Spanish cardinal celebrates Mozarabic heritage

Antonio Cardinal Cañizares Llovera

Function: Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments

Title:

Birthdate: Oct 15, 1945	Country: Spain

Elevated: Mar 24, 2006	More information: [link=http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bcaniz.html][www.catholic-hierarchy.org]

Send a text about this cardinal »

View all articles about this cardinal »

Spanish cardinal celebrates Mozarabic heritage
Jun 26, 2007
Cardinal Antonio Canizares of Toledo, Spain celebrated the Eucharistic liturgy in the Mozarabic rite on June 24 to mark the 1,400 anniversary of the birth of St. Ildephonsus, once the bishop of the city.

Toledo, Jun. 25, 2007 (CWNews.com) - Later the cardinal led a procession of the relics of St. Ildephonsus, which are kept in the town of Zamora.

The Mozarabic rite, which was established on the Iberian peninsula before the Muslim conquest. When Pope Gregory VII extended the Roman rite to what was then the known Christian world, there was some resistance in Spain-- particularly among faithful Christians who lived in regions heavily influenced by the dominant Muslim culture. Those who resisted became known as "Mozarabs"-- the term used to identify Christians who had submitted to Islam.

The city of Toledo soon became a center of the Mozarabic liturgy, and the Christian tradition was preserved there through the centuries, despite Islamic pressure. In fact the Mozarabic rite became a focal point of Christian unity in Spain during the years when the society was under Muslim control.

In the 11th century, when Alphonse VI of Castille arrived in Toledo to reassert Christian control, the fate of the Mozarabic rite again became a controversial issue. Eventually a compromise was reached, allowing the used of the Mozarabic liturgy in six parish churches of Toledo. The Mozarabic tradition endures today in Toledo and among perhaps 1,000 Christian families elsewhere in the world.

15 READERS ONLINE

INDEX

RSS Feed

back to the first page

printer-friendly

CARDINALS

in alphabetical order

ARTICLES