A communion-plate is a metal plate held under the chin of a communicant while receiving Holy Communion in the Catholic Church. Its purpose is to catch pieces of the host because it is considered holy. Its use was common in the last part of the nineteenth century and during most of the twentieth.
The communion-plate is in Latin called patina, distinguishing it from the paten, which in Latin is called patena.
The Vatican-approved English translation of documents such as the General Instruction of the Roman Missal hyphenates the name. [1] The two words are also written separately, as in the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church [2] and in Bishop Peter John Elliott's Liturgical Question Box. [3]
The unhyphenated term, "communion plate", is also used to mean in general eucharistic vessels plated with a precious metal, such as patens, chalices and ciboria. [4]
"Communion plate" (unhyphenated) is also used [5] for what is more commonly called a "communion tray", [6] holding bread in the form of a loaf or cubes or crackers or holding small cups of wine or grape juice, which are passed along the pews in some Protestant churches [7] [8] since the final years of the nineteenth century. [9] [10]
The custom of holding a small communion-plate under the chin when receiving the sacred host arose in the mid-19th century, and became widespread after 16 March 1876, when in response to an enquiry about the new practice, the Sacred Congregation of Rites said it had no objection to it. [11] On 26 March 1929 the Congregation for the Discipline of the Sacraments ordered its use by communicants, who were to hold it under their chin and then return it to the priest or pass it to the next communicant. [12] In October of the following year, the same Congregation approved, in answer to a query, an alternative custom that had developed in some countries, in which the communion-plate was held under the communicant's chin, not by the communicant but by an altar server. [13] The Congregation continued to require the use everywhere of a white linen cloth or veil stretched below the mouths of communicants, as prescribed by the Roman Missal. [14] This has been called the communion cloth or the houseling cloth. A photograph of its continued use in 2013 within the sanctuary of a church appears in an online report on a priestly ordination in a Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter church. [15] It can also be attached to the altar rails. [16]
In his 1960 Code of Rubrics, Pope John XXIII mentioned "the Communion plate for the faithful" (patina pro fidelium Communione) as one of the objects to be placed on the credence table before Mass. [17] Two years later, he revised the Roman Missal, removing the rubric about the communion cloth and inserting a mention of the communion-plate, saying that the celebrant "puts into the chalice any fragments that may be found on the communion-plate that was placed under the chin of the communicants". [18] That the communion-plate replaced the cloth is a view mentioned by Monsignor Charles Pope and others. [19] [20]
The 2002 edition of the Roman Missal refers twice to the communion-plate: it retains the mention of it as an item to be placed on the credence table, [21] and speaks of its use in administering Communion from the chalice by intinction to the faithful, who are to hold it themselves. [22] The 2004 Instruction Redemptionis sacramentum says: "The Communion-plate for the Communion of the faithful should be retained, so as to avoid the danger of the sacred host or some fragment of it falling." [23]
The organization Catholics United for the Faith says that use of the communion-plate is obligatory even where communion in the hand is authorized, and that it is held under the communicants' chin by an altar server, not by the communicants themselves. [24]
However, since the liturgical books describe use of the communion-plate only in relation to intinction, Bishop Peter J. Elliott says that the prescription of the placing of a communion-plate on the credence table before Mass can be interpreted as meaning that this can be required only for a Mass in which intinction will be used: at other Masses use of a communion-plate is a licit option and cannot be forbidden, but is not obligatory. [3]
Bishop Elliott says that the custom of using a communion-plate continues in some churches, "especially where the option for kneeling for Communion has been retained". [3] One church has its altar servers (who are equipped also with towels) hold the communion-plates (which it calls "patens") under the chin of those who receive the host on the tongue and under the hands of those who receive it in their hands. [25] Monsignor Charles Pope says that what he calls chin patens or communion patens "are always used in the Traditional Latin Mass [...] some parishes even use it in the Ordinary Form." [19] The 2008 Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church says that the communion-plate has become "obsolescent". [2] The abbreviated Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, published in 2013, speaks of the communion-plate as, "in the RC Church, a plate of silver or metal gilt formerly held under the chin of communicants as they received the Sacrament". [4]
The Mass of Paul VI, also known as the Ordinary Form or Novus Ordo, is the most commonly used liturgy in the Catholic Church. It was promulgated by Pope Paul VI in 1969 and its liturgical books were published in 1970; those books were then revised in 1975, they were revised again by Pope John Paul II in 2000, and a third revision was published in 2002.
The Tridentine Mass, also known as the Traditional Latin Mass or the Traditional Rite, is the liturgy in the Roman Missal of the Catholic Church codified in 1570 and published thereafter with amendments up to 1962. Celebrated almost exclusively in Ecclesiastical Latin, it was the most widely used Eucharistic liturgy in the world from its issuance in 1570 until the introduction of the Mass of Paul VI.
