Paschal Candle

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The blessing of the "paschal candle", which is a column of wax of exceptional size, usually fixed in a great candlestick specially destined for that purpose, is a notable feature of the service onHoly Saturday. The blessing is performed by thedeacon, wearing a whitedalmatic. A long Eucharisticprayer, the "Præconium paschali" or"Exultet", is chanted by him, and in the course of this chanting the candle is first ornamented with five grains ofincense and then lighted with the newly blessed fire. At a later stage in the service, during the blessing of the font, the same candle is plunged three times into the water with the words: Descendat in hanc plenitudinem fontis virtus Spiritus Sancti" (May the power of the Holy Spirit come down into the fulness of this fountain). FromHoly Saturday untilAscension Day the paschal candle is left with its candlestick in the sanctuary, standing upon the Gospel side of the altar, and it is lighted during high Mass and solemnVespers onSundays. It is extinguished after the Gospel onAscension Day and is then removed.

The results of recent research seem all to point to the necessity of assigning a very high antiquity to the paschal candle. Dom Germain Morin (Revue Bénédictine, Jan., 1891, and Sept., 1892) has successfully vindicated, against Mgr. Duchesne and others, the authenticity of the letter ofSt. Jerome to Presidius,deacon of Placentia (Migne, P.L., XXX, 188), in which thesaint replies to a request that he would compose a,carmen cerei, in other words, a form of blessing like our"Exultet". Clearly this reference to acarmen cerei (poem of the candle) must presuppose the existence, in 384, of the candle itself which was to beblessed by thedeacon with such a form, and thesaint's reply makes it probable that the practice was neither of recent introduction nor peculiar to the church of Placentia. AgainSt. Augustine (City of God XV.22) mentions casually that he had composed alaus cerei in verse; and from specimens of similar compositions — all of them, however, bearing a closefamily resemblance to our "Exultet "-which are found in the works of Ennodius (Opusc., 14 and 81), it appears that there can be no sufficient ground for doubting the correctness of this statement. Moreover, Mgr. Mercati has now shown good reason forbelieving that the existing "Præconium paschale" of the Ambrosian Rite was composed in substance bySt. Ambrose himself or else founded uponhymns of which he was the author (see "Studi e Testi", XII, 37-38). There is, therefore, no occasion to refuse toPope Zosimus (c. 417) the credit of having conceded the use of the paschal candle to thesuburbicarian churches ofRome, although the mention of this fact is only found in the second edition of the"Liber Pontificalis". Mgr. Duchesne urges that this institution has left no trace in the earliest purely Roman Ordines, such as theEinsiedeln Ordo and that of Saint-Amand; but these speak of twofaculæ; (torches) which were carried to the font before thepope and were plunged into the water as is now done with the paschal candle. The question of size or number does not seem to be very vital. The earliest council which speaks upon the subject, viz., the Fourth of Toledo (A.D. 633, cap. ix), seems to couple together the blessing of thelucerna andcereus as of equal importance and seems also to connect them both symbolically with somesacramentum, i.e. mystery ofbaptismal illumination and with theResurrection of Christ. And undoubtedly the paschal candle must have derived its origin from the splendours of the celebration ofEaster Eve in the earlyChristian centuries. As pointed out in the articleHOLY WEEK, our present morning service onHoly Saturday can be shown to represent by anticipation a service which in primitive times took place late in the evening; and which culminated in the blessing; of the font and thebaptism of thecatechumens, followed immediately by Mass shortly after midnight onEaster morning. Already in the time of Constantine we are told byEusebius (De Vita Constantini, IV, xxii) that the emperor "transformed the night of the sacred vigil into the brilliancy of day, by lighting throughout the whole city pillars of wax (kerou kionas), while burning lamps illuminated every part, so that this mystic vigil was rendered brighter than the brightest daylight". Other Fathers, likeSt. Gregory Nazianzus andSt. Gregory of Nyssa, also give vivid descriptions of the illumination of theEaster vigil. Further, it iscertain, from evidence that stretches back as far asTertullian andJustin Martyr, that upon thisEaster eve thecatechumens werebaptized and that thisceremony ofbaptism was spoken of asphotismos, i.e., illumination. Indeed, it seems highly probable that this is already referred to inHebrews 10:22, where the words "being illuminated" seem to be used in the sense of beingbaptized (cf.St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Cat. i, n. 15). Whether consciously designed for that purpose or not, the paschal candle typifiedJesus Christ, "the true light which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world", surrounded by His illuminated, i.e. newlybaptized disciples, each holding a smaller light. In the virgin wax a later symbolism recognized the most pure flesh which Christ derived from His blessed Mother, in the wick the humansoul ofChrist, and in the flame the divinity of the Second Person of theBlessed Trinity. Moreover, the five grains ofincense set cross-wise in the candle recalled thesacred wounds retained inChrist's glorified body and the lighting of the candle with new fire itself served as a lively image of theresurrection.

Of the practice ofmedieval and later times regarding the paschal candle much might be said. We learn on the authority ofBede, speaking of the year 701, that it was usual inRome to inscribe the date and other particulars of the calendar either upon the candle itself or on a parchment affixed to it. Further, in many Italianbasilicas the paschal candlestick was a marble construction which was a permanent adjunct of theambo orpulpit. Several of these still survive, as in San Lorenzo fuori della mura atRome. Naturally themedieval tendency was to glorify the paschal candle by making it bigger and bigger. At Durham we are told of a magnificent erection with dragons and shields and seven branches, which was so big that it had to stand in the centre of the choir. The Sarum Processional of 1517 directs that the paschal candle, nodoubt that ofSalisburycathedral, is to be thirty-six feet in height, while we learn from Machyn's diary that in 1558, underQueen Mary, three hundred weight of wax was used for the paschal candle ofWestminster Abbey. InEngland these great candles, after they had been used for the last time in blessing the font on Whitsun Eve, were generally melted down and made into tapers to be used gratuitously at the funerals of the poor (see Wilkins, "Concilia", I, 571, and II, 298) AtRome the Agnus Deis were made out of the remains of the paschal candles, and Mgr. Duchesne seems to regard theseconsecrated discs of wax as likely to be even older than the paschal candle itself.

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