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Channel: The Altar Guild Resource for the Diocese of Rhode Island » Terms and Origins
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Sacred Vessels Quiz Answers

1.Chalice 1a. Paten 2. Ciborium 3. Ostensorium or monstrance 3a. Lunette or Lunula (is removable from the center of the monstrance and is two glass or crystal lenses holding a consecrated host in...

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Veils -Mysterious and Sacred

Coming from a Methodist background, I must confess to being very intrigued with the textiles and metalware of the Church.  Spending my high school years in a Roman Catholic convent school probably had...

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Humeral Veil

Not long ago I was visiting a sacristy when an altar guild member brought out a long white silk textile and asked me if it was to be used as an altar frontlet or credence “runner”. I saw two ribbons...

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Gremial and Communion Rail Veils

Well, I have left the two rarest of the veils till last. If anyone has either of these in their sacristy- please do share a photo with us.  The photo at the left is an ornamental gremial veil, which is...

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We get mail

Today we have had a frantic note from a new guild which has to set up for Holy Communion on Sunday.  Every sacristy should have an altar guild manual in plain view, – and always consult your rector,...

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Benediction Veil

The exquisite piece of linen thread bobbin lace to the left was created by hand sometime around 1690-1700 and might be called Baroque- even Rococo.  This is a monstrance or benediction veil. What’s the...

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The Church Arts Series

A few years ago I happened upon a great series of little books about decorative arts in the Church, textiles and church architecture which was printed by A.R. Mowbray and Co. of London in a series...

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Can you name these?

Admitted, some of these items of equipment have not been seen around church for some years, but some we have discussed recently and are still fairly common and still in use. Without Googling- can you...

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The maniple

You see them on Ebay identified as “short stoles” by those who are baffled.  Once in a while you may see one dangling from left arm of the celebrant in an Anglo-Catholic parish- but seldom these days...

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Sacristy Bookshelf

I am glad to see the Lesage book on Amazon.com for under 5 dollars these days.  It is actually volume 114 of The Twentieth Century Encyclopedia of Catholicism, section 10 under The Worship of the...

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Dossals,and Riddels and Testers-oh my!

Perhaps the most familiar of these textile panels is the dossal, sometime called a “dorsal” which refers to the back curtain panel behind the altar where generally a reredos would be found.  Most...

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The cope morse

  These days the clasp or closure for contemporary copes are usually tabs of stiffened cloth which feature a hook and eyelet arrangement, but in years gone by, the metal, sometimes jewelled ornaments...

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