Adé Béthune

Among the many things we can recall today, one of them for me is Adé Béthune who died on this date in 2002. As I mentioned in a Communio blog post a few years ago, Adé was an Oblate of Saint Benedict of Portsmouth Abbey (Portsmouth, RI) and a liturgical artist, thinker and musician.

I find it sobering to pray for those who gone marked with the sign of faith, not only because it is a noble and holy Catholic tradition, but the practice affords me the opportunity to truly remember the person. Adé Béthune allows me this possibility today because of her Benedictine and liturgical connections but most of all she was a grand person.

A past post on Adé can be read here and her obit is posted here.

May the Blessed Virgin Mary and All Benedictine Saints and Blesseds watch over Adé Béthune.

Today is the 7th
anniversary of death of Adé Béthune, a renowned artist and liturgical scholar
of Newport, Rhode Island. Much of her influence was known through the Saint Leo League –an organization to assist the laity and the clergy to live the sacred Liturgy more fully. Out of the Saint Leo League came the publication, Sacred Signs, which published a quarterly review of articles on the liturgical arts (iconography, book reviews, articles, parish helps, museum notes; Sacred Signs is timely now as it was when still in print. She had a passion for liturgical art and sacred
music, especially Gregorian Chant.

Adé was an Oblate of Saint Benedict of the
Abbey of Saint Gregory the Great – Portsmouth, where she is buried in the abbey
cemetery. When I was at the abbey recently I made a special point in visiting her grave to offer a prayer for her.

The collection of her artist work and intellectual work is held at The College of Saint Catherine (St. Paul, MN).

You can read the Catholic Worker obit for Adé and the Time Magazine piece on Adé’s work in 1962.

May she rest in
peace.

Tag: Adé Béthune

Adé Béthune: 7th anniversary