Shrines of the Blessed Eucharist : 2

Although reservation of the Blessed Sacrament is of great antiquity in the practice of the Church, the oldest and primary purpose of reservation is formally stated in the 13th canon of the Council of Nicaea (AD 325) : "With respect to the dying, the old rule of the Church should continue to be observed which forbids that anyone who is on the point of death should be deprived of the last and most necessary Viaticum."

In this post, we wish briefly to trace the manner of reserving the Blessed Sacrament in the Western Church.

A Eucharistic pyx made in Limoges France
first half of the 13th century.
This pyx was designed to be suspended above an altar.
In the Collection of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

The first official regulation for reservation in the Western Church comes from the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215, when it was already the custom to reserve the Blessed Sacrament in cathedrals, parish churches and the chapels of religious orders on (or more usually) near the altar. The Council did no more than direct that the Reserved Sacrament should be kept with strict care under lock and key. There appears to be no reliable evidence before the year 1000, or even later, the Blessed Sacrament was kept in churches in order that the faithful might visit it or pray before it.

As to the manner and place of Reservation during the early centuries there was no great uniformity of practice.

In the early mediaeval period, caskets in the form of a dove or of a small tower made for the most part of one of the precious metals, were commonly used for the purpose, but whether in this period these Eucharistic vessels were kept over the altar, or elsewhere in the church or in the sacristy is not clear. But after the tenth century the most common usage in England and France seems to have been to suspend the Blessed Sacrament in a pyx or dove-shaped vessel over the High Altar. Nevertheless, fixed and locked aumbries were also found.

Sacrament House in the church of Saint Denis
Rheine, Germany, late 15th century.
This splendid construction, which is still used for the
Reservation of the Blessed Eucharist
is located just outside the sanctuary in the northern transept.

http://www.huismanfoto.eu/Album%20619%20Rheine%20parochiekerk%20St.%20Dionysius/index.html

Germany and the Low Countries developed the Sacrament House, an elaborate structure of stone and metalwork, usually standing a short distance away from the altar on the northern or Gospel side of the sanctuary.

A 14th century English Aumbry of the Blessed Sacrament
St Peter's Anglican church, Claypole, Lincolnshire:
The aumbry, set into the chancel wall,
is enriched with stonework in the Decorated Gothic style.
Image : http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aumbry-geograph.org.uk-1701921.jpg

A cupboard or Aumbry in the wall of the sanctuary was customary in parts of Italy, Portugal, Sweden, Scotland and elsewhere. They were most frequently enriched with stonework and polychrome work.

The reforms following the Council of Trent (1545 - 1563) prescribed a Tabernacle fixed to the centre of the altar. But earlier usages were not formally forbidden. Furthermore, specific Chapels for the reservation of the Blessed Eucharist were arranged in Cathedrals and Greater Churches, separate from the Sanctuary. After Trent, the tabernacle became the usual mode of reservation in all Catholic churches, although there were exceptions in Germany and Belgium, where the old sacrament houses were permitted to be used.

High altar in the Church of Saint Euphemia,
Ravenna mid 18th century.
It was not untypical for High altars in Italy to have tabernacles
which resembled miniature temples in the classical style.

Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/23247302@N07/4077199569

The term tabernacle to denote this kind of receptacle fixed to the altar for the reserved Sacrament was introduced by the reforming bishop of Verona, Matthew Giberti, about 1525 and his ideas were later endorsed by the Council of Trent.

Further posts in this series will discuss each of these methods of Eucharistic Reservation. For this post, we have adapted essays in the Catholic Encyclopaedia (1911) by Father Herbert Thurston and in the Dictionary of Liturgy and Worship (1972) by Archdale A King.

The Genius of AWN Pugin 2 : The Gate of Heaven

Entrance to the Blessed Sacrament Chapel of
Saint Giles' Church, Cheadle UK.

PORTA CAELI (the Gate of Heaven) ! These were the words uttered by John Henry Newman when he entered the Blessed Sacrament Chapel of Saint Giles' Church Cheadle (Staffordshire UK). The Cheadle Church was the creation which gave its architect - AWN Pugin  - the most satisfaction.

Reserving a fuller study of this glorious Gothic Revival church for another occasion, here we simply wish to comment on its Blessed Sacrament Chapel.

In the first instance, it is somewhat rare - even unusual - to find a parish church from the 19th century with a special chapel for the Reservation of the Blessed Eucharist. In most churches - and even many Cathedrals - the Blessed Sacrament was reserved in a tabernacle on the High altar. The former Ceremonial of Bishops did expect that a Blessed Sacrament Chapel would exist in Cathedral Churches, but even so this was widely ignored, as is illustrated by many Cathedrals in the "Old" and "New" worlds right up until the 1960's.

Pugin's desire to build a church in all respects mediaeval and correct liturgically, of course, motivated his design for a distinct Blessed Sacrament Chapel at Cheadle.  But how exactly he managed to convince Ecclesiastical authorities of the desirability of such a plan is unknown to this writer.

The altar and tabernacle of the Blessed Sacrament Chapel.
On the right can be seen a liturgical wash-basin called piscina in which
the priest may purify his fingers having distributed Holy Communion.

The decorations of the Cheadle Chapel are lavish and inspire awe : precisely the effect that was intended. We find a gate leading from the southern aisle of the church into the Chapel, made of brass and figured with motifs of the Blessed Eucharist. The arch leading into the chapel is magnificently stencilled on its every face and chamfer.

