Shrovetide and Holocaust Memorial Concert, Camp Washingon

What: A Shrovetide Concert for Lent

Where: Sacred Heart school auditorium

Who: Old St. Mary’s Music Director Sean Connelly will lead the Laudate Pueri Schola Cantorum (the children’s choir of both Oratory Parishes) and the Oratory Singers

How much: Free!

February 2025 marks the 80th anniversary of sung Passion Devotions that were held by inmates in the priest’s block of the Dachau Concentration Camp in February of 1945.

Inspired by and commemorating this event and in a particular way by the witness of the saints of the Holocaust, the Laudate Pueri Children’s Schola Cantorum and the Oratory Singers will present as a devotional concert a portion of the music that was sung at these devotions. The event will also include spoken reflections from the Catholic saints and blesseds who suffered in the Holocaust.

This is the anniversary of a remarkable event, which saw those suffering unjust persecution, even to the point of death, in one of the great crimes and human tragedies of human history, so near to our own times, uniting their hardships with Christ’s willing suffering in sacred song, spoken word, and earnest prayer. The Saints we will hear from did so with their very lives, bearing luminous witness to the power of the Risen Christ over death itself to those who suffered with them, and those of us privileged to come after them.

This beautiful reflection on the Passion falls the Wednesday before Ash Wednesday, and is a perfect way to make ready to enter the Lenten fast with greater intentionality and purpose.

There is no charge for this event. A freewill collection will be taken up to support the Emma Grace Haacke Memorial Scholarship Fund, which sponsors young musicians in their studies through the Laudate Pueri Schola Cantorum, the children’s program of the Oratory churches.