Ad orientem

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In the Christian liturgy, ad orientem (lat. Ad orientem solem , "in the direction of the rising sun") denotes a direction of prayer, especially for the celebrant at the altar. If necessary, this orientation is also called ad apsidem or versus apsidem .

historical development

The custom of eastward prayer is attested early in all Christian liturgical families. Martin Wallraff explains that this principle already applied in early Christianity: “Christians pray to the east. This principle was a matter of course for the entire early church. The evidence for this is widely spread in terms of space and time. Nowhere is there an indication of Christianity without this custom or with the custom of a different direction of prayer. ”This custom is likely to have replaced the Jewish custom of praying towards Jerusalem from the 2nd century onwards and had a differentiating function between Christians and Jews. The rising sun or the morning star are interpreted as the returning Christ, while the Jews awaited the coming Messiah in Jerusalem.

In the first centuries, the Roman throne or palace basilica formed the model for Christian church building. In the apse apse stood the bishop's cathedra and the semicircular priest's bench. This expressed a hierarchical opposition between the priesthood and the people. The altar stood freely in the apse and could be walked around. In the oldest churches, in Rome and elsewhere, the apse with the altar was in the west; so the priest or bishop celebrated mass simultaneously with a view to the east and to the congregation ( versus populum ).

The erection of the altar at the eastern end of the church and the main entrance in the west was apparently first common in the West in the Frankish Empire and was also introduced in Rome in the 8th or 9th century.

As on the altar of the oldest churches, which was to the west, the celebrant turned to the east, so he also turned to the east at the altar of churches built in the 9th century. But now the congregation stood behind him: the opposite of the celebrant and the congregation became a prayer and petition in the same direction. The cathedra and priest's seat were moved away from the apse closure, and the altar moved against the east wall and was then given superstructures with reredos and often with tabernacles in the Middle Ages .

Churches with the altar at the western end and the entrance on the east side were also built outside of Rome, as in Petershausen near Konstanz, Bamberg, Augsburg, Obermünster, Regensburg and Hildesheim. Churches were also not built on any east-west axis. In his instructions on the building and equipment of the churches, Karl Borromeo , Archbishop of Milan († 1584), expressed a preference for the east-facing of the apse, if this was not possible, the church could even be on a north-south axis be built, with the apse to the south. It could also be in the West, "where mass is usually celebrated at the high altar by a priest facing the people because of the church rite."

In the course of the liturgical movement that began in the 20th century, Holy Mass began to be celebrated more frequently around a free-standing or popular altar ( versus populum ). Around the same time, the term ad orientem began to have a meaning that was no longer necessarily associated with the direction of the compass. In the past, most of the altars in St. Peter's Basilica were not described as ad orientem because they are in different directions. The main altar, where Mass versus populum is celebrated, is almost the only one that faces east.

Today, however, the term ad orientem is used by some authors to denote the direction of celebration of the priest who stands at the altar with the congregation behind him, regardless of the real direction of the compass. It is called: Pope Benedict XVI. I celebrated ad orientem when he celebrated with a view to the west in the Sistine Chapel , with a view to the south in the Pauline Chapel ., Pope Francis with a view to the north in the Sebastian chapel of St. Peter's Basilica . In this sense, one uses now ad orientem and ad apsidem or versus apsidem ("in the direction of the apse") in the same way.

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The Roman Missal of Pope Pius V (1570) and Pope John XXIII. (1962) does not oblige the priest to celebrate in any particular direction. It uses the term ad orientem in the sense of “turned towards the people” ( versus populum ): Si altare sit ad orientem, versus populum, celebrans versa facie ad populum, non vertit humeros ad altare, cum dicturus est “Dominus vobiscum” “Orate, fratres ”,“ Ite, missa est ”, vel daturus benedictionem; sed osculato altari in medio, ibi, expansis et iunctis manibus, ut supra, salutat populum, et dat benedictionem. (“When the altar is directed ad orientem, towards the people, the celebrant , with his face turned towards the people, does not turn his back to the altar when he speaks Dominus vobiscum , Orate, fratres , Ite, missa est or when he speaks But, after the altar has been kissed in the middle , he greets the people there, as above, with outspread and [then again] clasped hands and gives the blessing. ”) The celebration with the face to the people was evidently from the missal intended as a possibility, even if it was only practiced in some places. Pope Pius XII also accepts the celebration of “facing the people” as a possibility when he says that a tabernacle can be placed on the altar in such a way that it does not interfere with such a celebration.

