Priests revive traditional gifts of cloth to mothers (Ordination 2023)

A formerly dormant pious tradition involving a newly ordained priest and his mother that honors the numerous sacrifices made to raise holy children has been revived in the Archdiocese of Newark.

This tradition of giving the hand towel used by the priest during the anointing of the hands at ordination – which is called a maniturgium or manutergium — to his mother or another special person in his life was first reinstituted in the Archdiocese by the late Archbishop John Joseph Myers. Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R., continued the tradition upon succeeding him, “providing a beautiful honor for the mother of the priest,” said Father Joseph Mancini, pastor at St. Stephen’s Church in Kearny and Director of Archdiocesan Ceremonies and Liturgies, serving as the Master of Ceremonies for the Archdiocese.

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Why the mother? According to Father Mancini, the mother of a priest is a special person. She nurtures his vocation from the very beginning just as the Blessed Virgin Mary nurtured her son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, from the very beginning, Father Mancini said.

According to tradition, a new priest’s mother is to safeguard the maniturgium she receives until the day she dies. Then, the cloth is placed in the hands of the priest’s mother as she rests in the coffin. When she arrives at the gates of Heaven, she is escorted to Our Lord, who asks her, “I have given you life. What have you given me?” The woman hands Our Lord the maniturgium and responds, “I have given you my son as a priest.” With these words, Jesus grants her entry into paradise.

*Father Frenel Phanord with his mother Myrtha and father Arry. His mother was moved by the tradition of the cloth.*

Newly ordained Father Frenel Phanord gave his mother, Myrtha Phanord, his maniturgium at the Pentecost Mass the day he was ordained. She was not aware of the tradition, said Father Phanord, but was surprised and overwhelmed by the gesture. Myrtha Phanord said it reminded her of her son’s baptism when his forehead was anointed in oil, but this time, “It was like me giving my son to the Lord to do His will.”

Father Phanord said his mother saw that he truly had a call to the priesthood, a calling he sometimes doubted himself.

First and foremost, she supported him through prayer.

And during moments of crisis in the seminary, she told him, “You know Frenel, remember that ‘No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’ You are in the seminary for a reason, and I encourage you not to give up now and seriously pray about it.”

“Somehow, she saw along with others, that I truly had a call to the priesthood, but I was not sure about it at the time,” Father Phanord said. “That moment helped me to really pray and seek help from the formators to help me discern.”

Myrtha Phanord said it is a “grace” to have a priest in the family.

“I felt like the Holy Spirit was upon me during the ordination, and just as Abraham sacrificed his son Isaac, I felt like I sacrificed my only son to do the will of God,” she said.

Father Robert “Bobby” Burkot will be giving his maniturgium to a special person in his life as his mother and his closest motherly aunts have passed away, he said.

*Father Burkot has his hands anointed at his ordination.*

He didn’t know the Archdiocese gave the priests their maniturgiums, but wanting to keep the tradition, he had one made to give to his closest seminarian friend’s mother. His friend, Ngu Peter Quoc Tran, was killed by a drunk driver in New York City on May 11, 2021.

*The maniturgium Father Burkot will give to his best friend’s mother.*

“What is embroidered on my maniturgium is what Peter himself wrote on his seminary entrance papers: ‘I believe that Jesus Christ has given me His cross because He is the only way to eternal life,’” Father Burkot said.

It is in memory of his friend Peter that Father Burkot is giving the cloth to Bich Thi Ngoc “who has given her son to the Lord,” he said.

“Some say it is a ticket to Heaven!” Father Burkot added.

But Father Mancini is quick to point out that there is no such thing as a free ticket into Heaven.

“It is, however, a rare privilege to give a son as a priest to the Church,” Father Mancini said. “Priests don’t drop down from the clouds. Their vocation is formed and nurtured from a family, and recognizing the role of the mother of the new priest is important.”

The anointing of the hands is also a very important part of a priest’s ordination, Father Mancini added. First, the ordinand kneels in front of the anointing bishop with his hands extended, palms up. Then, the bishop anoints the hands using Sacred Chrism oil while saying the following: “The Lord Jesus Christ, whom the Father anointed with the Holy Spirit and power, guard and preserve you, that you may sanctify the Christian people and offer sacrifice to God.”

“By this gesture, the hands of the priest are consecrated for a unique purpose – to offer the sacrifice and confer the sacraments,” Father Mancini said.

During the anointing of the hands — which is performed by Cardinal Tobin in the Archdiocese of Newark— the maniturgium is held under the hands of each priest before being tied around his hands. It is then set aside, often in a plastic bag, until it is given to the new priest’s mother or special person.

The maniturgium — its name is derived from the Latin “manu” for “hand” and “tergeo” for “wipe” — looks like an ordinary hand towel. It is several inches long and several inches wide, with the practical purpose of preventing any excess oil from dripping from the priest’s folded hands onto the floor or the vestments.

“But there are also symbolic meanings,” Father Mancini said. “Some have suggested that the maniturgium symbolizes the white linen shroud in which Our Lord’s body was wrapped in after being removed from the cross. Others, like Father Louie R. Coronel, O.P., a university official in the Philippines, suggest that the maniturgium is ‘an external manifestation that priests are bound to Christ, the eternal High Priest.”

Father Mancini recalled feeling moved by the rite during his own ordination in 2001. Now, as the archdiocesan Master of Ceremonies, he said he feels privileged to facilitate it for other new priests.

Featured image: Father Joseph Mancini ties a maniturgium around Father Frenel Phanord’s hands during the anointing of the hands with the Chrism oil. He gave the cloth to his mother later that day.