At 08:31 AM 12/28/00 -0000, you wrote:
>
>Two types of sculpture burial have so far been mentioned by other
>responders. One involves church sculptures which are no longer in
>use, such as the unfortunate heads from the west facade at Notre-Dame
>in Paris, or, as Christopher Crockett pointed out, the fragments of
>the Chartres jube. In the latter case, jubes were destroyed in huge
>numbers from the late 16th century onwards in order to accommodate
>post-Tridentine views on the visibility of the Mass, and it strikes
>
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>
>Can anyone add to this, especially regarding doctrinal authorization for
>such burying?
>
>George Ferzoco
>
In Catholicism, esp. in the Middle Ages, all ecclesiastical appurtenances,
that is church furnishings, are considered sacralized by the Sacrifice of
the Mass. Hence they needed to be desacralized before being removed and
afterthis they needed to be protected from profanation. Desacralization
required, a destruction of the form of the thing, usually by burning or
breaking. Protection from profanation required burial in sacred ground.
This is standard Catholic practice and still normative, though not as
widely understood since Vatican 2. If you are an archeologist and are
interested in historical furnishing of a particular church, the best thing
to do is get permission to dig up the premises (gardens, cloisters, ground
under or near Church, graveyard, etc.), rather than the garbage heaps,
which were definitely excluded from the possible burial sites for such
objects.
Sincerley in Christ,
Br. Alexis Bugnolo
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