Lavabo (rite)

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Lavabo tray and water jug ​​for carrying out the lavabo (right)

Lavabo (from Latin lavare , "to wash") denotes the rite of symbolic hand washing of a priest during Holy Mass . An acolyte pours in this rite some water over the fingers of the celebrant intercepts it with the Lavabotablett or basins on. A second acolyte hands him the lavabo towel to dry his hands.

The name lavabo comes from the first word of the Latin prayer that the priest utters when washing hands in the extraordinary form of the Roman rite : Lavabo inter innocentes manus meas ... (“In innocence I will wash my hands”, Ps 26 : 5–12  EU ). The priest prays in the orderly form: Lava me, Domine, ab iniquitate mea et a peccato meo munda me (“Lord, wash off my guilt, make me clean of my sins”, Ps 51.4  EU .)

Old church

Cleansing rituals were already common in the religions of antiquity in pre-Christian times, in particular less complex forms such as washing hands and sprinkling or labeling with water were able to establish themselves. In Judaism , in addition to symbolic hand washing as part of a crisis ritual in the event of a murder ( Dtn 21.1–7  EU ) and hand washing at mealtime, there was also prescribed hand washing for priests when serving at the tent sanctuary (cf. Ex 30.19–21  EU , Ex 40.31 f.  EU and Ps 26.6  EU ).

The first evidence of the priest's hand washing in the liturgy of the Church is found in the Mystagogical Catechesis of Cyril of Jerusalem . According to this, the deacon washed the hands of the bishop and the concelebrating priests at the altar , through the quotation of Ps 26.6  EU the practice is interpreted as a connection to the hand washing of the Jewish priests. The same practice can also be demonstrated in the little more recent Apostolic Constitutions .

Byzantine rite

Washing hands in a Byzantine episcopal mass

In the Byzantine rite there is no evidence of hand washing in the earliest sources; but it will undoubtedly have taken place. Only from the 10th century onwards can a washbasin be found parallel to the transmission of the gifts in the Divine Liturgy . As the priest's participation in the transmission of the gifts became necessary with the increasing appreciation of the gifts , the lavabo could only take place after the transmission of the gifts for practical reasons.

In the Byzantine rite, however, the lavabo only has this place in the pontifical liturgy . In the celebration of the liturgy, presided over by a priest, the preparation of the gifts was placed at the beginning of the liturgy and made more solemn. Thus, the celebrant's hand washing is now carried out right at the beginning of the liturgy. The celebrant speaks Ps 26 : 6-12 EU while washing your hands  .

Coptic rite

The sources of the history of the origins of the Coptic Rite are unfortunately too sketchy to be able to determine when a hand washing rite became part of the liturgy and where it had its original place. Since the liturgical reform of 1411, however, this has taken place after the preparatory prayer before the selection of bread and wine and the offering procession at the beginning of the liturgy. The priest washes his hands three times and quotes Ps 51.9  EU , Ps 51.10  EU and Ps 26.6–7  EU .

Latin rite

Pre-tridentine rites

In the forms of various pre-Indian rites, hand-washing is attested before putting on the robes, when entering the sanctuary, before the canon prayer and also immediately before the institution report. The washing of hands preserved today after the sacrifice is a relatively recent development that replaced hand washing when entering the sanctuary. In the background stands the reverence for the Eucharistic gifts, which has grown greatly in the course of the loss of the Platonic understanding of the Eucharist. Various sources from the Middle Ages attest to the belief that the priest washes his hands to cleanse them from the touch of worldly things and to prepare them for the touch of the sacred.

Extraordinary form of the Roman rite ("Tridentine rite")

In the West there were hand-washing rites before the robes were put on, before the canon and before the change , of which the washing of hands at the beginning of the sacrificial mass was already established well before the Council of Trent . The washing of the hands took place after the preparation of the gifts and the altar incense, originally to cleanse the hands of the soiling caused by the incense, but later as an expression of perfect moral purity. The hand washing was accompanied by the quotation of Ps 26,6-12  EU .

In the rite of the Tridentine Mass was indeed in Still measuring no altar inzens provided that handwashing at the beginning of the victims fair but has yet to receive, as the citation of Ps 26.6 to 12  EU as a companion formula.

Extra-Roman Latin rites

In the Mozarabic rite , silent hand washing is provided according to the altar incense.

The Ambrosian rite initially envisaged hand washing as a silent hand washing directly before the qui pridie . In the course of the post-conciliar reform of the rite, hand washing was brought forward and now takes place after the incense, but at the same time it is exempted as a rite, so it is no longer mandatory.

Ordinary form of the Roman rite

In the course of the liturgy constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium passed by the Second Vatican Council , the consilium was convened to carry out the liturgy constitution and charged with reforming the liturgy. New forms of hand washing were also discussed here: In Scheme No. 44 (October 22, 1964), the accompanying formula was replaced by a quote from Ez 36.25  EU , three years later in Scheme No. 258 (November 21, 1967) that the hand-washing should be carried out without accompanying prayer, before Ps 51.12  EU was prescribed as an accompanying prayer in scheme No. 266 (December 21, 1967) , followed by scheme No. 271 (February 10, 1968) to Ps 51, 4  EU was expanded as an alternative prayer, before the latter was recorded in scheme No. 293 (May 24, 1968) as the final and sole prayer for washing hands.

