Altar

Altar

Altars are found in all churches and is where the Eucharistic sacrifice takes place during mass. Altars can range from being simple tables to intricate stone pieces with carved figures on the front and sides. These figures typically depict biblical figures or stories. The main altar of a church is a focal point of the interior. Larger churches may have additional smaller side altars in addition to the main altar, where masses can be held in a more intimate setting.

Position of Main Altar

In the ancient basilicas the priest faced the people as he stood at the altar. When the basilicas were adapted for Christian assemblies, slight modifications were made and the altar stood between the clergy and people. Later on the altar was placed in the apse against or at least near the wall, so that the priest when celebrating faced the east and the people were placed behind him.

Material of the Altar

Altars that were made in the first centuries of Christianity were probably made of wood. Later altars were made of either stone or silver. Since wood is subject to decay, the baser metals to corrosion, and the more precious metals were too expensive, stone became in course of time the ordinary material for an altar. The present discipline of the Church requires that for the consecration of an altar it must be of stone.

Form of an Altar

There are two kinds of altars according to the present discipline of the church, the fixed and the portable. A fixed altar is one that is attached to a wall, a floor, or a column whether it be consecrated or not and in the in the liturgical sense it is a permanent structure of stone, consisting of a consecrated table and support, which must be built on a solid foundation. A portable altar is one that may be carried from one place to another and in the liturgical sense it is a consecrated altar-stone, sufficiently large to hold the Sacred Host and the greater part of the base of the chalice. It is inserted in the table of an altar which is not a consecrated fixed altar.

The component parts of a fixed altar in the liturgical sense are the table, the support and the sepulchrum. The table must be a single slab of stone firmly joined by cement to the support, so that the table and support together make one piece. Five Greek crosses are engraved on its surface, one at each of the four corners, about six inches from both edges, but directly above the support, and one in the center.

Side Altars

Owning side altars was very important for guilds. The limited financial resources of guilds, together with the strongly devotional character of their communal life, are the reason why altar-pieces, and not other types of paintings, are what each guild acquired before trying to acquire anything else.

Guilds

The focal point of guild life was not usually the meeting-house, but the church altar, and it was here that the guilds tended to naturally concentrate their energies. Virtually all of them would by the fifteenth century have acquired patronage rights to a side altar and as well as providing funds for a priest to officiate at religious ceremonies, they also normally undertook to provide the altar with liturgical accessories and a fitting decoration. Only the very smallest and poorest of guilds could not have stretched themselves, if they wanted, to commission some sort of painted altar-piece. Whatever the size of the guild, the most pressing property was to secure rights to a church altar and a burial place for its members, and only when that had been achieved could it contemplate acquiring a meeting-house of its own.