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Vasa Sacra (Latin for "sacred vessels"; singular: vasum sacrum) is a term from the field of silversmithing. It includes the equipment used during Christian liturgy . Vasa sacra are mainly made of noble metals or other noble materials such as ivory .
A monstrance, also known as an ostensorium (or an ostensory), [1] is a vessel used in Roman Catholic, Old Catholic, High Church Lutheran and Anglican churches for the display on an altar of some object of piety, such as the consecrated Eucharistic Sacramental bread (host) during Eucharistic adoration or during the Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.
Two episodes from the Passion-cycle murals of Öja Church, Gotland. The iconic significance of the Chalice grew during the Early Middle Ages. Depictions of Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, such as that in the fourteenth-century frescoes of the church at Öja, Gotland (illustration, right), show a prefigured apparition of the Holy Chalice that stands at the top of the mountain ...
The chalice is considered to be one of the most sacred vessels in Christian liturgical worship, and it is often blessed before use. In the Roman Catholic Church and some Anglo-Catholic churches, it was the custom for a chalice to be consecrated by being anointed with chrism , and this consecration could only be performed by a bishop or abbot ...
It resembles the shape of a chalice but its bowl is more round than conical, and takes its name from its cover, [clarification needed] surmounted by a cross or other sacred design. In the early Catholic Church , Holy Communion was not kept in churches for fear of sacrilege or desecration; the religion was still largely illegal and subject to ...
Such vessels came to be kept in a place called the sacrarium or pastophorium, away from the central body of the church and were suspended by fine chains from the middle of the canopy (hence called a ciborium or bread store) above the altar of the church. Later on, simpler vessels would also be used in place of the dove and tower.
Up until the first time a diskos is used in the Divine Liturgy it is considered to be an ordinary vessel, and may be touched by anyone. However, after having been used in the Divine Liturgy, a diskos may be touched only by a deacon, priest or bishop. A subdeacon may touch the sacred vessels, but only if they are securely wrapped in cloth.
The lunette, containing the consecrated Host, is placed in the centre of a vessel known as a monstrance, or ostensory, which can be mounted or carried within the church. The lunette is often kept in another object, sometimes called a lunette or lunula case, which is usually a round box often on a small stand, serving to hold the Host upright. [3]