There was an old church of St Anne, built by the Crusaders, by the Bāb Sitti Mariam, opposite the north side of the Ḥaram ashSharīf. It is a most beautiful example of French twelfth-century Romanesque, with the arches just pointed; but it had long been desecrated and was used as a stable. Mgr. Lavigerie, supported by the French Government, bought this in 1877. In 1882 he opened here a seminary for the Melkite clergy. Under the wise direction of the White Fathers it has prospered exceedingly. It is now, without question, the most important and useful establishment of its kind. The French professors keep their Roman rite;[1] but all the students are Melkites; the Byzantine rite dominates the whole house. All the ceremonies carried out in the church are Byzantine; the prayers and devotions of the students are scrupulously formed on Byzantine model They are taught their rite by the Fathers who have become experts in its history and rules. Perhaps nowhere in the East will you see the Byzantine liturgy carried out so carefully and with such reverence as at St Anne's Church, or when the students go to serve and sing at the Patriarchal Church. Nor does any Melkite priest or bishop know half as much about his own rite as do the Latin professors of St Anne.[2] It is only modestly in the early morning that you may see one of them say his own Roman Low Mass. The students all know how to serve this strange liturgy – which does them no harm. But they themselves are loyal and enthusiastic Byzantines. Cardinal Lavigerie made a rule that none of them may enter his Congregation,[3] so that danger of possible latinization is removed. The seminarists of St Anne have by far the best education of any Melkites. Not only among the Melkites, among all Eastern clergy they are a real aristocracy. They all know French thoroughly. If you wish it, they will explain the Canon Law, rites, and practices of their Church to you in beautiful French. They learn Greek really,
- ↑ It was not till 1897 that Leo XIII allowed the Benedictines in charge of the Greek College at Rome to use the Byzantine rite during their office there (p. 159). Before that a temporary change of rite was supposed to be impossible in Canon Law (see p. 34). The White Fathers at Jerusalem have never applied for the same privilege.
- ↑ The only sound modern textbooks of the Byzantine rite as used by Uniates are written by professors of St Anne (A. Couturier, "Cours de Liturgie grecque-melkite," Jerusalem and Paris, 1912; J. B. Rebours, "Traité de Psaltique," Paris, 1906).
- ↑ Except for this college, the White Fathers have only missions in Africa, where all is Roman. So they could do nothing with Byzantine subjects.
