The INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENT OF PUERI CANTORES (young singers) has the aim of gathering children and teenagers who sing for the Glory of God to bring peace to the world singing, as angels did when they announced the Saviour's birth (Lc.2, 13-14). Thanks to their praise to God and their friendship, boys and girls from many different countries help men and civilisations to live in harmony. Since it was originated, Church has appreciated children's singing for a liturgical purpose. According to tradition, Pope Saint Gregory (590 - 604) founded the "Scholae Puerorum" in the basilica of Saint John of Lateran and Saint Peter of the Vatican. In the XI century, Guido d'Arezzo created the Micrologus, a singing method for young singers. In the Middle Ages, all important cathedrals and churches had its own group of singing children: our School of Montserrat is a nice example of that.
In 1903, carried away by the musical movement of glorification dedicated to liturgy, Pope Pius X wanted to officially return the role of singing to children. Through singing and active participation in liturgy, children and teenagers would grow up in faith, the liking towards music and singing would be promoted and it would all contribute to the beauty and splendor of worship. In 1907, in France, Paul Berthier, organist of the Auxerre cathedral, founded a group called "LES PETITS CHANTEURS À LA CROIX DE BOIS." This group sang in villages and towns making popular the participation of children in the liturgical songs. His badge was a wooden cross and it was worn on the white tunic, the liturgical dress. As time went by, every country made its own adaptation. This way, during the first decades of this country, singing became a common characteristic in children's choirs in Church in many European countries. Once the II World War was over, Mr. Ferdinand Maillet gathered groups of Young Singers together from different countries and they formed the INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF YOUNG SINGERS OF THE WOODEN CROSS. He also organized his first Congress in Paris in 1947. There, thousands of boys prayed singing for peace to transmit it ti the world. Following the example, the prayer to bring peace to the world is always sung in the congress of young singers.
Currently,
choirs formed by boys and girls from all over the world attend the Congresses;
choirs from North and South America, Japan, Philippines, Central Africa
and all European countries. Recently, the most important Congress took place in Rome, which gathered more than 8000 boys and girls, the one in Quebec, 1600 singers, which 48 of them were Catalan. In 1998, around 6000 people attended the Congress in Barcelona, the one in Lyon, around 3000 and last year in Cologne, the organisation declared that 6000 boys and girls was to be the maximum of singers. We would like to remark that in 1998, coinciding with the hundredth anniversary of Father Michael Altisent, (Balaguer 1898 - Barcelona 1975), the city of Barcelona and so Catalonia, were chosen as the venue for the XXIX International Congress of Pueri Cantores.
For young people and for the people in the choirs, Congresses are a fabulous occasion to find amusement in singing together in a completely different way from singing in the church or school, a way to show themselves and their countries and spread their message of peace in many different languages. Congresses
were created because younglings like travelling and meeting other people,
new places and new faces, make new friends, learn from one another, exchange
adresses, and so on.
Translators: Guillem Pujals and Ariadna Puig
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