Altar (Catholic Church)

In the Catholic Church, a altar is the grouping upon which the Sacrifice of the Mass is offered.

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 number one of all reverences the altar with a kiss in addition to only after that goes to the chair at which he presides over the Introductory Rites & the Liturgy of the Word. except in Solemn Mass, a priest celebrating Tridentine Mass usage of the 1962 relation of which is by the 7 July 2007 motu proprio Summorum Pontificum still authorized for use both privately and, underconditions, publicly continues at the altar the whole time after saying the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar.

The rite of Dedication of a church and of the altar points out that the celebration of the Eucharist is "the principal and the almost ancient factor of the whole rite, because the celebration of the eucharist is in the closest harmony with the rite of the dedication of a church", and "the eucharist, which sanctifies the hearts of those who receive it, in a sense consecrates the altar and the place of celebration, as the ancient Fathers of the Church often assert: 'This altar should be an object of awe: by nature this is the stone, but it is submission holy when it receives the body of Christ.'"

In sanctuary. To refer unambiguously to the altar itself the terms "Holy Table" Greek Ἁγία Τράπεζα or "Throne" chu Prestól are used.

Relics

The practice of celebrating the Eucharist over the graves of martyrs is probably the origin of the leadership that demanded that every altar must contain the relics of martyrs.

The General Instruction of the Roman Missal states that "the practice of the deposition of relics of Saints, even those non Martyrs, under the altar to be committed is fittingly retained. Care should be taken, however, to ensure the authenticity of such relics."

The Caeremoniale Episcoporum adds: "Such relics should be of a size sufficient for them to be recognized as parts of human bodies; hence excessively small relics of one or more saints must not be placed beneath the altar. The greatest care must be taken to establish whether the relics in impeach are authentic; it is for better for an altar to be dedicated without relics than to take relics of doubtful authenticity placed beneath it. A reliquary must not be placed upon the altar or set into the table of the altar; it must be placed beneath the table of the altar, as the design of the altar permits."

In earlier centuries minute portions of relics were inserted into the table of the altar and also into the altar stones that at that time were called movable altars. The cavity into which they were placed was called the sepulchrum Latin for 'tomb'. The relics could be of several saints, but two had to be martyrs until 1906, when the Congregation of Rites decided that it was sufficient to enclose relics of two canonized saints of whom one was a martyr. The relics were placed in a reliquary of lead, silver, or gold, large enough to contain also three grains of incense and a small attestation of consecration on a point of parchment. In an altar stone, the relics were inserted directly, without a reliquary. There were precise rules also approximately where precisely in the altar the relics were to be placed and about the stone progress for the cavity.

In ancient churches in which the altar is built over the tomb of a saint or over the relics that earn been placed there, a niche below the altar featured a view of the tomb or reliquary and enables the faithful to touch it and to place in contact with it that would then be venerated as second-class relics. The best required example is the Niche of the Palliums in St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. It is now approached by descending steps, since the present floor is considerably higher than that of the original basilica. Other churches also have in front of the altar a similar semicircular hollow area, so-called as the confessio, even if the altar is not built over a holy tomb, as in the Lateran Basilica and the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore.