Catholic ceremonies/sacraments

[eadaoin]

If the photos are older than 100 years, you need to check out the following.
Before about 1910 Confirmation was aged about 6 years and First Communion some years later.
My father made his confirmation at 6, and his communion much later.

Wikipedia says "In 1910, he (Pope Pius X) issued the decree Quam Singulari, which changed the age at which communion could be received from 12 to 7 years old, the age of discretion. The pope lowered the age because he wished to impress the event on the minds of children . . "

[Jill Eaton]

If the photos are older than 100 years, you need to check out the following.
Before about 1910 Confirmation was aged about 6 years and First Communion some years later.
My father made his confirmation at 6, and his communion much later.

Wikipedia says "In 1910, he (Pope Pius X) issued the decree Quam Singulari, which changed the age at which communion could be received from 12 to 7 years old, the age of discretion. The pope lowered the age because he wished to impress the event on the minds of children . . "

The earlier photo is from approx. 1910 and the other about 1915. Patrick was born sometime in 1903

The family were terribly poor with Patrick being in a Catholic Industrial Boys Home in the 1911 census. It just seems odd to me that the family would invest in posed (possibly comparably expensive) professional photos unless it was for a special occasion.

[Joney]

I've got a photo of two children, who were first cousins, both brought up by nuns in a children's home, so the one surviving mother could work full-time. They were both born in 1915, so I reckon this is a first communion photo taken in spring/summer in about 1922.  The girl's dress looks white, the boy is wearing what appears to be a sailor-suit, but in plain white material, without any of the lines of contrasting colour you would normally get round the edge of the  big square collar which hangs down at the back. The woman who paid for the photo worked full-time all her life in a hospital laundry in Liverpool, but chose to spend her money on this.

I think you are absolutely right in your guesses about the occasions the photographs represented.

[Maiden Stone]

A century ago those may have been the only occasions the children were photographed, except perhaps a school photo.  Outfits may have been passed down or around families, or home-made. Very poor children might have 1st Communion outfits provided by a religious charity. How & when these ceremonies were celebrated depended on country and era. In some places families went into debt. I think that was a storyline in the recent TV series "Broken" about a Catholic priest.
 Confirmation meant a rare visit from the Bishop. They get out and about more now.
No First Communion photographs for my family in that era. It would have meant annual visits to the photographers. They had more important things to spend their limited income on. My generation may have had group photos for 1st Communion; all I remember was breakfast at school afterwards.  There may have been an option for individual photos at my school but my parents couldn't afford it. A cousin at a different school was photographed in a holy pose by a professional. This was 1960s.

[Jill Eaton]

Thanks everyone for your valuable insights

I never know any of this family personally, even my maternal grandmother. They all died long before I was born but your posts have allowed me to understand some of their actions and their motivations. It helps to make them real people not just names and dates.

Would you mind if I asked about catholic godparents? I've read that each child had a different set of godparents from the child born before it? is this a general rule?

As trusted people to act as stand-in parents presumably godparents, if not family members, would have been long-term friends? Would they likely all be from the same catholic parish?

[dowdstree]

This is my late mum on her 1st Holy Communion in 1927. She would be eight and nine years old.


Dorrie

[Billyblue]

"Would you mind if I asked about catholic godparents? I've read that each child had a different set of godparents from the child born before it? is this a general rule?
As trusted people to act as stand-in parents presumably godparents, if not family members, would have been long-term friends? Would they likely all be from the same catholic parish?"
Jill

Godparents are usually relatives or close family friends, as they agree at baptism of child to act in place of parents if something disastrous happens to the family.   Doesn't always work out that way, of course    My godmother was my mum's eldest sister, a real harridan of a woman, and she sure never looked after me!  I'm godmother to a cousin who I haven't seen since he was a baby!

Dawn M

[Deirdre784]

I would say usually, though often family members (if there are any Catholics in the family) anyway, who would probably look after the children if anything happened.

My mum's only sister and her husband were my godparents, my dad's only brother and his wife were my younger brother's. Both treated us all the same with birthdays and Christmas presents. Having no other siblings, and no other Catholics in the family, my sister's godfather was the son of very close friends of the family, and only gave presents, and kept in touch, with her.

For my own children, my sister and her husband are my eldest's, my sister again - as the Catholic - with my husband's eldest brother as my youngest's.

None of them were in the same parish as us.

When my mum was baptised (late 1920s), two friends from her parish church were her godparents as her older sister had already had the only two other Catholics in the family, which does suggest that, at that time anyway, godparents should only act for one child in the family.

[Sinann]

My mother is god mother to nine children, well all adults now, three of them are brothers.
I'm godmother to two, I wasn't at one of the christenings as it was in America and I was in Ireland at the time.
It very much depends on the number in a family, if you have enough siblings to act for your children fine if not you have to start using neighbors etc.
People usually start with their best man and bride's maid and work out from there.

My godparents are the mid wife that delivered me, (home birth) and a friend of my father's. Don't remember ever meeting my godmother, introduced myself to my godfather once, he didn't even remember he stood for me.