Synonym of candles, lights, candles. They are cylinders of wax, or fatty substances (animal or vegetable) that contain an internal wick that acts as a support for the flame that consumes the wax.
His appearance is lost in the mists of time. It was used ornamentally or with symbolic intent in various religions. And it was also used from the earliest times in the Christian liturgy, perhaps as an effect of the persecutions, which moved the persecuted to seek hidden places and meet at night. Little by little it entered into liturgical practices and pure beeswax candles were used to give a living and luminous meaning to the celebration of the sacraments, especially the Eucharist and Baptism, where there must be candles lit that recall the light, which is Christ (Paschal candle) and the life that is consumed (just like the present candles). However, the candles, like the flowers, are used in joyous events, such as in the commemoration of the resurrection, as in the mournful as in the wake of the deceased and burials.
Pedro Chico González, Dictionary of Catechesis and Religious Pedagogy, Editorial Bruño, Lima, Peru 2006
Source: Dictionary of Catechesis and Religious Pedagogy
The word candle (candela, from candeo, to burn) was introduced into the English language as an ecclesiastical term, probably as early as the eighth century. It was known in classical times and denoted any type of cone in which a wick, usually made from a strip of papyrus, was coated with wax or animal fat. We need not shy away from admitting that candles, like incense and lustral water, were commonly used in pagan worship and in rites offered to the dead. But the Church took them into her service from a very early period, just as she took many other things indifferent in themselves, and which seemed fit to enhance the splendor of religious ceremonial. We must not forget that most of these accessories of the cult, such as music, lights, perfumes, ablutions, floral decorations, canopies, canopies, curtains, bells, clothing, etc., were not identified with any idolatrous cult in particular, but they were common to almost all cults. Indeed, they are part of the natural language of mystical expression, and such things belong to secular ceremonies as well as to religion. The salute of an allotted number of guns, a tribute paid by a warship to the flag of a foreign power, is just as more or less worthy of being described as superstitious as the arrangement of a certain number of sails on the ship. altar at high mass. Carrying matches is among the signs of respect shown to the highest dignitaries of the Roman Empire in the “Notitia Dignitatum”. It is highly probable that the candles which were carried, from a very early period, before the pope or bishop when they went in procession to the sanctuary, or those which accompanied the carrying of the book of the Gospels to the ambo or pulpit from which the deacon read , were nothing more than an adaptation of this age-old practice.
The use of multitudes of candles and lamps was undoubtedly a prominent feature of the Easter Vigil celebration dating, as we may believe, almost from apostolic times. Eusebius (Vita Constant., IV, XXII) speaks of the “pillars of wax” with which Constantine changed night into day, and Prudentius and other authors have left eloquent descriptions of the brightness within the churches. In the basilicas, the use of candles was not limited to those hours when artificial light was necessary. Not to mention the decree of the Spanish Council of Elvira (300), which seems to condemn as abuse some superstitious lighting of candles during the day in cemeteries, we know that the heretic Vigilancio, at the end of the same century, reproached the Orthodox that while the sun was still shining they lit a large number of candles (moles cereorum acccendi faciunt); and St. Jerome, in reply, declared that candles were lit during the Gospel reading, not precisely to put darkness to flight, but as a sign of joy (Migne, PL, XXIII, 345).
This observation and the close association of lighted candles with the baptism ceremony, which took place at the Easter Vigil and which undoubtedly gave rise to the qualification of that sacrament as photismos (illumination), shows that the Christian symbolism of blessed candles is already was making feel at that early date. This conclusion is further confirmed by the language of the Easter Proclamation (Exultet), still in use today on Holy Saturday for the blessing of the Easter candle. It is highly probable that St. Jerome himself composed such a praeconium paschale (see Morin in Benedictine Review, January 1891), and here the idea of the supposed virginity of the bees is insisted upon, and therefore the wax is considered to typify in the manner more appropriate the flesh of Jesus Christ born of a Virgin Mother. From this has arisen the later notion that the wick more particularly symbolizes the soul of Jesus Christ and calls it the Divinity that absorbs and dominates both. Thus the large Paschal candle represents Christ, “the true light”, and the smaller candles are typical of each individual Christian who strives to reproduce Christ in his life. We can say that this symbolism is still accepted in the Church in general.
