Blessed Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster OSB

By the kindness of His Eminence, Angelo Cardinal Scola, Archibshop of Milan, the monastery has been graced with precious relics of Blessed Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster OSB, a monk and noted early twentieth century scholar of the Sacred Liturgy who was Abbot of Saint Paul Outside the Walls from 1918-1927 and Archbishop of Milan from 1929-1954. As archbishop he was renown for his zeal for the Ambrosian liturgy and for the centrality of the Sacred Liturgy in the life and mission of the Church. He was beatified on 12 May 1996. His feast is observed on 30th August.

Oremus.
Domine Deus, qui Beato Alfredo Ildefonso dedisti
ut gregem sibi commissum pastor bonus
suarum virtutum ditaret exemplis,
fac ut eius monitis obsequentes
per ducatum Evangelii ad te videndum
in regno tuo securius ambulemus.
Per Dominum.

"The Church's Liturgy may...be considered as a sacred poem, in the framing of which both heaven and earth have taken part, and by which our humanity, redeemed in the blood of the Lamb without spot, rises on the wings of the Spirit even unto the throne of God himself. This is more than a mere aspiration, for the Sacred Liturgy not only shows forth and expresses the ineffable and the divine, but also, by means of the sacraments and of its forms of prayer, develops and fulfils the supernatural in the souls of the faithful, to whom it communicates the grace of redemption. It may even be said that the very source of holiness of the Church is fully contained in her Liturgy; for, without the holy sacraments, the Passion of our Lord, in the existing dispensation instituted by almighty God, we would have no efficacy in us, since there would be no channels capable of conveying its treasure to our souls."
                     Ildefonso Schuster, The Sacramentary, vol. I (Burns, Oates & Washbourne, London, 1923) p. 3.