Latin Mass to the vernacular prompted most parishes to favor musical forms similar to popular culture, such as praise and worship and folk genres, McDonnell said.
The philosophy was, if you are celebrating Mass in the language of the culture, you should be singing in musical genres popular in local societies, he said.
Then, in the 1990s, an enormously popular album recorded by the Benedictine monks of Santo Domingo de Silos, Spain, titled "Chant" was released, once again renewing interest in the practice, he said.
Though Gregorian chant isn't the principal force in parish life that it once was, McDonnell said that if history repeats itself, it's in the recovery stage and could once again become a church music staple.
— Chaz Muth, Catholic News Service
Popularity of Gregorian chant has flourished in recent years
WASHINGTON, D.C. — James Senson grew up in the Virginia Beach, Virginia, area in the 1980s and his exposure to music in his home parish sounded remarkably similar to the tunes played on popular radio stations in the region.
"You know, there was nothing really special about the music, nor did it really say something about the church to me in it," said Senson, a Filippino-American who's had a passion for music since he was a child.
Senson had drifted away from religion by the time he was a college-age adult, but his love of music flourished.
When he discovered Gregorian chant near the turn of the century, he was inspired to reconnect with the church.
"This music was so different and mysterious to me," Senson told Catholic News Service during a recent interview. "It was telling me something. It was leading me somewhere."
It eventually led him to Catholic music ministry and the 33-year-old is now music director at St. John the Beloved Catholic Church in McLean, Virginia, a parish community where Gregorian chant is the principal sound.
This church community is unique in that the ancient sounds of Gregorian chant are deeply woven into its fabric, interlaced in every Mass, every choir and the education of the students in the parish school.
Church leaders at St. John the Beloved made the bold decision in 2005 to switch its music from the praise and worship genre to sacred music featuring Gregorian chant, decades after the practice fell out of favor following the Second Vatican Council.
It turns out that parish is part of a growing trend in American Catholic culture in which Gregorian chant is slowly being re-embraced.
That movement began following the success of a 1990s album titled "Chant," recorded by the Benedictine monks of Santo Domingo de Silos, Spain, said Timothy S. McDonnell, director of the Institute of Sacred Music at The Catholic University of America.
"People became interested in it," McDonnell told CNS. "Then you would start to hear Gregorian chant as samples in popular music. You'd start to hear it in soundtracks, things like that. So, Gregorian chant became popular with all kinds of people with all kinds of belief systems."
That was a turning point for some church officials who recognized the music had intrinsic value, he said. "That this is our proper music for our liturgy. That movement of recovery of this material I think started at that point when it was recognized more broadly as a tremendous treasure."
Though still not the core music in most American Catholic parishes, Gregorian chant continues to gain popularity among the youth, said Scott Turkington, director of sacred music at Holy Family Catholic Church and the parish school, Holy Family Academy, in St. Louis Park, Minnesota.
Young Catholics -- intrigued by the chant famous for its long melodic lines where several notes are sung on one syllable -- began asking questions about the music, its history and how it enhances the liturgy, Turkington told CNS.
Catholic Church music directors throughout the country recognized "that we should give young people what they want," he said. "They want a sense of beauty. They want a sense of mystery."
Turkington discovered that Gregorian chant was an effective tool in teaching children the importance of sacred music in the church.
"If you give Gregorian chant to kids, they love it," Turkington said.
With the help of the leaders of his parish, Turkington opened a summer camp in 2014 at the church dedicated to introducing youngsters to Gregorian chant.
Additionally, Turkington hosts a weeklong session for high schoolers, teaching them how to read chant notation and perform a concert at the end of the educational program at Holy Family.
He and other members of the Church Music Association of America continue to uphold the value of traditional music by actively teaching it to others.
Every year the association hosts a symposium that invites priests, musicians and choristers to immerse themselves in Gregorian chant.
Turkington was among the workshop leaders in St. Paul, Minnesota, last June.
The 250 conference attendees learned ways to teach Gregorian chant in their parishes. Turkington believes it is important for the those participants to "go home and improve the liturgies of their own parishes.
"Not to go home to be in an ivory tower and meditate upon these things," he said. "To go home and put them into practice and teach their own choir, teach their congregations and teach their pastors."
The growing number of conferences and camps throughout the U.S. dedicated to Gregorian chant leads McDonnell to believe there is a bright future for the music in American Catholic church communities.
Though documents from Vatican II are supportive of the use of Gregorian chant, church leaders in the 1970s faced difficulties in incorporating the music -- all written in Latin -- in a Mass that was now celebrated in the dominant language of the culture, he said.
