Details

Location

Church of St. Joseph

411 E. Second Street, Dayton, Ohio 45402

Parking

There is parking available in the St. Joseph Parish Hall parking lot accross the street from the church. Street parking is also available around the St. Joseph campus.

Reception Tickets

Red Mass attendance is free and non-ticketed. Tickets are required to attend the reception following the Red Mass. More information to come.

Attire

 Business Casual

Judges and Public Officials

Judges and Justices are encouraged to wear their judicial robes, and are invited to process into the church at the beginning of the Red Mass.

All public officials who RSVP for the luncheon will be recognized in the program.

For more information, please email: daytoncatholiclawyers@gmail.com.

What is a Red Mass?

The Red Mass is an ancient Catholic ceremony that takes place each fall to bless the members of the legal profession and sanctify their work for the coming year.  With deep roots in our English Common Law history, the Red Mass—named for the color of the presiding bishop’s vestments—has become a cherished tradition for attorneys and judges of all or no faiths across the United States. Its date in early autumn coincides with the traditional beginning of the English legal year, which is also the beginning of the U.S. Supreme Court’s annual term. In Washington, D.C., United States Supreme Court justices and high-ranking federal officials of all faiths and both parties regularly attend.

In a time of constant change, the Red Mass serves as an anchor.  In a time when traditions are tossed aside, the Red Mass serves as a reminder.  In a time when days, months, and years can blend together in the constant churn of work no longer governed by the changing of the seasons, the Red Mass allows us to mark the passage of time.  Each fall in the Red Mass, lawyers and judges, scholars and students, and paralegals and public officials of all faiths seek to invoke God’s blessing and guidance on themselves, on the administration of justice, and on the making and enforcing of laws in the coming year.  Humbly acknowledging the trust which our fellow citizens have placed in us and recognizing the gifts with which God has endowed us, we come before the Lord and place ourselves at His service.

Who Should Attend?

The Red Mass is for those who practice, make, study, teach, interpret, and enforce the laws.  As such, it is proper for all members of the legal profession, all public officials, their families, and in a democracy, all citizens, to attend this ceremony.  That includes, but is not limited to, attorneys, judges, magistrates, law professors, law students, legal support professionals, executive officials, senators, representatives, city councilmen, county commissioners, mayors, township trustees, sheriffs, prosecutors, school board members, etc.  Judges and law professors are invited to wear their robes and regalia and to process into the church.  All other public elected officials will be seated in the front of the church.  Judges, law professors, and elected officials who attend will be recognized at the luncheon following the Red Mass.

Can Non-Catholics Attend?

Yes.  Although the Red Mass is a Catholic ceremony, all men and women of good will are invited and encouraged to attend.  This is an opportunity for legal professionals and public officials from across Greater Dayton to come together before the Lord and invoke His blessing on our communities, families, and professional lives—in short, to sanctify the city, our work, and ourselves.  It is rather like a non-Catholic friend or family member attending a Catholic wedding to pray for and support the couple.

Like attending a Catholic wedding however, non-Catholics and Catholics outside the state of grace are not permitted to receive Holy Communion.  They are, however, invited to join the Communion line with their arms folded across their chests to receive a blessing.  This limitation is not meant as an affront, but as a measure of respect—as one might show as a non-Muslim or non-Jew covering his or her head in a mosque or synagogue.

More Detailed History of the Red Mass

The Red Mass is a solemn, votive mass of the Holy Spirit, and as such, the presider wears red vestments, to symbolize the fire of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-4). Being a votive service, the mass of the Holy Spirit is intended for private devotion or for a particular situation.  For the legal profession, that situation is the beginning of the legal year, on the Feast of Michaelmas (the Feast of St. Michael, Archangel), September 29.  This marker in time is preserved in the United Kingdom, in which the courts continue to hold “Michaelmas term” and the United States, where the United States Supreme Court convenes for its annual term on the first Monday in October—typically the first Monday after the feast.

The earliest Red Masses were held for the jurists at the University of Bologna (the oldest law school in the world) in the Twelfth Century. From here, they spread to the French court under St. Louis IX (1214-1270)—who purpose-built La Sainte Chapelle in Paris to host the Red Mass—the papal court of Innocent IV (c. 12th cen.-1254), and finally to England under King Edward I (1239-1307).  Kings, lords, judges, scholars, knights, and members of parliament attended these ceremonies, which were held with great pomp and circumstance. In fact, one tradition holds that the Red Mass is called “red” after the scarlet robes of medieval judges!

In the United States, the Red Mass tradition was inaugurated in 1928 at old Saint Andrew’s Church in New York City.  It spread through the country, including to Washington, D.C., in 1953, where most of the United States Supreme Court Justices attend (including non-Catholics like the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg).  In Ohio, a Red Mass was held in Cincinnati until 1965, and resurrected in 1999.  The University of Dayton previously hosted a Red Mass, but this practice lapsed. Beginning in 2025, the tradition returns to Dayton, with the Red Mass set to be held each year on the last Friday of September.  That history remains to be written.

For further reading, see:

R. J. Schoeck, Medieval Lawyers and the Red Mass: Towards a History of the Mass of the Holy Ghost, 5 St. Louis U. L.J. 274 (1958).

R. J. Schoenk, The Mass of the Holy Ghost: A Commentary, 142 Am. Ecclesiastical Rev. 387 (1960).

Francis W. Sullivan, The Red Mass, 4 Portland U. L. Rev. 35 (1955).