A bye-altar is an older English term for a secondary or side altar in a church, distinct from the principal altar around which the assembled faithful ordinarily celebrate the Eucharist.
Liturgical meaning and use
The word bye carries the sense of subsidiary or out of the main line. Architectural writers applied bye-altar to altars in side chapels, nave bays, transepts, or other places subordinate to the high or principal altar.
The term describes location and liturgical function, not an inferior sacrament. A Mass validly celebrated at a lawfully dedicated or blessed side altar is the same Eucharistic sacrifice as Mass at the principal altar.
Side altar and chapel
A side altar may stand within the main volume of a church or within a distinct chapel. A chapel is a spatial and juridical concept; an altar is the sacred table on which the Eucharistic sacrifice is celebrated. The terms therefore overlap in ordinary speech but are not synonyms.
High altar
High altar is a historical architectural term for the chief altar, especially where it stood prominently in the sanctuary. Current liturgical law more often speaks of the altar of celebration or principal altar and directs attention to its sign value rather than its height.
Historical use
Multiple altars developed with private and votive Masses, chantries, relic cults, confraternities, and the dedication of chapels to particular mysteries or saints. Large medieval and early modern churches could contain many such altars without treating them as independent centers of ecclesial communion.
Twentieth-century liturgical and architectural reforms changed common practice. Concelebration and emphasis on the gathered assembly reduced the practical need for simultaneous individual celebrations at numerous altars, while historically significant side altars often remained in place.[1]
Current Roman discipline
The General Instruction of the Roman Missal prefers a single altar in a new church because it signifies the one Christ and the one Eucharist of the Church. In an existing church, an old altar should not draw the faithful's attention away from the altar at which Mass is ordinarily celebrated.[2]
This preference does not command indiscriminate destruction of historic altars. Conservation, legitimate devotional use, sacred art, and the law governing dedication and relegation all require competent judgment. A movable altar may be blessed; a fixed altar is ordinarily dedicated according to the Roman Pontifical.[3]
Language and identification
Bye-altar is now uncommon, and side altar is the clearer modern label. Historical inventories should retain the old term where it accurately records a building or source, while linking readers to the ordinary altar article.
An architectural projection, devotional niche, credence table, or shelf for a statue is not automatically an altar. Identification depends on form, documentary history, dedication, and actual liturgical use rather than resemblance alone.
From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia
An altar that is subordinate to the central or high altar. The term is generally applied to altars that are situated in the bay or bays of the nave, transepts, etc.[4]
THOMAS H. POOLE
References
- 1.USCCB: Built of Living Stones — Episcopal conference guidance on the altar's theological and architectural place
- 2.General Instruction of the Roman Missal — Current Roman norms on the altar and preference for one principal altar in new churches
- 3.Code of Canon Law, sacred places and altars — Canons 1235–1239 on fixed and movable altars, dedication, and exclusive sacred use
- 4.1913 Catholic Encyclopedia: Bye-Altar