At 08:44 PM 9/21/00 +0000, you wrote:
>> I had the occasion to witness the 'botafumeiro' -- the giant liturgical
>> vessel used to burn incense -- being swung like a carnival ride at the end
>> of a Sunday mass. Does anyone know of similar liturgical showmanship in
>> other churches?
Perhaps one of the most spectacular liturgical "special effects" was the
spontaneous lighting of the candles at the church of the Holy Sepulcher on
Easter Eve. This was so celebrated that, as a phony miracle, it was cited
to justify al-Hakim's destruction of the church in 1009. It was featured
in crusade propaganda as a true miracle. However, it was a source of some
embarassment to the Westerners when, after they had taken Jerusalem and
evicted the Eastern clergymen from the church, the lights did not come on
as scheduled. To restart the wonder the eastern clergy had to be summoned.
This is one of those historical phenomena that appears tangentially in a
variety of sources. Does anyone know of a single coherent study of the
"miracle" of the candles of the Holy Sepulcher?
--John Howe, Texas Tech
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|