Solemnity of the Dedication of the Duomo

In the Ambrosian liturgy, the third Sunday of October is the anniversary of the Dedication (consecration) of the Duomo.

The third Sunday in October is the Sunday on which the history of Milan Cathedral records some significant milestones: the rededication in 453, by Archbishop St. Eusebius, of the ancient Main Church devastated by the Huns; the Dedication in 1577, by Archbishop St. Carlo Borromeo, of the current Duomo; the Dedication in 1986, during the episcopate of Archbishop Carlo Maria Martini, of the new Duomo altar, following the work to adapt the presbytery made necessary by the application of the liturgical and pastoral guidelines of the Second Vatican Council.

The Duomo is the Mother Church of all the Ambrosian worshippers, where the Bishop’s Chair is located, from which he presides over liturgical celebrations and where he exercises his ministry as pastor and teacher. For every Ambrosian, the Duomo is not only one of the most representative images of the city of Milan, but a clear sign of unity in the faith and in its own peculiar liturgical tradition.

In the celebration, the traditional Rite of the Trasmigratio, which had been maintained until the beginning of the structural restoration of the Duomo in the Seventies, is proposed again, updated. In the past, it was a functional passage from one basilica to another in the ancient episcopal complex; with the construction of the present Cathedral, it then became a symbolic rite of passage from the outside to the inside on Dedication Sunday. Now it is proposed again as an invitation to cross the threshold of the Mother Church of all the Ambrosian worshippers, recognising themselves as living stones in Christ, who is the cornerstone of the house of God.

The Archbishop with the Chapter of Canons and a representation of the faithful stands on the parvis of the Cathedral in front of the closed portal. Here he begins the celebration by praying – in dialogue with the worshippers – Psalm 118 (‘Open to me the gates of justice, I want to enter and give thanks to the Lord’). The portal is opened and the procession enters the cathedral to the song of the Sallenda ‘Enter its gates giving thanks to the Father’.

The presence of various diocesan realities is also significant: the Chorales joining the Duomo’s Musical Chapel, the Confraternities, the Orders of Malta and the Holy Sepulchre, the members of the pastoral Councils of the parishes and pastoral Communities, and the workers of the Veneranda Fabbrica.