The Three Low Masses, a Provençal Christmas Legend

By: Alphonse Daudet

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

And you think you have problems resisting those Christmas cookies!
It is Christmas Eve in Provence. The date is seventeen hundred and something and Father Balagère is getting ready to say Midnight Mass at Trinquelage castle. The tradition calls for the service to be three Low Masses, that is, Masses where the responses are spoken by the acolyte, not sung by the choir.The celebrants and the congregation are required to be fasting, and everyone is hungry. Meanwhile, in the kitchens the feast is being prepared for after the service, and all the delicious smells are wafting throughout the castle, including the chapel. In truth, everyone is more interested in the feast than the service, and that's when the devil himself steps in. He inhabits the body of the young acolyte Garrigou so that, with his prompting, the good father makes a terrible hash of the three Low Masses. He is punished, of course, and that's where the ghosts come in...
Told in Daudet's signature ironic style, often compared to Charles Dickens, this Christmas ghost story has long been a favorite. GL Robinson's new translation, with a few footnotes for clarity, makes it accessible to English speakers of all ages. To be enjoyed as the nights draw in, the fires are lit and the fantastic becomes believable.