Gregorian chants at San Giorgio Maggiore Venice

hi Pamela, I don't know about that, but I attended a Sunday "sung mass" at the church. There was only a small choir of 4 or 5 monks.

After much Google searching I ran across a couple of comments about the 8:00 chants from people who were there and were told by the TI that they are only on Sundays. Thanks for your help.

We attended Sunday Mass at San Giorgio Maggiore in August. The church's opening hours you are referring to are for tourists. If there is Mass the church is open for you to attend. I had our hotel confirm the Mass times when we arrived in Venice. We, too, had wanted to experience a Gregorian chanted Mass. When we attended it was simply a sung Mass with one officiant. I think this changes based on who is scheduled to say Mass, as in any parish, and it may simply be the luck of the draw. We did enjoy it very much, though. After all, Mass is a Eucharistic celebration, not a concert that they are performing for tourists.

One thing to keep in mind is that the entire Mass is in Italian, so, unless you are fluent, you will not understand the readings or the homily. As I posted in a previous thread earlier this week, if you know the days you are going to Mass before you leave home, you can photocopy the readings from your church's missalette for those dates and take them with you to read along. The readings are the same world wide, unless you have a country specific holy day. The order of the liturgy, prayers and responses are the same so just say them along in English. Also, we attended an early weekday Mass at the Basilica of San Marco (8 am, I think). This is before the church opens for tourists. It was really wonderful to experience that ancient church as a place of worship, not just as a tourist mecca. It was very quiet and only about 20 people were in attendance - for me a very special memory. The ceilings were not lit up, however, so we did return later to see all the mosaics. Enjoy Venice!

Lise, that's a good idea - photocopying the readings first! I also experienced a quiet Sunday mass in San Marco Basilica, yes that was nice. Sometimes there are also concerts in the churches, these are advertised on posters, usually at the church entrance.