The Blue Flower

• The Easter Sepulcre Ceremony

This valuable page needs to be seen. The Easter Sepulcre in the Sarum Use and other medieval rites is not the same thing as the Altar of Repose in the Roman rite.

It is unclear in the Use of Sarum what is done with the Blessed Sacrament after the Maundy Thursday Mass and the stripping / washing of the altar, after which there is the Maundy – the washing of the feet in the chapter house. Possibly the two hosts are simply put back into the hanging pyx. On Good Friday, just before the Mass of the Presanctified, all the rubric says is that the sacrifice is placed on the altar in the accustomed way and censed. There is no evidence of a procession like in the Roman rite. The Pie also seems to be parsimonious. If anyone has information from other sources, I would be grateful.

Fr Aidan Keller, an Orthodox priest, is of this opinion:

Since the question is a Sarum use one, I have a Sarum use answer. The Easter sepulchre is not “inhabited” by any reserved sacrament until after the Presanctified Mass on Good Friday. At the end of that service, as Communion-time Vespers ends, there is the procession to the sepulchre with the cross, then the placing of the reserved sacrament in the Easter sepulchre. On Maundy Thursday, the sacrament is reserved in the usual way which is most often the hanging dove (a reservation aumbrey set into the wall is also known). A tabernacle on the altar is not used. The vestments colour is red. The altar is stripped and washed in water and wine, with special twig brooms, on Maundy Thursday, and is not re-vested until daytime on Holy Saturday, so it is not vested at the time of the Presanctified Mass.

Fr Sean Finegan says the following in Sarum Maundy Thursday:

As to what happened to the Blessed Sacrament, whether it was placed in an altar of repose, or in the sepulchre, or simply returned to its usual place of reservation, the books I have are silent.

After I wrote this post, I discovered a reference to the third Host being brought from the ‘Altare Authentica’ to bury in the sepulchre on Good Friday. This altare authentica is probably to be identified with the high altar, and therefore we assume that there is no altar of repose, but that the Blessed Sacrament is simply reserved at, or over, the high altar as usual. The ceremonies that we associate with the altar of repose are observed the following night, then, at the sepulchre.

I put them into a wooden urn on a simple credence table on the Gospel side of the sanctuary like the Roman altar of repose. This will become the Easter Sepulcre, but as yet is merely a place to reserve the Blessed Sacrament without ceremony. The only alternative seems to me to reserve in the hanging pyx, which doesn’t seem quite right.

On Good Friday, this arrangement with the remaining (third from Maundy Thursday) host is veiled as the Easter Sepulcre. Now the rubrics are clear!

The cross that is “buried” with the Blessed Sacrament is that used on Good Friday for the creeping to the cross. It is a large and austere wooden cross with a corpus. I cover it over with a veil.

The medieval sepulcre was a permanent structure in the wall of the church or some kind of wooden box. After the Good Friday Mass of the Presanctified, the “burial” is accompanied by the singing of the responsory I am counted as one of them that go down into the pit. Thus, in the Use of Sarum, the church is not totally bereft of the Presence on Holy Saturday. The symbolism is different from the Roman usage of having the church “die” on that day.

The Easter Sepulcre is watched like the Roman altar of repose, except a day later. On Easter Sunday morning, before Mass and the ringing of the bells, the Blessed Sacrament is taken to the altar with ceremony and chant, and put back into the hanging pyx. The cross is also removed with a procession. Then the Mass of Easter Sunday is celebrated.

In the Use of Sarum, after the stripping of the altar on Maundy Thursday, we wash the altars with wine and water. There is an old article on this subject by Shawn Tribe in The New Liturgical Movement, which I reproduce below.

Often, in the liturgy, ceremonies remain in Papal and Pontifical ceremonies that have disappeared elsewhere in the Roman rite. This is an example of a Papal rite that was practised in masses of ordinary priests in the medieval uses. Also in the Use of Sarum, the priest washes his hands at the piscina a second time, after the ablutions, which in the Roman rite is reserved to a bishop.

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The Tradition of the Washing of the Altar by Shawn Tribe

While going through The Ceremonies of Holy Week in the Papal Chapel at the Vatican by Francesco Cancellieri, I noticed an interesting liturgical ceremony at the high altar of St. Peter’s Basilica, which pertains to the ceremonies of Holy Thursday and the canons of that basilica.

But the most remarkable ceremony is the washing of the altar.

While Matins and Lauds are singing in the Choir, a table is prepared near the high altar on which are placed seven crystal vases, and one of gilt copper containing wine. In one are seven towels, in another seven sponges: when the choir sings the Benedictus of Lauds, small brushes of box or yew but generally of bloodwort, arranged in the form of a diadem, are distributed to the canons.

The sacristan of the choir prepares a cope and seven black stoles for the seven senior canons, who repair to the high altar, preceded by two acolytes bearing the Cross which is veiled in black, with the candles extinguished, in sign of mourning.

The Cross bearer and Acolytes are placed on the eastern side of the Altar, the whole chapter is disposed in a circle, when all kneel and pray. The antiphon Diversunt sibi, they divided my garments, is followed by the psalm, Deus, Deus meus.

The Altar is uncovered, and washed with wine and then with water by the six first Canons who are followed by the rest of the chapter. This ceremony being finished, the seven sponges are brought to wipe, and the seven towels to dry the Altar. The clergy repeat the antiphon, Diviserunt sibi, the Christus factus est; the Pater noster is said in a low tone, the prayer Respice quaesumus Domine is recited. All then kneeling venerate the three principle relics, the Cross, the Holy face, and the Lance, preserved in the gallery over the status of St. Veronica.

Interestingly, this same type of ceremony is also performed within the context of the Dominican rite. Fr. Augustine Thompson posted upon this (in its Dominican context) last year when he wrote upon Lent and Holy Week in the Dominican rite:

“Priests then went, each accompanied by two acolytes carrying cruets of water and wine, for the stripping of all the altars in the monastery. The priests then washed of the altars (or altar stones) with water and wine. Symbolically, this recalled Christ’s stripping and the preparation of his body for burial.”