Zaitzkofen: Ordinations to Minor Orders, Tonsures, and Taking of the Cassock – 2025

February 1st: Ordinations to the Four Minor Orders

The Church rejoices at the arrival of the recipients of new minors. On Saturday, February 1, 2025, which is the feast of St. Ignatius of Antioch, 13 third-year seminarians received ordination to the first minor orders (porter and lector) from the hands of Bishop Alfonso de Galarreta: 1 Croatian, 1 Dane, 5 Germans, 1 Hungarian, 1 Dutch, and 4 Poles.

Four fourth-year candidates were ordained to the second minor orders (exorcist and acolyte) during the same ceremony: 1 Belarusian, 2 Germans, and 1 Hungarian.

Each “minor” consecration signifies a step coming closer to the altar and a deeper participation in the priesthood of Jesus Christ, Bishop de Galarreta emphasized. This is why candidates are required to make the holy sacrifice of the Mass, which Our Lord has bequeathed to us, the object of their meditation ever more.

The Mass, which encompasses and expresses all the truths of the Faith as a “living Creed,” is the most powerful means to counter the persistent crisis of faith. Only this fidelity to the true sacrifice of Jesus Christ is able to overcome interiorly the humanist and secularist spirit of the liturgical reform and to bring about a true renewal of ecclesial life.

Let us therefore pray on this day in particular that the newly ordained seminarians may be faithful to the ministries entrusted to them and that they may penetrate ever more deeply into the mystery of the priesthood of Our Lord.

February 2: Tonsure and Taking of the Cassock

The feast of Candlemas is always a special day at the Zaitzkofen seminary. Indeed, in accordance with the will of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, the ceremony of the taking the habit and tonsure takes place on February 2. This year, 12 first-year seminarians received the clerical habit from the hands of Bishop de Galarreta: 1 Austrian, 2 Belgians, 1 Estonian, 6 Poles, 1 Slovak, and 1 Slovenian.

Another 12 second-year candidates were solemnly admitted to the clerical state under the gaze of their confreres and relatives: 2 Germans, 1 Croatian, 7 Poles, 1 Slovak, and 1 Czech.

It is Christ Himself Who – according to Bishop de Galarreta – interprets the meaning of this ceremony for us: “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Lk. 9:23). St. Paul, who constantly exhorts us in his letters to put off the old man and put on Christ, goes in the same direction.

Indeed, although this call is addressed in a certain sense to all Christians, it is addressed in particular to those who, by their state of consecration, are called to a higher level of perfection. The mystery of the feast of the presentation of the child Jesus in the temple shows us in an impressive way the spirit of sacrifice required of priestly candidates.

The offering in the Temple, as Bishop de Galarreta pointed out, is in some way the “offertory” of the sacrifice of the Cross of Golgotha, to which Christ wanted to associate His most holy Mother as co-redemptrix. It is in the Mother of God, offering her child to the heavenly Father, that the seminarians find a perfect model and a powerful intercessor for the continuation of their journey towards the priesthood.

Let us therefore commend these candidates to the Mother of the Divine High Priest, who is also and above all the mother of priests and candidates for the priesthood, so that they may faithfully follow their path and ever more perfectly accomplish the interior work of purification and self-discipline.