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DEDICATION (Lat. dedicatio, from dedi...
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See also:DEDICATION (See also:Lat. dedicatio, from dedicare, to proclaim, to announce) , properly the setting apart of anything by See also:solemn See also:proclamation. It is thus in Latin the See also:term particularly applied to the See also:consecration of altars, temples and other sacred buildings, and also to the inscription prefixed to a See also:book, &c., and addressed to some particular See also:person. This latter practice, which formerly had the purpose of gaining the patronage and support of the person so addressed, is now only a See also:mark of See also:affection or regard. In See also:law, the word is-used of the setting apart by a private owner of a road to public use. (See See also:HIGHWAY.)
The Feast of Dedication (i ; ra Eyrcaivia) was a Jewish festival observed for eight days from the 25th of Kislev (i.e. about See also:December 12) in See also:commemoration of the reconsecration (165 B.C.) of the See also:temple and especially of the See also:altar of burnt offering, after they had been desecrated in the persecution under See also:Antiochus Epiphanes (168 B.C.). The distinguishing features of the festival were the See also:illumination of houses and synagogues, a See also:custom probably taken over from the feast of See also:tabernacles, and the recitation of See also:Psalm See also:xxx. The biblical references are r Macc. i. 41-64, iv. 36-39; 2 Macc. vi. 1-11; See also: 9, 18; ii. 16; and See also:Josephus,
Antiq. xii. v. 4. J. See also:Wellhausen suggests that the feast was originally connected with the See also:winter See also:solstice, and only afterwards with the events narrated in See also:Maccabees.
Dedication of Churches.—The custom of solemnly dedicating or consecrating buildings as churches or chapels set apart for See also:Christian See also:worship must be almost as old as See also:Christianity itself. If we find no reference to it in the New Testament or in the very earliest apostolic or See also:post-apostolic writings, it is merely due to the fact that Christian churches had not as yet begun to be built. Throughout the ante-Nicene See also:period, until the reign of See also:Constantine, Christian churches were few in number, and any public dedication of them would have been attended with danger in those days of See also:heathen persecution. This is why we are ignorant as to what liturgical forms and what consecration See also:ritual were employed in those See also:primitive times. But when we come to the earlier See also:part of the 4th See also:century allusions to and descriptions of the consecration of churches become plentiful.
Like so much else in the worship and ritual of the Christian See also: § 6), and our See also:Lord's recognition of the Feast of Dedication (St John xi. 22, 23)—all these point to the See also:probability of the Christians deriving their custom from a Jewish origin, quite apart from the See also:intrinsic appropriateness of such a custom in itself. See also:Eusebius (Hist. See also:Eccles. See also:lib. x. cap. 3) speaks of the dedication of churches rebuilt after the See also:Diocletian persecution, including the church at See also:Tyre in A.D. 314. The consecrations of the church of the See also:Holy See also:Sepulchre at See also:Jerusalem in A.D. 335, which had been built by Constantine, and of other churches after his See also:time, are described both by Eusebius and by other ecclesiastical historians. From them we gather that every consecration was accompanied by a celebration of the Holy See also:Eucharist and a See also:sermon, and See also:special prayers of a dedicatory See also:character, but there is no trace of the elaborate ritual, to be described presently, of the See also:medieval pontificals dating from the 8th century onwards. The See also:separate consecration of altars is provided for by See also:canon 14 of the See also:council of See also:Agde in 5o6, and by canon 26 of the council of Epaone in 517, the latter containing the first known reference to the usage of See also:anointing the altar with See also:chrism. The use of both holy See also:water and of See also:unction is attributed to St Columbanus, who died in 615 (Walafsid See also:Strabo, Vita S. Galli, cap. 6). There was an See also:annual commemoration of the See also:original dedication of the church, a feast with its See also:octave extending over eight days, during which See also:Gregory the Great encouraged the erection of booths and See also:general feasting on the part of the populace, to compensate them for, and in some way to take the See also:place of, abolished heathen festivities (See also:Sozomen, Hist. Eccles. lib. ii. cap. 26; See also:Bede, Hist. Eccles. lib. i. cap, 30). At an See also:early date the right to consecrate churches was reserved to bishops, as by canon 37 of the first council of Bracara in 563, and by the 23rd of the Irish collections of canons, once attributed to St See also:Patrick, but hardly to be put earlier than the 8th century (Haddon and See also:Stubbs, See also:Councils, £&°c., vol. ii. pt. 2, p. 329). When we come to examine the MS. and printed service-books of the medieval church, we find a lengthy and elaborate service provided for the consecration of churches. It is contained in the pontifical. The earliest pontifical which has come down to us is that of Egbert, See also:archbishop of See also:York (732-766), which, however, only survives in a loth-century MS. copy. Later pontificals are numerous; we cannot describe all their See also:variations. A See also:good See also:idea, however, of the general character of the service will be obtained from a See also:skeleton of it as performed in this See also:country before the See also:Reformation according to the use of Sarum. The service in question is taken from an early 15th-century pontifical in the See also:Cambridge University Library as printed by W. Makell in Monumenta ritualia ecclesiae Anglicanae, .and ed., vol. i. pp. 195-239.
