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Altar Canopy
Altar Canopy
The "Caeremoniale Episcoporum
(I, xii, 13), treating of the ornaments of the altar, says that a
canopy (
baldachinum) should be suspended over the altar. It should be
square in form, sufficiently large to cover the altar and the predella
on which the celebrant stands, and if it can easily be done, the colour
of the material, silk velvet or other cloth, with which it is covered,
should vary with the colour of the ornaments of the altar. It is either
suspended from the ceiling by a movable chain, so that it may be
lowered or raised when necessary, or it may be attached to the wall, or
to the reredos at the back of the altar. It may also be a stationary
structure, and this is usually the case in large churches, and then it
is made of marble, stone, metal, or wood beautifully carved and
overlaid with gold or silver, in the form of a cupola erected on four
pillars. In liturgy it is called the
ciborium. The canopy or ciborium is, according to the decision
of the Cong. Sac. Rit., to be erected over the altar of the Blessed
Sacrament (23 May, 1846), and over the other altars of the church (27
April, 1697), but as contrary custom has so far prevailed that even in
Rome it is usually erected only over the high altar, and the altar of
the Blessed Sacrament. The purpose of this canopy is to protect the
altar from dust or other matter falling upon it from the ceiling,
which, being usually very high, cannot be conveniently or easily
cleaned. On solemn festivals, or at special solemnities, a temporary
canopy is sometimes placed over an altar in or outside the church. The
framework on which such a canopy is erected is called the
"altar-herse", a word probably derived from
hearse, a frame covered with cloth, and formerly set up over a
corpse in funeral solemnities.
A.J. SCHULTE
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