Beinecke, Music Deposit 99 and the Proclamation of the Gospel in the Medieval Dominican Liturgy
talk by Fr. Innocent Smith, O.P., St. Mary’s Seminary and University
Part of the Liturgy Symposium Series
In-person attendance is limited to current Yale University students, faculty, and staff who are in compliance with the Yale vaccine program and authorized to be on campus.
Attendees must pre-register and bring Yale I.D. to the event.
Beinecke, Music Deposit 99, a Gospel Book with musical notation, is an important witness to the early Dominican liturgical practice, representing the rite of the Order of Preachers before its standardization in the mid-13th century. In the Dominican liturgy, the Gospel was typically sung by a deacon as part of a complex ritual, with candles, incense and choreographed movement contributing to the solemnity of the proclamation of the text. This presentation will explore the evidence offered by the texts and musical notation in this manuscript for understanding the development and practice of Dominican liturgy in the first half of the 13th century.
About the speaker
Fr. Innocent Smith, O.P. was born in California and raised in Indiana. He discerned a vocation to the Dominicans while studying music and philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, and joined the St. Joseph Province of the Order of Preachers in 2008. After the novitiate in Cincinnati and philosophy and theology studies at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., Fr. Innocent was ordained to the priesthood in 2015 by Archbishop Charles Brown.
Fr. Innocent’s teaching and research interests include homiletics, liturgy, sacramental theology, ecclesiology, and sacred music. His S.T.L. thesis, “In Collecta Dicitur: The Oration as a Theological Authority for Thomas Aquinas,” explored the importance of the liturgy as a source for scholastic theology. His doctoral dissertation, “Doers of the Word: Bible Missals and the Celebration of the Dominican Liturgy,” focused on medieval manuscripts of the Bible that also contain liturgical texts for the celebration of Mass. Fr. Innocent examined manuscripts at libraries and museums throughout Europe and North America that form an important but previously understudied body of evidence for understanding the liturgical reception of the Bible and the development of the liturgy in the Middle Ages. In addition to publishing popular and scholarly articles related to theology, liturgy, and music, Fr. Innocent has edited chant books that make the musical and liturgical tradition of the Dominican Order available for use in the contemporary liturgy.
In 2015, Fr. Innocent was appointed a Missionary of Mercy by Pope Francis, and he has exercised this ministry in the form of parish missions, retreat preaching, and confessional ministry. He has given lectures and workshops on liturgy and chant for a variety of lay, religious, and clerical audiences, including communities of active and contemplative religious women as well as young adult groups. In addition to his communal life and ministry, Fr. Innocent enjoys playing Irish traditional music on the wooden flute; bicycling; reading German and English literature; and attending concerts, opera and the ballet.