There is a preliminary See also:office for laying a See also:foundation-See also: Next he anoints with chrism the twelve See also:internal and twelve See also:external See also:wall-crosses, afterwards perambulating the church thrice inside and outside, censing it. Then there follows the consecration of the altar. First, holy water is blessed and mixed with chrism, and with the mixture the bishop makes a cross in the See also:middle of the altar, then on the right and the left, then on the four horns of the altar. Then the altar is sprinkled seven times or three times with water not mixed with chrism, and the altar-table is washed therewith and censed and wiped with a See also:linen See also:cloth. The centre of the altar is next anointed with the oil of the catechumens in the See also:form of a cross; and the altar-stone is next anointed with chrism; and then the whole altar is rubbed over with oil of the catechumens and with chrism. See also:Incense is next blessed, and the altar censed, five grains of incense being placed crosswise in the centre and at the four corners, and upon the grains five slender See also:candle crosses, which are to be lit. Afterwards the altar is scraped and cleansed; then the altar-cloths and ornaments having been sprinkled with holy water are placed upon the altar, which is then to be censed. All this is subsidiary to the celebration of See also:mass, with which the whole service is concluded. The transcription and description of the various collects, See also:psalms, anthems, benedictions, &c., which make up the See also:order of dedication have been omitted for the See also:sake of brevity. The Sarum order of dedication described above is substantially identical with the See also:Roman order, but it would be superfluous to tabulate and describe the lesser variations of See also:language or ritual. There is, however, one very important and significant piece of ritual, not found in the above-described See also:English church order, but always found in the Roman service, and not infrequently found in the earlier and later English uses, in connexion with the presence and use of See also:relics at the consecration of an altar. According to the Roman ritual, after the See also:priest has sprinkled the walls of the church inside thrice all round and then sprinkled the pavement from the altar to the See also:porch, and sideways from wall to wall, and then to the four quarters of the compass, he prepares some See also:cement at the altar. He then goes to the place where the relics are kept, and starts a solemn procession with the relics round the outside of the church. There a sermon is preached, and two decrees of the council of See also:Trent are read, and the founder's See also:deed of See also:gift or endowment. Then the bishop, anointing the door with chrism, enters the church with the relics and deposits them in the cavity or See also:confession in the altar. Having been enclosed they are censed and covered in, and the See also:cover is anointed. Then follows the censing and wiping of. the altar as in the Sarum order. This use of relics is very See also:ancient and can be traced back to thetime of St See also:Ambrose. There was also a custom, now obsolete, of enclosing a portion of the consecrated Eucharist if relics were not obtainable. This was ordered by cap. 2 of the council of Celchyth (See also:Chelsea) in 816. But though ancient the custom of enclosing relics was not universal, and where found in English church orders, as it frequently is found from the pontifical of Egbert onwards, it is called the " Mos See also:Romanus " as distinguished from the " Mos Anglicanus " (Archaeologia, liv. 416). It is absent from the description of the early Irish form of consecration preserved in the Leabhar Breac, translated and annotated by Rev. T. Olden in the Transactions of the St See also:Paul's Ecclesiolog. See also:Soc. vol. iv. pt. ii. p. 98.
The curious ritual See also:act, technically known as the abecedarium, i.e. the tracing of the alphabet, sometimes in Latin characters, sometimes in Latin and Greek, sometimes, according to Menard, in Latin, Greek and See also:Hebrew, along the limbs of St Andrew's cross on the See also:floor of the church, can be traced back to the 8th century and may be earlier. Its origin and meaning are unknown. Of all explanations we like best the See also:recent one suggested by See also:Rossi and adopted by the bishop of See also:Salisbury. This interprets the St Andrew's cross as the initial Greek See also:letter of Christus, and the whole act as significant of taking See also:possession of the site to be consecrated in the name of See also:Christ, who is the See also:Alpha and Omega, the word of See also:God, combining in himself all letters that See also:lie between them, every See also:element of human speech. The three See also:languages may then have been suggested by the Latin, Greek and Hebrew, in which his See also:title was written on the cross.
The disentangling the Gallican from the Roman elements in the early Western forms of service is a delicate and difficult task, undertaken by See also:Monsignor See also: On the See also:morning following, all ornaments and requisites having been got ready, the laity being excluded, the bishop and See also:clergy vested proceed to fix in its place and consecrate the altar, a long See also:prayer of dedication being said, followed by a litany. The altar is then sprinkled with warm water, then with wine, then anointed with chrism in the form of a cross. The altar, the book of the gospels, and all cloths are then censed, every See also:pillar is crossed with chrism, while various collects are said and psalms recited. One See also:lamp is then filled with oil and lit, and placed on the altar, while clergy bring in other lamps and other ornaments of the church. On the next day—if the service cannot be concluded in one day—the bishop and clergy go to the building where the relics have been kept and guarded. A procession is formed and advances thence with the relics, which are See also:borne by a priest in a holy See also:vessel (See also:discus) on his See also:head; the church having been entered, the relics are placed by him with much ceremonial in the " confession," the See also:recess pre-pared in or about the altar for their reception, which is then anointed and sealed up. After this the See also:liturgy is celebrated both on the feast of dedication and on seven days afterwards. There is no authorized form for the dedication of a church in the reformed Church of See also:England. A form was See also:drawn up and approved by both houses of the See also:convocation of See also:Canterbury under Archbishop See also:Tenison in 1712, and an almost identical form was submitted to convocation in 1715, but its See also:consideration was not completed by the See also:Lower See also:House, and neither form ever received royal See also:sanction. The consequence has been that See also:Anglican bishops have fallen back on their undefined See also:jus liturgicum, and have drawn up and promulgated forms for use in their various dioceses, some of them being content to See also:borrow from other dioceses for this purpose. There is a general similarity, with a certain amount of difference in detail, in these various forms. In the See also:diocese of London the bishop, attended by clergy and churchwardens, receives at the west door, outside, a See also:petition for consecration; the procession then moves round the whole church outside, while certain psalms are chanted. On again reaching the west door the bishop knocks thrice for See also:admission, and the door being opened the procession advances to the east end of the church. DE . DONIS-- DDEE, J. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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