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A 15th century nun’s reverberant example paired with an ensemble’s resonant tones Sunday to produce an early afternoon homage. The Archdiocesan Boy Choir of Philadelphia made its initial trip to The National Shrine of St. Rita of Cascia, 1166 S. Broad St., lauding the site’s namesake on her Feast Day. A packed affair, the noon gathering served as the third of the day’s five Masses and came one day after devotees completed nine days of prayer to St. Rita, the Saint of the Impossible.
Like eager concertgoers, many attendees sought seats in the 104-year-old house of worship an hour before the service. They came clutching some of the 11,000 roses for sale and peered at the altar as the young visitors arrived. The 38 performers, all with copious songbooks, posed for pictures. Donning black cassocks and red mozzettas and sashes, the 7- to 14-year-olds, representing the five-county Archdiocese, then processed to the loft, with a banner bearing “Cantate Domino,” or “Sing to the Lord,” leading them.
The saying has impressive company, as the boys learn to sing phonetically in Latin, its source, French, German, Portuguese and Spanish. Along with English, they needed only the ancient tongue to guide them through the 80-minute observance.
“Parishes make requests for us to appear,” Tom Windfelder, the group’s director since 1988, said of the process that unites his charges with many of the diocese’s nearly 1.5 million Catholics.
A former member’s connections secured the stop at St. Rita’s, enabling the 43-year-old choir to add another historic location to its annals. It has sung at Bensalem’s Saint Katharine Drexel Mission Center and National Shrine, Germantown’s Shrine of the Miraculous Medal and Northern Liberties’ National Shrine of St. John Neumann, among its diocesan stopovers. Ventures to Italy and Portugal, the latter featuring Masses with more than 500,000 worshipers, also mark their legacy.
Though St. Rita’s cannot top Portugal’s Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima, it can accommodate a great number. Even so, pews and side spaces were so jammed that more than 150 people had to attend services in the lower church. While the soaring voices brought novelty, Bishop Louis DeSimone offered his common yet commendable flair.
The former pastor at St. Monica Church, 1714 Ritner St., the affable 89-year-old performed his customary role as the ritual’s celebrant. The traditional carrying of a St. Rita statue provided a stunning visual opening, as the youngsters sang “All Creatures of Our God and King” as the entrance hymn.
The altos and sopranos next adorned the air with Windfelder’s arrangement of the “Gloria,” which readied the crowd for the readings. Following the first, Windfelder and organist Jeremy Triplett, the music director at Sacred Heart of Jesus Church, 1404 S. Third St., led them through the touching “Loving and Forgiving,” a responsorial psalm quickly becoming a shrine staple. The “Festival Alleluia” followed the second reading, setting up the proclamation of the Gospel and a homily on the power of St. Rita.
“I liken her to a good lawyer because of the strength of her ability to intercede for us,” DeSimone said of the woman born Margherita Lotti in the Umbrian hills of the republic of Cascia in 1381.
Prior to winning the hearts of millions worldwide, she had to gain the favor of Augustinian nuns. She craved admission into their convent following a harrowing period that included the murder of her husband and the loss of her two sons to dysentery. Her children desired revenge against the family that killed their father, yet she begged for God to intervene. Though she soon lost them, she gained strength that resulted in striking accord between her late husband’s clan and the murderous brood.
Her resolve evident, the nuns granted her a place among them. On Good Friday 1442, a thorn from Jesus Christ’s crown penetrated her forehead, causing a wound she would bear without complaint until her death 15 years later. For her perseverance, believers hail her as a “model of obedience to God’s will” and a “mystical rose of every virtue.”
“She is our protectress,” DeSimone said of the unflinching figure, who became a saint in 1900.
After blessing the roses, he marched up and down the aisles, sprinkling the flowers with holy water as the choir intoned “Salve Mater.”
The Liturgy of the Eucharist gave the crowd more moments to marvel, as the boys blended Windfelder’s compositions with liturgical and classical constants to intensify the festivity. Though Sunday marked the anniversary of her passing, its inclusion of song solidified the claim by St. Augustine, one of Rita’s patron saints, that “When we sing, we pray twice.”
Rev. Joe Genito, in his second tenure as the pastor and shrine director, thanked DeSimone and the choir, who executed “How Great Thou Art” as the recessional tune. Though the boys sang of the Lord’s greatness, it was theirs that impressed Rich Iezzi, one of the statue bearers.
“They were very, very good,” the resident of the 1500 block of South Juniper Street said.
His family and his wife Valerie’s family have more than 200 combined years in the parish, so he has seen plenty of Feast Day celebrations.
“They brought a nice touch to the day,” he said while helping at a post-Mass gathering behind the church.
“It was a beautiful service, and we feel blessed to be here,” Triplett, a past choir member and the former music director and organist at Holy Spirit Church, 1900 Geary St., said as the boys feasted on soft pretzels, tomato pie and cake. “I hope we can come back next year.”
The future figures to be busy for the boys, none of whom call South Philadelphia home. They will likely sing at a Phillies game this summer, are working on their sixth CD and have trips to Poland to visit the birthplace of Blessed Pope John Paul II and the Czech Republic to honor the 200th birthday of Neumann — the fourth Bishop of Philadelphia — planned for next summer. With the choir being a nonprofit, the boys conduct fundraisers to finance their travels.
“Some of the boys come a long way to perform,” Windfelder said before leading a tribute to South Philadelphia’s Italian identity with the singing of “Tu Scendi Dalle Stelle,” a popular Christmas carol.
“I think we did well,” 14-year-old Tom Gies of Phoenixville said of having the boys’ voices mesh with the shrine’s new sound system.
The soloist for the Alleluia, Gies sensed no apprehension among his mates.
“We’ve done this too many times to be nervous,” he said.
“They are receptive to the music,” Windfelder said, adding that Gregorian chant, Johann Sebastian Bach and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart top their favorites.
Their gender uniformity has let them tackle the musical “Oliver!” as well.
“They sounded professional and well-trained,” Genito said. “I heard from people that through hearing them, they picked up purity and innocence. They gave us a sense of the angelic.”
Contact Staff Writer Joseph Myers at jmyers@southphillyreview.com or ext. 124.
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