At 08:58 PM 12/28/00 -0000, you wrote:
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Jo-Ann McNamara"
>> Distributing, but not consecrating, the eucharist does not necessarily
>> require a priest. From at least the Carolingian period forward there were
>> sporadic efforts to keep women from handling consecrated vessels or
>entering
>> the sanctuary but they were apparently ignored pretty widely in the early
>> middle ages at least (and I would guess probably in rural areas
>throughout).
>> Also in the early middle ages, I have the impression from hagiographical
>> sources that it was not uncommon to reserve a supply of consecrated hosts
>in
>> female monasteries to be distributed by the abbess (and possibly other
>nuns)
>> to sick or dying women (and conceivably even male personnel). Again, this
>> is not entirely clear to me but it seems to fit some of the deathbed
>scenes.
>
>Is it also worth remembering in this context that the "sacerdotal monopoly"
>was also breached by permitting midwives - laywomen - to take a flask of
>holy water into the lying-in chamber to baptise any infant in danger of
>death. I understand they would even baptise the available part of a half
>born baby which was clearly alive, if they feared (the obvious case being
>the lower limbs in the case of a breech birth with the umbilical cord round
>the neck) the baby would not survive the birthing process.
>
>BMC
>
Don't know in what source your read this. Holy water is never used to
baptise. And midwives even from classical times were permitted to baptise
in danger of death; infact all Christians are. Baptism as a rite in Church
contained exorcisms and annoitings, which were done by priests, and thus
the reservation; also it was a practical necessity to ensure proper
prebaptismal catechisis, lest baptism be turned into somesort of
superstitious blessing.
As for the distribution of the Eucharist, this was allowed to the laity in
necessity from the classical period; there are accounts of martyrdoms where
the laity took communion or conserved or hid the Eucharist when there were
no priests. In the Middleages and afterwards it was not unusually do to a
lack of clergy or necessity for the mother superior of every convent to
have permission to handle the Sacrament for the sake of administering it to
her sisters. Even permission to hold and give blessings with the monstrance
[ostensorium] was permitted. I believe that St. Clare of Assisi had this
permission; and thus she is often depicted in statuary even to today.
Sincerley in Christ,
Br. Alexis Bugnolo
The Franciscan Archive
http://www.franciscan-archive.org/
"A WWW Resource on St. Francis and Franciscanism"
62 Pilgrim Road
Mansfield, MA 02048
USA
[log in to unmask]
|