Our Beginnings
The singers who were eventually to become the founding members of our group were originally brought together over the summer of 2018, when they were asked to stand in for another choir, for a one-time performance that featured chants from the Western Orthodox tradition.
Over those months of rehearsing together, not only did they fall in love with this form of sacred music but they also came to realise that they quite liked each other too. So, after the initial performance, they decided to continue to meet and sing, in the hope that they could share this music with others through occasional performances. Since then, they have been joined by others who share a love for this music.
Thus our choir was born, and we became the Cantors of Saint Radegund.
We do not pretend to be anything other than a group of amateur enthusiasts who believe the words that we sing, but as Christians from different traditions, we pray that what we do may be a source of blessing to those who hear it.
Over those months of rehearsing together, not only did they fall in love with this form of sacred music but they also came to realise that they quite liked each other too. So, after the initial performance, they decided to continue to meet and sing, in the hope that they could share this music with others through occasional performances. Since then, they have been joined by others who share a love for this music.
Thus our choir was born, and we became the Cantors of Saint Radegund.
We do not pretend to be anything other than a group of amateur enthusiasts who believe the words that we sing, but as Christians from different traditions, we pray that what we do may be a source of blessing to those who hear it.
A Little Background
In 1930s France, a group of Orthodox churches that worshipped according to the Western Rite came under the care of a priest by the name of Eugraph Kovalevsky (1905-1970), who was later Bishop John, and now Saint John of Saint-Denis.
As a teenager, the young Eugraph had fled post-revolutionary Russia, along with his brother and the rest of the family, and had come to settle in the safety of France.
It was here that he made a pilgrimage to the shrine housing the relics of St Radegund in the ancient city of Poitiers, and was inspired by the common roots of the Faith of his homeland and that of his new home. Through this revelation, he came to love the Western liturgical tradition, and worked tirelessly to restore forms of prayer and worship that were indigenous to France and Western Europe for use by Orthodox Christians.
As a teenager, the young Eugraph had fled post-revolutionary Russia, along with his brother and the rest of the family, and had come to settle in the safety of France.
It was here that he made a pilgrimage to the shrine housing the relics of St Radegund in the ancient city of Poitiers, and was inspired by the common roots of the Faith of his homeland and that of his new home. Through this revelation, he came to love the Western liturgical tradition, and worked tirelessly to restore forms of prayer and worship that were indigenous to France and Western Europe for use by Orthodox Christians.
Of course, Orthodox people sing. So Father Eugraph solicited the help of his brother, the musicologist and deacon, Maxim Kovalevsky (1903-1988), who faithfully and painstakingly set all of the services to music, sensitively adapting the ancient Gregorian chants to the French texts. He introduced sublime harmonies both to simple prayer responses and to more complex hymn melodies, and produced new compositions, drawing on ancient chant traditions for inspiration.
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It is through these services and music that the Western Orthodox Christians and their descendants have worshipped ever since, and the work has been continued by others, including the Bishop of Arles, Grégoire Mendez, who studied under Kovalevsky and has taken up the torch, continuing to compose and arrange music in this style, which remains largely unknown in the anglophone world.
It is our hope that we can remedy this in some small way, and bring something of the beauty known to the Western Orthodox Christians in France to the people of Britain - particularly those who have the same Western liturgical roots - along with anybody who might wish to experience it. Therefore, while we perform pieces from other chant traditions, it is this music, after the tradition of Maxim Kovalevsky, that forms the core of our repertoire, and it all stems from Father Eugraph's vision of Saint Radegund at her shrine in Poitiers.
The Abbess Radegund (520-587), during her earthly life, was a good friend of the sainted hymnographer, Venantius Fortunatus (c. 530-c. 600), who recorded the story of her life and authored many hymns still in use today. It was for the occasion of a reception of the relic of the True Cross that Radegund had acquired for her monastery that Venantius penned the still popular Vexilla Regis Prodeunt (The Royal Banners Forward Go), which also exists in an arrangement by Maxim Kovalevsky.
Thus, we have a number of connections to St Radegund and we are pleased to claim her as our heavenly patroness.
The Abbess Radegund (520-587), during her earthly life, was a good friend of the sainted hymnographer, Venantius Fortunatus (c. 530-c. 600), who recorded the story of her life and authored many hymns still in use today. It was for the occasion of a reception of the relic of the True Cross that Radegund had acquired for her monastery that Venantius penned the still popular Vexilla Regis Prodeunt (The Royal Banners Forward Go), which also exists in an arrangement by Maxim Kovalevsky.
Thus, we have a number of connections to St Radegund and we are pleased to claim her as our heavenly patroness.