Based on the considerations of the Second Vatican Council , which emphasized the active participation ( Participatio actuosa ) of the faithful and in addition to the sacrificial character of the Eucharist , Pope Paul VI determined. in the basic order of the Roman Missal : "Usually a church should have a fixed, consecrated altar that stands freely so that one can walk around it without difficulty, and on it, facing the community, can celebrate mass." In the Roman rite this Direction versus populum not mandatory. As a rule, the celebrant stands or sits at the cathedra or priest's seat during the word service and behind the altar during the Eucharistic liturgy. This had a not insignificant influence on the liturgical practice of the Anglican, the Protestant and partly the ancient oriental churches , even if there the prayer "ad orientem" or "ad altarem" still predominates.

Liturgical meaning

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.

The so-called Celebratio versus populum is referred back by liturgical scholars to local, especially urban Roman characteristics of the alignment of the altars to the west. There are also such altars z. B. in the west apse of the cathedral at Mainz and Worms . Here the celebratio ad orientem required the celebrant standing behind the altar to look into the nave. However, an alignment with the community was intended, which originally turned to the east with the celebrant ( conversi ad orientem ). Liturgical scholars object that the idea that the faithful had turned their backs to the altar during the Eucharistic celebration can claim little probability.

Martin Luther had called for the celebration of the divine service versus populum (turned towards the people). However, this was prevented in the following period by equipping many Protestant churches with reredos. In the area of ​​the Evangelical Church in Germany, the direction of prayer towards the altar is particularly common in Evangelical Lutheran communities. Occasionally the position is behind the altar, more often the position of the liturgist in front of the altar is facing the congregation. This not only has the disadvantage that the distinctly sacred decor of the altar with candles, flowers and altar bible contrasts with its use as a "background image". It also prevents the liturgist, who is holding the liturgical texts, from using the gestures. Actions at the altar can no longer be carried out during the lecture.