The natural response was to adopt music in the native language, McDonnell said, much of which came in the form of genres popular in the culture.
Gregorian chant also was seen as something that was old at a time when liturgical reforms from Vatican II were transforming the Mass into something new, he said.
Senson said he understands the reasoning for implementing new musical styles in the Mass that fit that particular generation of Catholics.
However, in his view, what these parishes accomplished was generating music that sounded dated a decade later and wasn't uniquely Catholic.
"You could walk into any Protestant church and hear the same kind of music," Senson said. "When you hear Gregorian chant, you know you are hearing something connected to the ancient church and it's timeless. It's not dated, because it's the music of the Catholic Church."
Gregorian chant today isn't just limited to Latin. During the course of the past few decades, composers have scored English arrangements and compositions in other languages, McDonnell said.
"There's been a flowering of publication of English-language version of Gregorian melodies and changes that have emerged over the years," McDonnell said. "Even if you are not using the original Gregorian chant in Latin, there is some sense of the chant style and the sacred nature of chant is being recaptured."
Catholics now are used to hearing the Mass celebrated in their native tongue, Turkington said.
"Latin is not in the ears of (today's) average man and woman who go to Mass on Sunday," he said. "If you're from France, you want to hear Mass in French. If you are from Colombia, you want to probably hear Mass in Spanish."
The increased popularity of the chant in recent years has extended beyond the Catholic Church, McDonnell said. "There are people who don't really have a connection to the institutional church, but who find Gregorian chant as attractive."
The appreciation of the chant's beauty is more than just the resonances of the music, but resides in the text, which are prayers, scripture and liturgy essential to the Mass, Turkington said.
"If the music in the church is really appropriate and mysterious," he said, "the texts of the Gregorian chant … are really substantial."
— Chaz Muth and Jose Montoya, Catholic News Service
Editor's note: Follow the links to read in-depth biographies of each of the Church Fathers. Check out what Pope Benedict XVI says about them and other Church Fathers not listed here at www.annusfidei.va.
The Church Fathers were influential theologians, bishops or scholars whose writings explained key Scriptural principles in the early Church. They were not all ordained, not all of them became saints, and they were not infallible. But they had powerful communication skills, personal holiness and doctrinal orthodoxy, so we honor them unofficially as "fathers" for their proximity to the Apostles, their explanations of how to understand and apply Scripture, and their ability to teach the Catholic faith.
They are generally divided into four categories based on when or where they lived: the Apostolic Fathers, the Greek (Eastern) Fathers, the Latin (Western) Fathers, and others such as the Desert Fathers.
The era of the Church Fathers, called the Patristic period, ended in 749 with the death of St. John of Damascus.
Apostolic Fathers
The Apostolic Fathers lived and wrote in the second half of the first century and the first half of the second century. They were taught by the Apostles and personally witnessed the birth of the Church. Most were martyred – crucified, beheaded, fed to the lions at the Roman colosseum, boiled in oil or burned alive. They were the ones empowered by the Holy Spirit and who personally handed on the oral teaching of Jesus Christ, before the New Testament canon was collected in the late 4th century and then translated into Latin by a later Church Father, St. Jerome.
St. CLEMENT One of these Fathers: St. Clement, is actually mentioned in the Bible – in Philippians 4:3. Before he died in about the year 96, he wrote an epistle (1 Clement) calling on the Christians of Corinth to maintain harmony and order. His letter was copied and widely read in the early Church, and it is the earliest Christian epistle outside the New Testament.
St. IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH (c. 35-110): He was the third bishop of Antioch (the see of Peter before he went to Rome) and a student of John the Evangelist, believed to be the author of the Gospel of John. En route to his martyrdom in Rome, where he was devoured by lions in the colosseum, Ignatius wrote a series of letters which we still have today. His hastily-written letters covered many topics: ecclesiology, the sacraments, the authority of bishops, and the Sabbath. He stressed the value of the Eucharist, and he coined the term "Catholic Church."
St. POLYCARP OF SMYRNA (c. 69-c. 155): He was a bishop of Smyrna (now Izmir, Turkey) and a disciple of John the Evangelist known more for his spectacular martyrdom than anything he wrote. Around 155, Polycarp was captured and dragged to the stadium to be burned alive for not paying homage to the emperor. He shouted to the watching proconsul: "You threaten me with fire, which burns for an hour, and after a little is extinguished. But you are ignorant of the fire of the coming judgment and of eternal punishment ... What are you waiting for? Bring forth what you will." Many witnesses reported that the rising flames did not burn his body. Losing patience, his killers stabbed him to death, and so much blood flowed from his body that the fire was doused.
