Tribute to first Bishop of Salt Lake to include Mass, concert

Friday, Apr. 24, 2015

SALT LAKE CITY — The Right Rev. Lawrence Scanlan, first Bishop of Salt Lake, died May 10, 1915. To commemorate the 100th anniversary of his death, a Mass will be celebrated and, on that same day during the Madeleine Festival performance, the Choir of the Cathedral of the Madeleine will perform Charles Gounod’s “Messe solennelle de Sainte-Cécile,” which Bishop Scanlan chose for the cathedral’s dedication Mass in 1909.

A commemorative chalice is being forged for the May 10 Mass that will celebrate the anniversary, said Father Martin Diaz, pastor of the Cathedral of the Madeleine.

The chalice, crafted of copper, silver, gold and steel, will honor not only Bishop Scanlan “but also the miners and the mine owners – the people who literally made the cathedral possible,” Fr. Diaz said, adding that the silver in the chalice comes from a coin from 1915 and one from 2015, while the steel is from a miner’s pickax.

The idea for the different ores for the chalice came from the cathedral’s parish council; an anonymous donor came forward to fund the project, Fr. Diaz said.

The chalice is being made by Nile Fahmy and Michelle Fahmy of Tattooed Tinker Studio in Salt Lake City.

After the memorial Mass, the chalice will continue to be used regularly, Fr. Diaz said. 

“One of the council’s provisos was to not make the chalice so expensive that it can’t be used,” he said.

Monsignor M. Francis Mannion, who oversaw the 1994 renovation of the Cathedral of the Madeleine, will be the main celebrant for the memorial Mass.

The piece that the choir will perform in honor of Bishop Scanlan was praised by Gounod’s contemporary Camille Saint-Saëns after the premiere. 

“This simplicity, this grandeur, this serene light which rose before the musical world like a breaking dawn, troubled people enormously,” Saint-Saëns wrote, concluding, “at first one was dazzled, then charmed, then conquered,” according to the website http://www.arkivmusic.com/.

While he was composing the piece, Gounod reflected on selections from St. Augustine, according to the website. The work itself contains a few alterations to the liturgical text of the Mass: the words of the Agnus Dei are changed slightly and the “Domine Salvum” is added. 

 

What: Bishop Scanlan tribute

When: May 10

Mass at 11 a.m.; Madeleine Festival performance at 8 p.m.

Where: Cathedral of the Madeleine, 309 E. South Temple, SLC

Free and open to the public.