History of the Christian Altar

Thomas Joseph Shahan

• Publisher: Passerino
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN: 9788835393481
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Denominations

In the Catholic Church, the altar is the structure upon which the Eucharist is celebrated.
The altar, centrally located in the sanctuary, is to be the focus of attention in the church. At the beginning of the Roman Rite of Mass, the priest first of all reverences the altar with a kiss and only after that goes to the chair at which he presides over the Introductory Rites and the Liturgy of the Word. Except in Solemn Mass, a priest celebrating Tridentine Mass (use of the 1962 version of which is by the 7 July 2007 motu proprio Summorum Pontificum still authorized for use both privately and, under certain conditions, publicly) remains at the altar the whole time after saying the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar. The rite of dedication of a church includes that of the altar of the church and celebration of Mass on that altar is "the principal and the most ancient part of the whole rite" in accordance with the saying of the Fathers of the Church: "This altar should be an object of awe: by nature it is stone, but it is made holy when it receives the body of Christ. In Greek and some other languages used in the Byzantine Rite, the same word (βωμ?ς in Greek) is used for an altar (in general) and for the area surrounding it; that is to say, the entire sanctuary. To refer unambiguously to the altar itself the terms "Holy Table" (Greek ?γ?α Τρ?πεζα) or "Throne" (chu Prestól) are used.
Thomas Joseph Shahan (September 11, 1857 – March 9, 1932) was an American Catholic theologian and educator, born at Manchester, New Hampshire, educated at Collège de Montréal (1872) at the Pontifical North American College, and at the Propaganda in Rome.
In 1909 Shahan was chosen as the fourth rector of The Catholic University of America.

History of the Christian Altar

The Christian altar consists of an elevated surface, tabular in form, on which the Sacrifice of the Mass is offered. The earliest Scripture reference to the altar is in St. Paul (I Cor. x, 21); the Apostle contrasts the "table of the Lord" (trapeza Kyriou) on which the Eucharist is offered, with the "table of devils", or pagan altars. Trapeza continued to be the favourite term for altar among the Greek Fathers and in Greek liturgies, either used alone or with the addition of such reverential qualifying terms as iera, mystike, The Epistle to the Hebrews (xiii, 10) refers to the Christian altar as thysiasterion, the word by which the Septuagint alludes to Noah's altar. This term occurs in several of the Epistles of St. Ignatius (Ad Eph. v; Magnes. iv, 7; Philad. 4), as well as in the writings of a number of fourth and fifth century Fathers and historians; Eusebius employs it to describe the altar of the great church at Tyre (Hist. Eccl., X, iv, 44). Trapeza, however, was the term most frequently in use. The word bomos to designate an altar. was carefully avoided by the Christians of the first age, because of its pagan associations; it is first used by Synesius, Bishop of Cyrene, a writer of the early fifth century. The terms altare, mensa, ara, altarium, with or without a genitive addition (as mensa Domini), are employed by the Latin fathers to designate an altar. Ara, however, is more commonly applied to pagan altars, though Tertullian speaks of the Christian altar as ara Dei. But St. Cyprian makes a sharp distinction between ara and altare, pagan altars being aras diaboli, while the Christian altar is altare Dei [quasi post aras diaboli accedere ad altare Dei fas sit (Ep. lxv, ed. Hartel, II, 722; P. L., Ep. lxiv, IV, 389)]. Altare was the word most commonly used for altar, and was equivalent to the Greek trapeza.

I. MATERIAL AND FORM

The earliest Christian altars were of wood, and identical in form with the ordinary house tables. The tables represented in the Eucharistic frescoes of the catacombs enable us to obtain an idea of their appearance. The most ancient, as well as the most remarkable, of these frescoes, that of the Fractio Panis found in the Capella Greca, which dates from the first decades of the second century, shows seven persons seated on a semi-circular divan before a table of the same form. Tabular-shaped altars of wood continued in use till well on in the Middle Ages. St. Athanasius speaks of a wooden altar which was burned by the Count Heraclius (Athan. ad Mon., lvi), and St. Augustine relates that the Donatists tore apart a wooden altar under which the orthodox Bishop Maximianus had taken refuge (Ep. clxxxv, ch. vii, P. L., XXXIII, 805). The first legislation against such altars dates from the year 517, when the Council of Epaon, in Gaul, forbade the consecration of any but stone Altars (Mansi, Coll. Conc., VIII, 562). But this prohibition concerned only a small part of the Christian world, and for several centuries afterwards altars of wood were used, until the growing preference for altars of more durable material finally supplanted them. The two table altars preserved in th...

Table of contents

• Cover
• History of the Christian Altar
• Table of contents
• History of the Christian Altar