Tag: Latin Mass

A few thoughts on head coverings

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Mantilla A friend of mine recently asked me about the veils worn by female parishioners at a church she had visited. I didn’t have much to say since, being a boy, I hadn’t given too much thought to the subject of frilly lace…

My first real exposure to the chapel veil and mantilla was in Washington DC, when I went to my first Extraordinary Form Mass at the Basilica. If you have attended a Latin Mass you may well have noticed them too.

However, it’s not like the use of veils is restricted only to “traditional” Catholics. I’ve occasionally seen veils at English Novus Ordo liturgies. Additionally, the reason that there aren’t many good photos of me at my First Holy Communion is because, in most pictures, my face is partially or wholly obscured by a veil belonging to one of the girls in my class! But the most common prevailing use of the veil is, of course, by a bride at her wedding.

I tried to do a little bit of research on the history and theology of veils but I unfortunately didn’t find a lot of good source material, so if you know a lot about veils or have any good resources you’d like to share, please respond in the Comment Box below.

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Hocus Pocus

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This was an interesting little tidbit I heard the other day…

Have you ever wondered about the origin of “hocus pocus”, the phrase commonly uttered by magicians?

Well, the story I recently heard was that it came from a corruption of the words of the Latin Mass:

“hoc (enim) est corpus meum”
“This is my body”

It sounded reasonable, but I went and did a little bit of digging…

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) says that this explanation was the conjecture of John Tillotson, Archbishop of Canterbury. It can be found in his rather nasty sermon in 1694:

“In all probability those common juggling words of ‘hocus pocus’ are nothing else but a corruption of ‘hoc est corpus’, by way of ridiculous imitation of the priests of the Church of Rome in their trick of Transubstantiation.”

It’s possible that the Archbishop is right here, but it’s clear that he isn’t exactly the most impartial judge!

It has been suggested instead that the phrase is simply “faux Latin”, a collection of nonsense words conjured up out of thin air 😉 to aid the magician in his stagecraft.  I’ve found references to a performer of the 1620s who called himself “Hocus Pocus” and who used the following incantation in his act:

 “Hocus pocus, tontus talontus, vade celeriter jubeo.”

Unfortunately, there’s a lack of definitive evidence to confirm with any real certainty the origin of this phrase – there really are quite a wide range of possibilities. Still, speculation is fun 🙂