Pyx (Catholic Encyclopedia article)
Herbert Thurston · 1913
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Description
The pyx, from the Latin pyxis, which renders the Greek word for a boxwood receptacle, once named every vessel that held the Blessed Eucharist. This encyclopedia entry narrows the story to its most famous use. In the Middle Ages the commonest sense was the cup in which the Sacrament rested while suspended above the altar. The eleventh-century Custumal of Cluny pictures the deacon lifting the golden pyx from the dove that hung permanently over the altar.
Later usage shrank the word to a smaller vessel of gold or silver-gilt. In it the Eucharist is carried to the sick. Such vessels are sometimes flat like a watch, sometimes raised on a little stand like a miniature ciborium. Rohault de Fleury, Otte and Bumpus supply the art-historical sources, and the entry suits readers tracing how a plain boxwood word came to name a jewelled vessel of pastoral care.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Herbert Thurston |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 1913 |
| COLLECTION | REFERENCE |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 2 KB |
| LICENSE | PUBLIC_DOMAIN |
| RIGHTS | PUBLIC DOMAIN |
| SOURCE | New Advent — Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) |