Ceremonial Use of Lights - Middle Ages

Middle Ages

As to the blessing of candles, according to the Liber pontificalis Pope Zosimus in 417 ordered these to be blessed, and the Gallican and Mozarabic rituals also provided for this ceremony. The Feast of the Purification of the Virgin, known as Candlemas, because on this day the candles for the whole year are blessed, was established according to some authorities by Pope Gelasius I about 492. As to the question of altar lights, however, it must be borne in mind that these were not placed upon the altar, or on a retable behind it, until the 12th century. These were originally the candles carried by the deacons, according to the Ordo Romanus (i. 8; ii. 5; iii. 7) seven in number, which were set down, either on the steps of the altar, or, later, behind it. In certain of the Eastern Churches to this day, there are no lights on the high altar; the lighted candles stand on a small altar beside it, and at various parts of the service are carried by the lectors or acolytes before the officiating priest or deacon. The crowd of lights described by Paulinus as crowning the altar were either grouped round it or suspended in front of it; they are represented by the sanctuary lamps of the Latin Church and by the crown of lights suspended in front of the altar in. the Greek.

To trace the gradual elaboration of the symbolism and use of ceremonial lights in the Church, until its full development and systematization in the Middle Ages, would be impossible here. It must suffice to note a few stages in development of the process. The burning of lights before the tombs of martyrs led naturally to their being burned also before relics and lastly before images and pictures. This latter practice, hotly denounced as idolatry during the iconoclastic controversy, was finally established as orthodox by the Second General Council of Nicaea (787), which restored the worship of images. A later development, however, by which certain lights themselves came to be regarded as objects of worship and to have other lights burned before them, was condemned as idolatrous by the synod of Noyon in 1344. The passion for symbolism extracted ever new meanings out of the candles and their use. Early in the 6th century Magnus Felix Ennodius, bishop of Pavia, pointed out the threefold elements of a waxcandle (Opusc. ix. and x.), each of which would make it an offering acceptable to God; the rush-wick is the product of pure water, the wax is the offspring of virgin, bees in the flame is sent from heaven.12 Clearly, wax was a symbol of the Blessed Virgin and the holy humanity of Christ. The later Middle Ages developed the idea. Durandus, in his Rationale, interprets the wax as the body of Christ, the wick as his soul, the flame as his divine nature; and the consuming candle as symbolizing his passion and death.

This may be the Paschal Candle only. In some codices the text runs: Per parochias concessit licentiam benedicendi Cereum Paschalem. In the three variants of the notice of Zosimus given in Duchesnes edition of the Liber pontificalis (I~86I892) the word cera is, however, alone used. Nor does the text imply that he gave to the suburbican churches a privilege hitherto exercised by the metropolitan church. The passage runs: Hic constituit ut diaconi leva tecta haberent de palleis linostimis per parrochias et ut cera benedicatur, &c. Per parrochias here obviously refers to the head-gear of the deacons, not to the candles.

See also the Peregrinoiio Sylviae (386), 86, &c., for the use of lights at Jerusalem, and Isidore of Seville for the usage in the West. That even in the 7th century the blessing of candles was by no means universal is proved by the 9th canon of the council of Toledo (671):De benedicendo cereo et lucerna in privilegiis Paschae. This canon states that candles and lamps are not blessed in some churches, and that inquiries have been made why we do it. In reply, the council decides that it should be done to celebrate the mystery of Christs resurrection. See Isidore of Seville, Conc., in Migne, Pat, tat. lxxxiv. 369.