Flabellum
Flabellum ( lat. For "fan") is the designation for a mainly from peacock feathers , parchment or fabric prepared as liturgical equipment used subjects .
function
The flabellum was previously used by an altar servant or deacon to keep insects away from the offerings and celebrants during Holy Mass , accordingly it was also called muscarium or muscafugium ("fly whisk, fly swatter"). Fans made of peacock feathers came into fashion in medieval processions and until the 1960s for papal ceremonies as a solemn decorative object ( flabelli ); These probably come from oriental royal ceremonies and were originally used for cooling and repelling insects.
history
As evidenced in Asia in the fifth century, it has been preserved there in liturgical use to this day in the form of the Rhipidion . No longer serving the original purpose, the flabellum has been converted into a metal disc, which, adorned with six-winged cherubim, served as a symbol of the angels floating around the altar . In the West, on the other hand, the fan came into use as a much less common object only in the ninth and more frequently since the eleventh century.
Others
Only formally related are the so-called disc crosses , Latin also called rotae or flabella .
literature
- Article subjects in: Lexicon for Theology and Church . Third volume: Colet to Faistenberger. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1959 (special edition), ISBN 3-451-20756-7 , Sp. 1335-1336.
- Flabellum. In: Catholic Encyclopedia . Vol. 6 (1909), pp. 89a-89b. (engl.) ( digitized version )
Web links
- Flabellum . In: The large art dictionary by PW Hartmann . (Online resource)
- Flabellum. In: Encyclopædia Britannica -Online. (engl.)