In these times, the Chapel is lit brightly with electrical lamps. But Pugin intended to create a mysterious corner where the Faithful may not enter and which glowed only with the light of candles and the filtered light of stained glass windows.

The walls of the Chapel are all stencilled, its ceiling vaulted in stone, its floor paved with magnificent geometric tiles of terracotta red, gold and blue.

The Altar of this chapel is equally beautiful, proportionate and fitting. This was not an altar on which Mass was intended to be celebrated and we note that although the Church was consecrated in September 1846, this altar was not consecrated. There is no predella or altar platform elevating the height of this altar above the pavement : a requirement for altars of the Roman Rite. No this altar was purely intended for the Reservation of the Most Holy Eucharist.

The altar has no gradines or little steps upon its table, but only the Tabernacle, being a box-like form, enriched with enamelled metalwork. A retable, which is the full width of the reveals of the stained glass window above it, is formed from magnificent encaustic tiles, arranged geometrically. It is to be well noted that there are no figures of the saints or the angels in this retable.

The face of this alabaster Altar, however, is beautifully enriched with five niches containing images of the Seraphim. We find the Seraphim also depicted in the three-light stained glass window above the altar.

Click on the images for an enlarged view.

Updated 29th January.

Another view of the Chapel entrance.
Photograph of Father Lawrence Lew OP.

Shrines of the Blessed Eucharist : 1 The Sacrament House

Long before tabernacles for the Reservation of the Most Holy Sacrament came to be placed upon the High altars of Catholic churches, a more common form of Reservation in Western Europe was the Sacrament House. Although taking a variety of forms, the Sacrament House was always one unit, even if it had a number of levels or stages.

Blessed Sacrament Shrine
Church of Saint John Vianney, Houston, Texas.
Image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/marylea/5423308216/

In the last 50 years, however, when the place of Reservation has come to be disassociated with the High altar, we have seen the phenomenon of tabernacles sitting on top of plinths (often freestanding). Some of these are very noble, but they do not have the dignity of the mediaeval Sacrament House.

Recently found was the adjacent photograph of the Eucharistic Shrine in the Church of Saint John Vianney in Houston Texas. This is a recently built church, having a skyline reminiscent of mediaeval Italian churches.

We see an imaginative treatment of the Shrine of the Blessed Eucharist. A wall is built behind the tabernacle, but separate from it, creating a layered effect. The wall is of stone and resembles the facade of a church. It gives the illusion that there is a room beyond the tabernacle, the wall being the door to it.

Were the tabernacle just sitting on top of this pleasing stone plinth, it would not have anywhere near the impact of this arrangement. It would have been even more effective had more colour been used : it seems rather monochromatic. The tabernacle itself is of beautiful proportions and form.

This Shrine does not attempt to give the impression of an altar : there are no cloths on the plinth, nor candles upon it, nor crucifix. It is simple, attractive, noble and worthy of its sacred purpose.

Two Altars

Apse of the Karaganda Cathedral.

In 2012, the Diocese of Karaganda, in Khazakhstan completed and consecrated its new Cathedral in honour of Our Lady of Fatima, Mother of all Nations.  What appears to be an historic altarpiece has been installed as the High altar and focal point of the Cathedral.  It is an extremely impressive ensemble visually, constructed of timber,  polychromed and gilded.


 

The two altars sit in harmonious proximity to each other
and appear almost as one unit.

Standing in front of the High altar is another altar, freestanding. A timber altar, with rather beautifully done carving, is the altar at which Mass is intended to be celebrated.  But it is not fixed: it sits on a splendid carpet at the same level as the High altar, and the whole thing could readily be moved out of the way. But this altar was consecrated and a rather ingenious method of construction was then revealed. Approximately two-thirds of the mensa was a slab of marble, incised with consecration crosses and set into the timber table of the altar. There is ample historic precedent for such an arrangement, which was referred to in mediaeval times as a superaltar. Beneath the mensa was placed a small house containing the sacred relics (see image below).

The large marble stone set into the mensa of the freestanding altar.

According to the old Pontifical, such an arrangement was not permitted for an altar, but the revised Ritual Books are more flexible. The General Instructions of the Roman Missal no. 263 says: According to the Church's traditional practice and the altar's symbolism, the table of a fixed altar should be of stone and indeed of natural stone. But at the discretion of the conference of bishops some other solid, becoming, and well-crafted material may be used. The Ceremonial of Bishops and the Code of Canon Law restate this instruction. Thus, it is not uncommon and perfectly licit, for a consecrated altar to be made entirely of wood or metal, and sometimes, as in the case of the Karaganda Cathedral, a stone mensa is supported by a structure of timber or metal.

Detail of the High altar shewing the patina of the old paintwork.

This flexibility is surely an advantage when there is an existing High altar intact in a Church, but yet not usually the altar at which Mass is offered. How often do we see churches with two altars sitting one in front of the other? Usually, the two sit in uncomfortable proximity to each other, vying for attention. But not at Karaganda. Congratulations to those who devised the ingenious solution.

A relic house about to be placed beneath the freestanding altar.

The sanctuary of the Karaganda Cathedral, seen during the celebration of weekday Mass,
shewing the two altars appearing as one harmonious unit.

Please note that the images are the copyright of the Diocese of Karaganda.