An altar server is a lay assistant to a member of the clergy during a Christian liturgy. An altar server attends to supporting tasks at the altar such as fetching and carrying, ringing the altar bell, helping bring up the gifts, and bringing up the liturgical books, among other things. If young, the server is commonly called an altar boy or altar girl. In some Christian denominations, altar servers are known as acolytes.
A thurible is a metal incense burner suspended from chains, in which incense is burned during worship services. It is used in Christian churches, including the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Assyrian Church of the East and Oriental Orthodox, Church of England as well as in some Lutheran, Old Catholic, United Methodist, Reformed, Presbyterian Church USA, and Anglican churches. In Roman Catholic, Lutheran, and Anglican churches, the altar server who carries the thurible is called the thurifer. The practice is rooted in the earlier traditions of Judaism dating from the time of the Second Jewish Temple.
The Fraction or fractio panis is the ceremonial act of breaking the consecrated sacramental bread before distribution to communicants during the Eucharistic rite in some Christian denominations.
A paten or diskos is a small plate, used during the Mass. It is generally used during the liturgy itself, while the reserved sacrament are stored in the tabernacle in a ciborium.
Intinction is the Eucharistic practice of partly dipping the consecrated bread, or host, into the consecrated wine before consumption by the communicant.
The Roman Rite is the most common ritual family for performing the ecclesiastical services of the Latin Church, the largest of the sui iuris particular churches that comprise the Catholic Church. The Roman Rite governs rites such as the Roman Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours as well as the manner in which sacraments and blessings are performed.
An altar cloth is used in the Christian liturgy to cover the altar. It serves as a sign of reverence as well as a decoration and a protection of the altar and the sacred vessels. In the orthodox churches it is covered by the antimension, which also contains the relics of saints.
In the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church, Lutheranism, Methodism and Anglicanism, an altar bell is typically a small hand-held bell or set of bells. The primary reason for the use of such bells is to create a “joyful noise to the Lord” as a way to give thanks for the miracle taking place atop the altar.
Solemn Mass is the full ceremonial form of a Mass, predominantly associated with the Tridentine Mass where it is celebrated by a priest with a deacon and a subdeacon, requiring most of the parts of the Mass to be sung, and the use of incense. It is also called High Mass or Solemn High Mass.
The text and rubrics of the Roman Canon have undergone revisions over the centuries, while the canon itself has retained its essential form as arranged no later than the 7th century. The rubrics, as is customary in similar liturgical books, indicate the manner in which to carry out the celebration.
A Eucharistic minister, also known as a communion steward, is an individual that assists in the distribution of Holy Communion to the congregation of a Christian Church.
The Mass is the central liturgical service of the Eucharist in the Catholic Church, in which bread and wine are consecrated and become the body and blood of Christ. As defined by the Church at the Council of Trent, in the Mass "the same Christ who offered himself once in a bloody manner on the altar of the cross, is present and offered in an unbloody manner". The Church describes the Mass as the "source and summit of the Christian life", and teaches that the Mass is a sacrifice, in which the sacramental bread and wine, through consecration by an ordained priest, become the sacrificial body, blood, soul, and divinity of Christ as the sacrifice on Calvary made truly present once again on the altar. The Catholic Church permits only baptised members in the state of grace to receive Christ in the Eucharist.
In Eastern and Western Christian liturgical practice, the elevation is a ritual raising of the consecrated Sacred Body and Blood of Christ during the celebration of the Eucharist. The term is applied especially to the Sacred Body of Christ (Host) and the chalice containing the Most Precious Blood of Christ being lifted up and shown to the congregation immediately after each is consecrated, in the Mass, both in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church and in the Lutheran Churches. The term may also refer to a musical work played or sung at that time. The consecration has been historically accompanied by the ringing of church bells.
Sacramental wine, Communion wine, altar wine, or wine for consecration is wine obtained from grapes and intended for use in celebration of the Eucharist. It is usually consumed after sacramental bread.
The Spoon is a liturgical implement used to distribute Holy Communion to the laity during the Divine Liturgy in some Eastern Christian rites.
A credence table is a small side table in the sanctuary of a Christian church which is used in the celebration of the Eucharist.
The altar in the Catholic Church is used for celebrating the Sacrifice of the Mass.
Versus populum is the liturgical stance of a priest who, while celebrating Mass, faces the people from the other side of the altar. The opposite stance, that of a priest facing in the same direction as the people, is today called ad orientem or ad apsidem.
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