Greek Fathers
The Greek Fathers, who wrote in Greek, included St. Irenaeus of Lyons, St. Clement of Alexandria, St. Athanasius of Alexandria, St. John Chrysostom, St. Cyril of Alexandria, the Cappadocian Fathers (St. Basil of Caesarea, St. Gregory Nazianzus, St. Peter of Sebaste and St. Gregory of Nyssa), Maximus the Confessor, and St. John of Damascus.
ST. IRENAEUS OF LYONS A bishop in Gaul (now Lyons, France), notable early Catholic apologist and disciple of St. Polycarp. His best-known book, "Against Heresies" (c. 180), enumerated heresies and attacked them. He proposed that the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all be accepted as canonical.
ST. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA One of the most distinguished teachers of the Church in Alexandria. He united Greek philosophical traditions with Christian doctrine, and he wrote on such topics as "Who is the Rich Man That Shall Be Saved?" and "Exhortation to the Heathen."
ST. ATHANASIUS (c. 293-May 2, 373) A theologian, patriarch of Alexandria, Doctor of the Church (called the "Doctor of Orthodoxy"), and a noted Egyptian leader of the 4th century. He is remembered for his role in the conflict with Arianism and for his affirmation of the Trinity. At the First Council of Nicaea in 325, he argued against the Arian heresy that Christ is not truly God with the Father.
THE CAPPADOCIANS A 4th-century monastic family led by St. Macrina the Younger (324-379) to provide a place for her three younger brothers to study and pray and a home for their mother. Abbess Macrina fostered her brothers' education, and they became scholars, bishops and saints. The brothers, called the "Cappadocian Fathers," were St. Basil the Great (330-379), a Doctor of the Church (called the "Doctor of Monasticism"); St. Gregory of Nyssa (c.335-after 394); and St. Peter of Sebaste (c. 340-391), the youngest brother. These remarkable brothers and their close friend, St. Gregory Nazianzus (also a Doctor of the Church, called the "Doctor of Theologians"), demonstrated that Christians could hold their own in conversations with Greek-speaking intellectuals of their day. They argued that Christian faith, while it was against many of the ideas of Plato and Aristotle, was an almost scientific philosophy – with the healing of the soul and a person's union with God at its core. They made major contributions to the definition of the Trinity and the final version of the Nicene Creed.
ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM (c. 347-c. 407): Perhaps the greatest preacher in Church history. Known for his eloquence in preaching and public speaking, he was nicknamed "chrysostomos" (Greek for "golden tongued"). A Doctor of the Church ("Doctor of Preachers"), he left hundreds of recorded homilies and writings, and his Divine Liturgy is still celebrated by Eastern churches. The themes of his talks were always practical, explaining how to apply the Bible in everyday life, and he lived a simple, unpretentious lifestyle even after being pushed into becoming archbishop of Constantinople. There he denounced the lavish lifestyles of local Church and political leaders – making him popular with the laity but causing his exile to a desolate area along the Black Sea, where he died from ill health.
ST. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA (c. 378-444): Bishop of Alexandria when the city was at its height of influence and power within the Roman Empire. He wrote extensively and was a leading defender of Christ's dual identity – both fully divine and fully human. A central figure in the First Council of Ephesus in 431, he is a Doctor of the Church ("Doctor of the Incarnation").
MAXIMUS THE CONFESSOR (c. 580-Aug. 13, 662): A Christian monk, theologian and scholar. In his early life, he was a civil servant and an aide to the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius. However, he gave up politics to become a monk. After moving to Carthage, he studied several Neo-Platonist writers and became a prominent author, defending against heresies denying Jesus' dual humanity and divinity. His title of Confessor means he suffered for the faith, but not to the point of death, and thus is distinguished from a martyr. His "Life of the Virgin" is thought to be the earliest complete biography of Mary, the mother of Jesus.
ST. JOHN OF DAMASCUS (also known as St. John Damascene) (c. 676-Dec. 4, 749): A Syrian Christian monk and priest, and the last of the Church Fathers. Born and raised in Damascus, he died at his monastery, Mar Saba, near Jerusalem. A noted scholar, his expertise included law, theology, philosophy and music. Before being ordained, he served as an administrator to the Muslim caliph of Damascus, wrote works expounding the Christian faith, and composed hymns still sung in Eastern monasteries. He is a Doctor of the Church, often referred to as the "Doctor of the Assumption" because of his writings on the Assumption of Mary.
Latin Fathers
The fathers who wrote in Latin are called, not surprisingly, the Latin Fathers.