See also

literature

  • Klaus Gamber : Towards the Lord! Questions about church building and prayer to the east (Studia patristica et liturgica, 18) Pustet, Regensburg 1987 (new edition: VDM Verlag, Düsseldorf 2003), ISBN 3-936755-12-4 .
  • Joseph Ratzinger : The Spirit of the Liturgy. Herder, Freiburg i. Br. 2000/2006 6 , ISBN 3-451-27247-4 .
  • Martin Wallraff : Christ Verus Sol. Sun Worship and Christianity in Late Antiquity . Münster 2001 yearbook for antiquity and Christianity . Supplementary Volume 32.
  • Stefan Heid : Posture of prayer and easting in early Christian times. In: Rivista di Archeologia Cristiana 82 (2006 [2008]) pp. 347–404 ( online ; PDF; 3.04 MB).
  • Stefan Heid: Attitude and direction. Basic forms of early Christian prayer. In: Communio 38 (6/2009), pp. 611–619 ( online ; PDF, 50 kB).
  • Uwe Michael Lang : "Conversi ad Dominum". On the history and theology of the Christian direction of prayer. Johannes Verlag, Einsiedeln 2010 5 , ISBN 978-3-89411-384-1 .
  • Stefan Heid: table or altar? Scientific hypotheses with far-reaching consequences. In: Una Voce Korrespondenz 46/3 (2016) pp. 342–367.
  • Thorsten Paprotny : Where should I turn? Liturgical theological considerations on the direction of celebration with Joseph Ratzinger In: Una Voce Korrespondenz 46/3 (2016), pp. 368–373.
  • Stefan Heid: Altar and Church. Principles of Christian liturgy. Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2019, pp. 244–349, ISBN 978-3-7954-3425-0 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Martin Wallraff: Christ versus sol. Sun worship and Christianity in late antiquity , Münster 2001, 60
  2. ↑ cf. this time 3,20  EU : "But for you who fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness, and their wings bring healing. You will go out and jump for joy like calves coming out of the barn. "
  3. ^ Oscar Mothes, The basilica form among the Christians of the first centuries (Leipzig 1865), p. 54 ( digitized versionhttp: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3D~GB%3D~IA%3Ddiebasilikenfor00mothgoog~MDZ%3D%0A~SZ%3Dn69~ double-sided%3D~LT%3D~PUR%3D ).
  4. ↑ Jürgen Hübner: Theology and Cosmology: History and Expectations for the Current Conversation. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2004, ISBN 3-16-148475-4 , p. 214 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  5. ^ Article "eastward position" In: The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2005, ISBN 978-0-19-280290-3 , p. 525 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  6. ↑ Johannes H. Emminghaus: The worship space and its design. In: Rupert Berger et al. (Ed.): Gestalt des Gottesdienst. Linguistic and non-linguistic forms of expression. Regensburg 1987, pp. 347-416, here p. 378ff. ( Worship of the Church. Handbook of Liturgical Science , Part 3), with reference to E. Peterson: Early Church, Judaism and Gnosis. Freiburg / Br. 1959, pp. 1-14
  7. ^ Heinrich Otte: Handbook of the church art-archeology of the German Middle Ages . Leipzig 1868, pp. 11–12 ( digitized in the Google book search).
  8. ^ Carlo Borromeo: Instructiones fabricae et suppellectilis ecclesiasticae (Fondazione Memofonte onlus. Studio per l'elaborazione informatica delle fonti storico-artistiche), liber I, cap. X. De cappella maiori , pp. 18-19 ( online ; PDF; 487 kB).
  9. ↑ Bartholomaeus Gavantus: Thesaurus Sacrorum Rituum . Vienna 1763, p. 195 ( digitized in the Google book search).
  10. ^ "Pope baptized in the Sistine Chapel and celebrated versus Orientem" ( Memento from September 25, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Pope celebrates ad orientem , Katholisches.info, April 17, 2010
  11. ↑ Tim Stanley, "Pope Francis says Mass ad orientem" ( The Telegraph , Nov. 1, 2013)
  12. ↑ Otto Nussbaum: The celebration versus populum and the sacrificial character of the mass. In: Journal of Catholic Theology , Vol. 93, No. 2 (1971), pp. 148-167 ( [1] ).
  13. ^ Ritus servandus in celebratione Missae , V, 3 ( edition from 1962 ); Manlio Sodi, Achilla Maria Triacca (ed.): Missale Romanum. Editio Princeps 1570 . Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1998, ISBN 88-209-2547-8 , p. 12.
  14. ↑ Discours du pape Pie XII aux participants au Congrès international de liturgie pastorale , 22.IX.1956
  15. ^ Missale Romanum. Editio Typica Tertia 2002. Basic order of the Roman missal. Preliminary publication on the German Missile Book (3rd edition) June 12, 2007, Chapter V, No. 299 online ; (PDF; 532 kB).
  16. ↑ Congregation for Divine Worship and the Order of the Sacraments , “Pregare ad orientem versus” in Notitiae 29 (1993), pp. 245–249, quoted in Paul Bernhard Wodrazka, “Documents for the celebration of the Lord”
  17. ^ Rainer Volp: Art. Altar. d) Modern times. Ad orientem . In: Religion Past and Present (RGG). 4th edition. Volume 1, Mohr-Siebeck, Tübingen 1998, Sp. 340.