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Lumen Christi (Latin for "Light of Christ") is a versicle sung in Catholic, Lutheran and some Anglican churches as part of the Easter Vigil. In Lutheran and Anglican services, it is sung in the local language. It is chanted by the deacon on Holy Saturday as he lights the candle. In the English Sarum Rite, one candle is lit.
In the Catholic service, after the new fire has been blessed outside the church, a light is taken from it by an acolyte. The procession moves up the church toward the altar, the deacon in a white Dalmatic carrying the candle. Three times the procession stops, the deacon lights one of the candles from the taper and sings, Lumen Christi, on one note (fa, in the Solfege system), dropping a minor third (to re) on the last syllable. The choir answers, Deo gratias to the same tone. Each time it is sung at a higher pitch. As it is sung, all genuflect. Having arrived at the altar, the deacon begins the blessing of the Paschal Candle ( Exsultet ).
From time to time, a light must be brought from the new fire to the Paschal candle. The ceremony grew from this practical need and later acquired symbolic meaning.
At first, a triple candle was likely a precaution against the light blowing out on the way. At one time there were only two lights. The Sarum Consuetudinary [1] (about the year 1210) says: "Let the candle upon the reed be lighted, and let another candle be lighted at the same time, so that the candle upon the reed can be rekindled if it should chance to be blown out". [2] A miniature of the eleventh century shows the Paschal Candle being lighted from a double taper. [3] Triple candles appeared first in the twelfth and fourteenth Ordines Romani, [4] about the twelfth century. Father Thurston suggests a possible connection between it and the old custom of procuring the new fire on three successive days. [2] But precaution against the light blowing out accounts for several candles. The mystic symbolism of the number three applied, too.
Guillaume Durand, in his chapter on the Paschal Candle, [5] does not mention a triple candle. In the Sarum Rite, only one candle was lighted. While it was carried in procession to the Paschal Candle, a hymn, Inventor rutili dux bone luminis, was sung by two cantors, the choir answering the first verse after each of the others. [6] In the Mozarabic Rite, the bishop lights and blesses one candle; while it is brought to the altar an antiphon, Lumen verum illuminans omnem hominem, etc., is sung. [7] In Milan, in the middle of the Exultet, a subdeacon goes out and brings back a candle lit from the new fire without any further ceremony. He hands this to the deacon, who lights the Paschal Candle (and two others) from it, and then goes on with the Exultet. [8]
The Roman three-part version of the Lumen Christi, with its repetitions in ascending half-steps, is the basis for the dramatic organ work Incantation pour un jour saint ("Incantation for a holy day", 1949) by Jean Langlais, a favorite Easter postlude.
Lumen Christi is also the name of several Catholic convents, high schools, and of the German religious community Gemeinschaft Lumen Christi.
Schools using the name include:
A Paschal candle is a large, white candle used in liturgies in Western Christianity. A new Paschal candle is blessed and lit every year at Easter, and is used throughout the Paschal season which is during Easter and then throughout the year on special occasions, such as baptisms and funerals.
Holy Week is the most sacred week in the liturgical year in Christianity. For all Christian traditions, it is a moveable observance. In Eastern Christianity, which also calls it Great Week, it is the week following Great Lent and Lazarus Saturday, starting on the evening of Palm Sunday and concluding on the evening of Great Saturday. In Western Christianity, Holy Week is the sixth and last week of Lent, beginning with Palm Sunday and concluding on Holy Saturday.
An acolyte is an assistant or follower assisting the celebrant in a religious service or procession. In many Christian denominations, an acolyte is anyone performing ceremonial duties such as lighting altar candles. In others, the term is used for one who has been inducted into a particular liturgical ministry, even when not performing those duties.
A thurible is a metal censer 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, 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.
Holy Saturday, also known as Great and Holy Saturday, Low Saturday, the Great Sabbath, Hallelujah Saturday, Saturday of the Glory, Sábado de Gloria, and Black Saturday or Easter Eve, and called "Joyous Saturday", "the Saturday of Light", and "Mega Sabbatun" among Coptic Christians, is the final day of Holy Week, between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, when Christians prepare for the latter.
The Paschal Triduum or Easter Triduum, Holy Triduum, or the Three Days, is the period of three days that begins with the liturgy on the evening of Maundy Thursday, reaches its high point in the Easter Vigil, and closes with evening prayer on Easter Sunday. It is a moveable observance recalling the Passion, Crucifixion, Death, burial, and Resurrection of Jesus, as portrayed in the canonical Gospels.
The Easter Vigil, also called the Paschal Vigil, the Great Vigil of Easter, or Holy Saturday in the Easter Vigil on the Holy Night of Easter is a liturgy held in traditional Christian churches as the first official celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus. Historically, it is during this liturgy that people are baptized and that adult catechumens are received into full communion with the Church. It is held in the hours of darkness between sunset on Holy Saturday and sunrise on Easter Day – most commonly in the evening of Holy Saturday or midnight – and is the first celebration of Easter, days traditionally being considered to begin at sunset.
A procession is an organized body of people walking in a formal or ceremonial manner.
A unity candle is a candle used in a wedding ceremony to symbolize two people joining in marriage.
The Exsultet, also known as the Easter Proclamation, is a lengthy sung proclamation delivered before the paschal candle, ideally by a deacon, during the Easter Vigil in the Roman Rite of Mass. In the absence of a deacon, it may be sung by a priest or by a cantor. It is sung after a procession with the paschal candle before the beginning of the Liturgy of the Word. It is also used in Anglican and various Lutheran churches, as well as other Western Christian denominations.
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.
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.
The ceremonial use of lights occurs in liturgies of various Christian Churches, as well as in Jewish, Zoroastrian, and Hindu rites and customs.
A Christian burial is the burial of a deceased person with specifically Christian rites; typically, in consecrated ground. Until recent times Christians generally objected to cremation because it interfered with the concept of the resurrection of a corpse, and practiced inhumation almost exclusively. Today this opposition has all but vanished among Protestants and Catholics alike, and this is rapidly becoming more common, although Eastern Orthodox Churches still mostly forbid cremation.
The Durham Rite is a historical liturgical use of the Roman Rite and the Gallican Rite in the English bishopric of Durham.
The Mass of the Lord's Supper, also known as A Service of Worship for Maundy Thursday, is a Holy Week service celebrated on the evening of Maundy Thursday. It inaugurates the Easter Triduum, and commemorates the Last Supper of Jesus with his disciples, more explicitly than other celebrations of the Mass.
A triple candlestick, also known as reed, tricereo, arundo, triangulum, or lumen Christi, was a liturgical object prescribed until 1955 in the Roman Rite Easter Vigil service, held on Holy Saturday morning.
The Epitaphios is a Christian religious icon, typically consisting of a large, embroidered and often richly adorned cloth, bearing an image of the dead body of Christ, often accompanied by his mother and other figures, following the Gospel account. It is used during the liturgical services of Holy Saturday in the Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic churches.
Easter fires, also called Paschal fires, are typically bonfires lit at Easter as part of liturgical and cultural celebrations.
Easter Water is the name given to water used in rituals during the Easter Vigil in the Catholic Church, Lutheran Churches, and Anglican Communion. A part of this water is set aside for use as a sacramental in the church and at home, the remainder being ceremonially mixed with consecrated oils and used for baptisms in the church.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Lumen Christi". Catholic Encyclopedia . New York: Robert Appleton Company.