In the ordinary form of the Roman rite , hand washing is now provided after the preparation of the gifts . Here the celebrant speaks quietly Ps 51.4  EU . In the Institutio Generalis Missalis Romani ( IGMR , German Basic Order of the Roman Missal , GORM ) hand washing is described as an expression of the desire for internal cleansing. It is a prayer that the priest utters in order to perform his ministry with greater concentration and devotion.

literature

  • Josef Andreas Jungmann : Missarum Sollemnia. A genetic explanation of the Roman mass. Second volume: sacrificial mass. Herder, Freiburg 1962.
  • Bernhard Kötting : hand washing. In: Real Lexicon for Antiquity and Christianity . 1986, 13: 575-585.
  • Martin Lüstraeten: "I want to wash my hands in the midst of innocence ...". Liturgy theological inquiries about the rite of hand washing. In: Diliana Atanassova, Tinatin Chronz (Ed.): Συναξις Καθολικη. Contributions to the divine service and history of the five patriarchates of the early church for Heinzgerd Brakmann on his 70th birthday (= orientalia - patristica - oecumenica 6). Lit, Münster 2014, Vol. 2., pp. 419–440.
  • Meinolf Schumacher : "Lavabo in innocentia manus meas ...". Between acknowledgment of guilt and defense against guilt: hand washing in the Christian cult. In: Robert Jütte, Romedio Schmitz-Esser (ed.): Hand use. Stories by hand from the Middle Ages and early modern times. Wilhelm Fink, Paderborn 2019, ISBN 978-3-7705-6362-3 , pp. 59-77.
  • Robert Francis Taft: The Great Entrance. A History of the Transfer of Gifts and other Pre-anaphoral Rites of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. Pontificium Institutum Studiorum Orientalium, Rome 1975.

Web links

Commons : Lavabos  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bernhard Kötting : hand washing. In: Real Lexicon for Antiquity and Christianity . 13 1986, col. 575-585. Here: Col. 575.
  2. ↑ Cyr. H. catech. 5.2
  3. ↑ Const. apostle 8.32.18
  4. ↑ Robert Francis Taft: The Great Entrance. A History of the Transfer of Gifts and other Pre-anaphoral Rites of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. Pontificium Institutum Studiorum Orientalium, Rome 1975, p. 165.
  5. ↑ Robert Francis Taft: The Great Entrance. A History of the Transfer of Gifts and other Pre-anaphoral Rites of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. Pontificium Institutum Studiorum Orientalium, Rome 1975, p. 168.
  6. ^ Hans-Joachim Schulz : The Byzantine Liturgy. From the becoming of their symbolic form. Lambertus, Freiburg im Breisgau 1964, p. 113.
  7. ↑ Martin Lüstraeten: "I want to wash my hands in the midst of innocence ...". Liturgy theological inquiries about the rite of hand washing. In: Diliana Atanassova, Tinatin Chronz (Ed.): Συναξις Καθολικη. Contributions to the divine service and history of the five patriarchates of the early church for Heinzgerd Brakmann on his 70th birthday (= orientalia - patristica - oecumenica 6). Lit, Münster 2014, vol. 2., p. 427f.
  8. ↑ Heinzgerd Brakmann: The Copts - Church of Jesus in Egypt. Your story and liturgy. In: Alberts Gerhards, Heinzgerd Brakmann (Ed.): The Coptic Church. Introduction to Egyptian Christianity (= UB 451). Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1994, p. 23.
  9. ^ Josef Andreas Jungmann : Missarum Sollemnia. A genetic explanation of the Roman mass. Second volume: sacrificial mass. Herder, Freiburg 1962, pp. 1001-01.
  10. ↑ Martin Lüstraeten: "I want to wash my hands in the midst of innocence ...". Liturgy theological inquiries about the rite of hand washing. In: Diliana Atanassova, Tinatin Chronz (Ed.): Συναξις Καθολικη. Contributions to the divine service and history of the five patriarchates of the early church for Heinzgerd Brakmann on his 70th birthday (= orientalia - patristica - oecumenica 6). Lit, Münster 2014, vol. 2., p. 430f.
  11. ^ Josef Andreas Jungmann : Missarum Sollemnia. A genetic explanation of the Roman mass. Second volume: sacrificial mass. Herder, Freiburg 1962, pp. 97-99.
  12. ^ Ludwig Eisenhofer : Handbook of Catholic Liturgy. Volume Two : Special Liturgy. Herder, Freiburg 1933, pp. 147-148.
  13. ↑ Martin Lüstraeten: "I want to wash my hands in the midst of innocence ...". Liturgy theological inquiries about the rite of hand washing. In: Diliana Atanassova, Tinatin Chronz (Ed.): Συναξις Καθολικη. Contributions to the divine service and history of the five patriarchates of the early church for Heinzgerd Brakmann on his 70th birthday (= orientalia - patristica - oecumenica 6). Lit, Münster 2014, vol. 2., p. 435.
  14. ↑ Martin Lüstraeten: "I want to wash my hands in the midst of innocence ...". Liturgy theological inquiries about the rite of hand washing. In: Diliana Atanassova, Tinatin Chronz (Ed.): Συναξις Καθολικη. Contributions to the divine service and history of the five patriarchates of the early church for Heinzgerd Brakmann on his 70th birthday (= orientalia - patristica - oecumenica 6). Lit, Münster 2014, Vol. 2., pp. 435–438.
  15. ^ GORM 76
  16. ^ GORM 33