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Pyx

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Pyx with Arabesques in Quatrofoil Frames, c. 13th century

A pyx or pix (Latin: pyxis, transliteration of Greek: πυξίς, boxwood receptacle, from πύξος, box tree) is a small round container used in the Catholic, Old Catholic, Lutheran and Anglican Churches to carry the Eucharist, to the sick or those who are otherwise unable to come to a church in order to receive Holy Communion.[1] The term can also be used in archaeology and art history to describe small, round lidded boxes designed for any purpose from antiquity or the Middle Ages, such as those used to hold coins for the Trial of the Pyx in England.[2]

Usage

The word pyx comes from the Greek word πυξίς, pyxis 'box, receptacle'.[2] (The Greek-like plural, pyxides, has given way to pyxes in English.) While the word may be applied to any covered carrier, in modern usage the term "pyx" usually denotes a small, flat, clamshell-style container, often about the size of a pocket watch and usually made of brass or other metals,[3] traditionally lined with gold.[4] A fabric or leather pouch for carrying a pyx is known as a burse. Typically, this kind of burse can be securely closed and is fixed with cords so that the priest, deacon, or extraordinary minister of Holy Communion can affix it to his or her person during transport to prevent the consecrated hosts from being accidentally lost.

These objects, and others, such as the lunette (and the monstrance that holds it) that contain a consecrated host, are normally kept within the church tabernacle when they are not being carried. The tabernacle may be behind the main altar, at a side altar, or within a special Eucharistic chapel.

Liturgical history

In late antiquity, the custom developed in the East of suspending a vessel in the form of a dove (Greek: peristerion, Latin: peristerium) over the altar, which was used as a repository for the Blessed Sacrament. This custom is mentioned by Gregory of Tours in his Life of Saint Basil, and in several ancient French documents. The custom probably came to France from the East; it never seems to have existed in Italy.[5] Examples of this practice may still be found in use today; for instance, in the Cathedral of the Dormition in Moscow.

In Eastern Christianity

In the Eastern Orthodox, Eastern Lutheran and Greek Catholic Churches, the pyx (Russian: даро́носица, romanized: darónositsa) is the small "church tabernacle" which holds the lamb (host) that is reserved for the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts during Great Lent. This pyx may be either kept on the Holy Table or on the Prothesis (Table of Oblation) on the north side of the sanctuary.

See also

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

The word pyx (Lat., pyxis, which transliterates the Greek, pyxis, box-wood receptacle, from pyxos, box-tree) was formerly applied in a wide and general sense to all vessels used to contain the Blessed Eucharist. In particular it was perhaps the commonest term applied to the cup in which the Blessed Sacrament actually rested when in the Middle Ages it was suspended above the altar. Thus the Custumal of Cluny in thc eleventh century speaks of the "deacon taking the golden Pyx (auream pyxidem) out of the dove (columba) which hangs permanently above the altar". In later times however it has come about that the term pyx is limited in ordinary usage to that smaller vessel of gold, or silver-gilt, in which the Eucharist is commonly carried to the sick. Such vessels are sometimes made flat like a watch, sometimes mounted upon a little stand like a miniature ciborium. From the resemblance in size and shape the word pyx is also used to denote the small silver vessel or custode in which the Sacred Host is commonly kept in the Tabernacle, that it may be transferred thence to the monstrance when the Blessed Sacrament is exposed for the service of Benediction. In the Middle Ages pyxes for carrying the Eucharist to the sick were not unfrequently made of ivory. In spite of synodal decrees it is to be feared that there were many churches both in medieval and later times which preserved no proper pyx for taking Viaticum to the sick. In these cases the custom seems to have prevailed, even if it was not officially tolerated, of carrying the Host wrapped in a corporal in a burse which was suspended round the priest's neck or even of placing it between the leaves of a breviary.

The "pyx-cover", or "pyx-cloth", of which we sometimes read in medieval inventories, was a veil which hung over the pyx as it was suspended above the altar, and it was consequently a cloth of considerable size. At the present day the pyx when carried secretly to the sick, as is the case in most Protestant and many Catholic countries, is generally carried in a burse or pyx-bag, i.e. a silken bag suspended round the priest's neck within which the pyx is wrapped in a diminutive corporal used for that purpose.

CORBLET, Histoire du Sacrement de l'Eucharistie (Paris, 1885), I, 379-90; OTTE, Handbuch der kirchlichen Kunst-Arch ologie (Leipzig, 1883), I, 236-40; ROHAULT DE FLEURY, La Messe, V (Paris, 1R87), 57-94, with plates; BUMPUS, Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Terms (London, 1910), pp. 251-252.

References

  1. Back to citation Maxwell, Lee A. (2007). The Altar Guild Manual - Lutheran Service Book Edition. Concordia Publishing House. p. 89.
  2. Back to citation occurrence 2.0 Back to citation occurrence 2.1 Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Pyx". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 22 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 704.
  3. Back to citation Compare: Watkin, Aelred, ed. (1947). Inventory of church goods, temp. Edward III. Volume 19 of Norfolk Record Society; Part 2 of Inventory of church goods, temp. Edward III. Translated by Watkins, Aelred. Norfolk Record Society. p. lxxxiii. Retrieved 4 December 2023. “Few descriptions of the pyx are given... With regard to materials we have more evidence: silver is by far the most common, twenty-nine silver pyxes are listed, of which twenty-two were gilt... Fifteen pyxes of ivory are recorded, four of brass, four of latten, two of copper, one of wood and one of pewter... Therefore in the majority of churches the pyx over the altar consisted of a silver-gilt or ivory coffer....”
  4. Back to citation Compare: Middleton-Stewart, Judith (2001). "Gilding the Liturgy". Inward Purity and Outward Splendour: Death and Remembrance in the Deanery of Dunwich, Suffolk, 1370-1547. Studies in the history of medieval religion, ISSN 0955-2480, Volume 17 (revised ed.). Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell & Brewer. p. 183. ISBN 9780851158204. Retrieved 4 December 2023. “Gold, silver, ivory or copper gilt lined the inner [pyx] compartment so that only precious material would come into contact with the body of Christ, and, on the outside, enamelling might add a touch of luxury.”
  5. Back to citation Catholic History (March 1997), "Dove. Symbol of the Holy Ghost", The Seraph, vol. XVII No. 7, retrieved 2007-08-01
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