Catholic nerd pilgrimage: Saint Gregory the Great

I had commented recently that it seemed like there was an inverse relationship between how traditional a church’s architecture was and how traditional the liturgy was. St Gregory the Great apparently decided that they should prove me wrong.

I think probably the biggest indicator of traditional liturgy is the presence of lace: Lace mantillas on women in the pews and lace decorations on the vestments of the clergy and St Gregory had plenty of lace on display. The Mass was a special liturgy (there normally are no weekday Masses at St Gregory) to celebrate the feast day with the auxiliary bishop in attendance at the Mass and giving the homily (a biography of Saint Gregory) and the St Gregory schola providing the music, mostly in the form of various Latin hymns and chants.