Custodia

An open custodia with the lunula in the middle

The 3.33-meter-high silver Custodia of the Cathedral of Seville at a Sacrament Procession

A Custodia , even Kustodia , from lat. Custodire "guard, (be) protect" is a vessel for storage or pointing in the Holy Mass converted Blessed Sacrament .

Custodia as a repository

Mainly in German usage, the custodia is a sacrament container in which the large show host in the tabernacle intended for the exposure of the Blessed Sacrament or a sacrament procession is kept (repositioned, from the Latin reponere "to reset"). It is an opaque, often round box made of precious metal on a stand and usually decorated with gold . The host stands with a support, the lunula , on a rail in the custodia and is inserted into the monstrance for exposure .

The custodia is now dispensable, as the show host is either consecrated in the Holy Mass preceding the procession or exposure or is kept in the ciborium with the other hosts.

Custodia as a monstrance

In Spanish, custodia is used to denote the monstrance . A special form is the custodia as a tower-like housing up to 3.30 m high, often with several storeys, in which the consecrated host is carried on a chariot during the sacraments.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Rudolf Huber (Ed.): Church implements, crosses and reliquaries of the Christian churches. (= Glossarium Artis. Volume 2) 3rd edition, KG Saur Verlag, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-598-11079-0 , p. 38.
2. ^ Heinzgerd Brakmann: Custodia . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 2 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1994, Sp. 1362 .
3. ^ Rudolf Huber (Ed.): Church implements, crosses and reliquaries of the Christian churches. (= Glossarium Artis. Volume 2). 3rd edition, KG Saur Verlag, Munich-London-New York-Paris 1991, ISBN 3-598-11079-0 , p. 82.