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connection in the

liturgy as is made

in the scriptures:

the deaths of the

saints, whose

bodies are placed

beneath the altar,

become an icon

and a type of the

death of Christ,

who is sacramen-

tally made pre-

sent on the altar.

A portable altar stone as used in the western Church. The This is the case
small square of marble beneath the cross seals up a cavity even with portable
altars. In the West
or sepulchre containing relics. consecrated altar

stones came into use, which can be carried from place to place. Relics

of saints are sealed into a small cavity called a ‘sepulchre’ and the whole

is consecrated by a bishop18 . These were required in Roman Catholic

use until the reforms after the second Vatican council, and because of

their convenience were often used even in large ?xed altars, laid ?at

into the surface instead of consecrating the whole structure. In the Byz-

antine Rite the place of the altar stone is taken by the antimension, an

altar cloth, also consecrated by the bishop, in which the relics are

stitched into a pocket of the material.

Alongside the o?cial liturgical cult of relics there was also per-

sonal devotion. When the faithful visited the shrine of some saint they

wanted to carry away some tangible reminder of their visit, an enduring

connection. Many kinds of so-called secondary relics developed. Oil

from lamps that burned before holy relics was popular, as is shown by

18 David Sox, Relics and Shrines, George Allen & Unwin, 1985, p8

39