TERTULLIAN (c. 160-c. 225) He converted to Christianity before 197 and was a prolific writer of apologetic, theological, controversial and ascetic works. He denounced Christian doctrines he considered heretical but later in life adopted views that themselves came to be regarded as heretical. He wrote three books in Greek and was the first great writer of Latin Christianity, thus sometimes known as the "Father of the Latin Church." He is said to have introduced the Latin term "trinitas" regarding the Trinity to the Christian vocabulary (but Theophilus of Antioch already wrote of "the Trinity, of God, and His Word, and His wisdom," which is similar but not identical to the Trinitarian wording), and also probably the formula "three Persons, one Substance" as the Latin "tres Personae, una Substantia," and also the terms "vetus testamentum" ("Old Testament") and "novum testamentum" ("New Testament"). He used the early Church's symbol for fish – the Greek word for "fish", an acronym for "Jesus Christ, God's Son, Savior" – to explain the meaning of baptism since fish are born in water, saying that people are like little fish.
ST. AMBROSE (340-397) Archbishop of Milan, one of the most influential Church figures of the 4th century and one of the four original Doctors of the Church (the others being St. Augustine, St. Jerome and St. Gregory I). His writings include "On the Christian Faith," "On the Mysteries," "On Repentance," "On the Duties of the Clergy," "Concerning Virgins" and "Concerning Widows."
ST. JEROME (c. 347-Sept. 30, 420) Best known as the translator of the Bible from Greek and Hebrew into Latin, what's known as the Vulgate. He also was a Christian apologist, and is a Doctor of the Church.
ST. AUGUSTINE (Nov. 13, 354-Aug. 28, 430) Bishop of Hippo, philosopher and theologian, Doctor of the Church, and one of the most important figures in the Church. Augustine was radically influenced by Platonism. He framed the concepts of original sin and just war as they are understood in the West. When Rome fell and the faith of many Christians was shaken, he developed the concept of the Church as a spiritual City of God, distinct from the material City of Man. Augustine was born in present day Algeria to a Christian mother, St. Monica. He was educated in North Africa and resisted his mother's pleas to become Christian. He took a concubine and became a Manichean. He later converted to Christianity, became a bishop and opposed various heresies. His works include "Confessions" (often called the first Western autobiography), "City of God," "Concerning Faith of Things Not Seen," "On the Good of Marriage," "On Lying," "On the Morals of the Catholic Church," "On the Grace of Christ, and on Original Sin," "On the Spirit and the Letter" and "Our Lord's Sermon on the Mount."
ST. GREGORY I (c. 540-March 12, 604) Pope from 590 until his death, and the first pope with a monastic background. One of the four original Doctors of the Church, St. Gregory the Great's papacy had the most influence on the early medieval Church.
ST. ISIDORE (c. 560-April 4, 636) Archbishop of Seville for more than three decades and Doctor of the Church (:Doctor of Education"). At a time when the remnants of the Roman Empire were crumbling and aristocratic violence and illiteracy were spreading, he helped convert the royal Visigothic Arians to Catholicism and played a prominent role in developing Visigothic legislation – regarded by historians as having influenced the beginnings of representative government.
Other fathers
The Desert Fathers were early monastics living in the Egyptian desert. Although they did not write as much, their influence was also great.
A small number of Church Fathers wrote in other languages. St. Ephraim the Syrian (306-373), a Doctor of the Church, wrote in Syriac. His works include "Miscellaneous Hymns – On the Nativity of Christ in the Flesh, For the Feast of the Epiphany, and On the Faith ('The Pearl')."
— Sources: The Catholic Encyclopedia, The Vatican, www.catholic.com, www.staycatholic.com, "Early Church Fathers Overview: A Snapshot of the Fathers of the Church" by Dr. Marcellino D'Ambrosio, www.catholicbible101.com, Wikipedia
Learn more online
Pope Benedict XVI has delivered many addresses about the Church Fathers, lauding their unique role in building up the Church and their continued relevance today.
Online at www.annusfidei.va: Read the pope's take on famous Church Fathers such as St. Leo the Great, St. Augustine, St. Jerome, St. John Chrysostom, St. Ambrose, St. Cyril, St. Basil, St. Gregory Nazianzus, St. Irenaeus, Tertullian, Origen and St. Hilary of Poitiers, as well as some of the lesser known Fathers, including St. Paulinus, St. Chromatius of Aquileia and Aphraates "the Sage."
Complete biographies of the Church Fathers
All of the Church Fathers' writings (translated into English) are collected at: http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/
Search the Church Fathers' writings by name or date at: http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/
Why are they called "Fathers?" The Catholic Encyclopedia explains: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06001a.htm
More info about the Church Fathers and the topics they preached about is online at: http://www.churchfathers.org and at http://www.staycatholic.com/early_church_fathers.htm