French - Eucharistic Dove - Walters 443 - Profile

A peristerium, or Eucharistic dove in the Western church, is a metallic vessel, in the shape of a

dove Columbidae () is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with short necks and short slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. They primarily ...

(

pigeon Columbidae () is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with short necks and short slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. They primarily ...

), which can be hung over an altar, most often in

Eastern Christian Eastern Christianity comprises Christian traditions and church families that originally developed during classical and late antiquity in Eastern Europe, Southeastern Europe, Asia Minor, the Caucasus, Northeast Africa, the Fertile Crescent and ...

churches.

Purpose

Western eucharistic doves were used in medieval churches to keep consecrated hosts from the

Eucharist The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was instit ...

(the Blessed Sacrament). These consecrated Hosts are in the

Pyx A pyx or pix ( la, pyxis, transliteration of Greek: ''πυξίς'', boxwood receptacle, from ''πύξος'', box tree) is a small round container used in the Catholic, Old Catholic and Anglican Churches to carry the consecrated host (Eucharist) ...

, which could be put into it by a flap in the back of the dove's body. Many were made in Spanish or

Limoges enamel Limoges enamel has been produced at Limoges, in south-western France, over several centuries up to the present. There are two periods when it was of European importance. From the 12th century to 1370 there was a large industry producing metal o ...

, with generally only the wings and eyes in enamel, the rest being gilded. German theologian

Matthias Joseph Scheeben Matthias Joseph Scheeben (Meckenheim, Rhine Province, 1 March 1835 – Cologne, 21 July 1888) was a German Catholic theological writer and mystic. "The generations that followed Scheeben regarded him as one of the greatest minds of modern Ca ...

wrote of the significance of using a peristerium to hold the Eucharist in ''The Mysteries of Christianity'': "How striking and well devised was the ancient usage of reserving the Eucharist in a receptacle symbolic of the Holy Spirit in a vessel fashioned in the form of a dove — in the so-called ''peristerium''! How beautifully the Holy Spirit was thus symbolized as He who brings and fashions the gift contained in that receptacle; as He who, encompassing and permeating that gift as fire does the coal, dwells therein with His essence and His power!"

Icon

The dove is a widely used symbol of the Christian Church. It symbolizes the

Holy Spirit In Judaism, the Holy Spirit is the divine force, quality, and influence of God over the Universe or over his creatures. In Nicene Christianity, the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost is the third person of the Trinity. In Islam, the Holy Spirit acts as ...

, is an attribute of the

Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother o ...

, and was later one of the apostles. As a symbol of resurrection, pigeons were placed in the tombs of the martyrs. Also grave lamps in the form of doves were common.

Literature

* Bonaparte: ''Iconography of the pigeons'', Paris, 1857.

References

{{Reflist Eucharist