In addition to its use in baptisms and funerals (Saint Cyprian was buried praelucientibus cereis in 258), we know from the so-called Fourth Council of Carthage, actually a synod held in southern Gaul (c. 514), that by conferring the minor order of acolyte]the candidate received “a candlestick with a candle”. This custom is observed today. Such candles when carried by acolytes, as we see in the Gregorian Sacramentary and the “Ordines Romani”, were in constant use in Roman Ceremonial from the seventh century and probably even earlier. These candles were placed on the pavement of the sanctuary and it was not until much later that they were placed on the altars. However, the practice of placing candles on the altar table itself appears to be somewhat earlier than the twelfth century. As the Roman pontiff, according to the “Ordines”, was preceded by seven candle-bearing acolytes, and as these candles, at a later period, were placed on the altar and no longer on the pavement, it is a tempting hypothesis to identify the six candlesticks. altar of an ordinary High Mass (there are seven when the bishop of the diocese pontificates) with the candlesticks of the acolytes of the Roman “Ordines”. But for this, see Edmund Bishop in the “Downside Review”, 1906.
It is now ordered to light six candles on the altar for each high Mass, four for the Missa cantata, or for a bishop’s private Mass on feast days, and two for all other Masses. A certain freedom is still allowed for the lighting of more candles on solemn occasions. Six candles should also be lit at Vespers and Lauds when the Office is sung on great feasts, but on less solemn occasions two or four are sufficient. The rubrics also prescribe that two acolytes with candles should go at the head of the procession to the sanctuary, and these two candles are also carried to honor the singing of the Gospel at High Mass, as well as for the singing of the little chapter and the collects. on the eve, etc. Similarly, when the bishop makes his entrance into the church he is greeted and escorted by acolytes with their candles. Likewise when a bishop takes part in some ecclesiastical act in the sanctuary he has a candlestick of his own, known as a candlestick (bugia), which is held close to him by a chaplain or clergyman.
Candles are also used in excommunications, in the reconciliation of penitents and other exceptional acts. They play a prominent role in the rite of church dedication and the blessing of cemeteries, and an offering of candles is also made at the offertory of an ordination Mass for those who have just been ordained. In the administration of all the sacraments, except that of penance, it is ordered that candles be lit. At baptism, a lighted candle is placed in the hand of the catechumen or godfather as representative of the minor. It is not legitimate to celebrate Mass without lighted candles, and if there is a risk that the wind will blow out the candles, they should be protected with lanterns. The rubrics of the “Roman Missal” order that in the Holy, even in any private Mass, an additional candle must be lit and that it must burn until after the priest’s Communion. However, this rubric has been much neglected in practice, even in Rome itself.
As for the matter, the candles used for liturgical purposes must be made of beeswax. This is considered so probably due to its symbolic relation to the flesh of Christ, as already explained. As for the Paschal candle and the two candles that are mandatory at Mass, a decree of the Congregation of Rites (December 14, 1904) has decided that they must be made of beeswax in maxima parte, which commentators have interpreted in the sense of not less than 75%. For other purposes, the candles placed on the altar, for example, in the blessing, must be of wax, “in large part” or, in any case, “in a considerable part”. A minimum of twelve such candles is prescribed for any public display of the Blessed Sacrament, although six will suffice in a poor church or private display. As a rule the color of the candles must be white, although gold or painted candles are allowed under certain restrictions. In Masses for the dead, however, and in Holy Week, yellow or unbleached wax is used.
It is also convenient that candles for liturgical purposes should be blessed, but this is not prescribed as an obligation. An elaborate candle blessing is provided for the Feast of the Purification of Mary on February 2, otherwise known as Día de la Candelaria, and this is followed by the distribution of candles and a procession. In earlier times this function was performed by the sovereign pontiff wherever he was residing; and some of these blessed candles were distributed by broadcast among the people and others were sent as gifts to persons of notoriety. A less elaborate candle blessing on ordinary occasions is given in the Missal as well as in the Ritual.
Candles were commonly used, and still are, to burn before urns towards which the faithful wish to show special devotion. The candle, burning its life before a statue, is no doubt perceived in some loose way as a symbol of prayer]and sacrifice. A curious medieval practice was to offer, to some favorable relic, a candle, or a certain number of candles, that had a measure equal to the height of the people for whom a favor was requested. This was called “measuring” this or that saint. The…