Library › Nikolaos Voulgaris › Holy Catechism

Holy Catechism

Nikolaos Voulgaris, tr. Daniel, 1893

Of Holy Vessels

20. Ex. Are there other holy things which the Priest ought to have ready?

C. The holy vessels,—the Paten and the Chalice, the Veils and the Corporal, the Spear, the Sponge, and the Asterisk. He must have the whole church got ready, and above all the Holy Table and the Prothesis.

21. Ex. What does the Paten mean?

C. The Paten means the manger, where the Master Christ was born. And it is further interpreted for the bed, “in which the Lord’s body is arrayed by the Priest and Deacon, who are Joseph and Nicodemus.” So says the blessed Germanus in his Mystic View.

22. Ex. What does the Chalice mean?

C. The Chalice stands for the vessel, which caught the blood shed from the pierced spotless side, and hands and feet of Christ. And it is also interpreted of the Bowl, which Wisdom, the Son of God, mingled of His own Blood instead of the wine there, and He has produced it on His Holy Table, saying to all, Drink ye all of it.¹

23. Ex. What does the Asterisk mean?

C. The Asterisk means the star which the Magi saw in the East, and it stood over where the young Child was. And its use is for the precious Bread to stand always in the midst, even though the portions be scattered on the Paten. Since if the Asterisk were lacking, the Paten-veil would necessarily approach the holy gifts and disarrange them. Many suppose that the Asterisk is the invention of John Chrysostom. It is also named the Star.

24. Ex. What is meant by the Veils of the Paten and the Chalice?

C. They stand for the napkin which was upon His face, covering it in the tomb. And these two Veils signify one and the same napkin, because the holy Body and the precious Blood are not two, but one and the same. “The Bread of the Prothesis, and the wine and water, by the invocation and visitation of the Holy Ghost are supernaturally changed into Christ’s Body and Blood; and they are not two, but one and the same.” So the great Damascene in his Treatise says that the consecrated Bread is not a figure of the Lord’s Body.

25. Ex. What does the Air mean?

C. The Air is, and stands for the stone wherewith Joseph made sure the sepulchre, which was sealed by the signet of the guard. “And it is called the Air, because it represents that dark air which it concealed of the night in which took place the Disciple’s treachery, and the bringing before Caiaphas, and the presentation before Annas, and the false witnessings, and the mockery too and buffetings; in which likewise the great disciple Peter, &c.,” as Germanus says.

26. Ex. What does the Corporal (Hileton) mean?

C. The Corporal means the linen in which Christ’s Body was rolled when it came down from the cross and was laid in the sepulchre. And it is called Hileton from ἑλίττω, I wind, which signifies τυλίγω, I fold, because it is placed folded over on the holy Table. Other names are Antimension, and Consecration (Cathierosis), and Throne, as we shall see later.

The meaning of the Sponge and the Spear is evident; so also is their use.

Notes

From S. Germanus in his Commentary on the Offering, “Now the chalice again is like the bowl, about which in reality He writes, namely, Wisdom and the Son of God—“(rather, “about which in reality Wisdom, that is the Son of God, writes,” as the words stand in the explanation of the Great Entrance, where S. Germanus adopts almost precisely the same words, adding further an explanation of the section from Proverbs ix. 1—5, here referred to,) [for] “He mingled His own blood instead of that wine, and added [rather placed] it on His holy Table, saying to all, Drink ye all thereof, instead of the wine which had been mingled, for the remission of sins, and for life eternal.”