Marking the Death of Queen Elizabeth II

9 September 2022

Hard on the heels of our celebration of the abbatial blessing of Abbot Paul was the not-wholly-unexpected but inescapably sad news of the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

This solemn occasion, momentous for the nation and beyond, will be marked at Douai with a Pontifical Requiem Mass to be celebrated in the abbey church on Sunday, 11 September at 11.00 for the repose of the soul of our late queen. As we mourn her passing we will also pray for our new king, Charles III, and the entire royal family as they mourn, like any family, the death of a relative so dearly beloved.

This morning Fr Oliver was celebrant of the coventual Mass and offered these words after the gospel:

In 2011 Fr Hugh and I attended an extraordinary event in the abbey church of Pannonhalma, an ancient Benedictine monastery in Hungary. We were there for the interment in the abbey church's crypt of the heart of Otto von Habsburg, the son of the last Crown Prince of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
His state funeral had been held in Vienna on the previous day.
After the Requiem Mass in St Stephen’s Cathedral, the coffin was taken to the Imperial Crypt of the Capuchin church. A Capuchin friar opened the door and asked “Who seeks entry?” and a herald replied: “Otto von Habsburg, Archduke of Austria, Royal Prince of Hungary, Bohemia and Croatia”, followed by all his many imperial and noble titles. "We do not know him” came the reply, and the door was closed.
The question was repeated and the herald answered “Otto von Habsburg, Member of the European Parliament, Doctor of Philosophy, followed by his other academic and civil achievements. Again, the friar answered “We do not know him.”
The question was asked a third time. This time the herald replied; “Otto von Habsburg, Christian soul;” and then the door was opened to him.
So today we mourn the death of the Queen; now it is her turn to knock at the door of heaven and during this morning’s Mass we pray that as a fellow “Christian soul” she will enter into her eternal reward.
May she rest in peace.

The Queen is dead. May she rest in peace and rise in glory. God save the King.