CHAPTER V

THE MANNER OF RESERVING THE BLESSED SACRAMENT

WE have said that in ancient times the Blessed Sacrament used to be kept in a golden dove suspended from the canopy of the altar. This was the way in which it was generally kept, and it was on this account that many of the ancient fathers used to designate the church by the appellation of “Domus Columbæ”—that is, the House of the Dove (Selvaggio, b. i. p. 1). Reference, of course, to the Holy Ghost, who is so often represented by a dove, is the ultimate intent of the expression.

The Church of Verona used to keep the Blessed Sacrament in an ivory vessel of costly workmanship (Martène, De Antiquis Ecclesiæ Ritibus), and this was the custom also with many British churches. Sometimes it was kept in a small tower, and sometimes in a neat little basket of delicate wicker-work, in allusion to the baskets that were used at the miraculous multiplication of the loaves by our Divine Lord. This latter way of keeping it was in vogue at Rome in the time of Pope Gregory XI., A.D. 1370 (ibid.)

In many of the Anglo-Saxon churches, whilst the custom prevailed of keeping the Blessed Sacrament in the golden dove, a sort of aureola, formed of very brilliant lights, used to surround it. In all cases a light burned before it day and night (Dr. Rock, Church of Our Fathers, vol. i. 200).