The first Christians used two Greek words to describe their eucharistic table: thusiasterion, meaning “altar”, and trapeza meaning “table”. The words thus express the twofold meaning of the Mass – a holy sacrifice and a sacred banquet.
Saint Paul speaks of the “table of the Lord” in 1 Corinthians 10:21, although this refers more to eating the Eucharist than to the place where it is celebrated. But the words “we have an altar” in Hebrews 13:10 could be the earliest reference to the eucharistic table as an “altar”. In post-apostolic times, early in the Second Century, Ignatius of Antioch used the Greek word for “altar”, thusiasterion, to refer to the celebration of the Eucharist by the bishop and the place where the holy sacrifice is offered. This word is derived from the Greek Septuagint text of the Old Testament, where it describes the places where the Hebrew people offered their sacrifices.
The Latin Fathers used the standard existing Latin words for an altar, ara (an altar on a “high place”) and altare, not only to refer to the Eucharist itself but to the holy table where the Christian mysteries are celebrated. While Tertullian used ara, Saint Cyprian took this word to refer to a pagan altar, and preferred altare for the eucharistic table, hence the Latin origin of our English word “altar”.
The Christian altar was always treated with great reverence. The Greek Fathers described the “holy table” as “mystical”, “tremendous” and “priestly”. It was regarded as so holy that nothing was allowed to be placed on it except the sacred vessels for the Eucharist, the chalice and paten, and the holy Book of the Gospels.
As already noted, the first Christian altars in the centuries of persecution were wooden, but by the Fourth Century, when Christianity had become legal and many churches were being built, altars were usually constructed of stone, marble or alabaster and this became the more widespread tradition. A mosaic of the priest Melchisedech in Ravenna depicts the altar of the age of the Church Fathers. This was usually a cube-shaped table, freestanding and dressed in rich hangings and embroidered cloths.
Candles stood around the altar and a jewelled cross and oil lamps were suspended by chains above it. It was enshrined under a canopy, resting on four columns, the ciborium or baldachino that we still see in the great Roman basilicas: St Peter’s, St Paul’s outside the walls, St Mary Major etc. Silken curtains were hung from this canopy and these veils were drawn around the altar to conceal the most sacred and mystical moments of the Mass, the consecration of the bread and wine during the Eucharistic prayer.
The altar was always located in an area set apart from the rest of the church, the “sanctuary” or holy place. A low screen separated the sanctuary from the rest of the church. In the East this screen was used to display holy images, the ikons, and gradually the screen developed into the large ikonostasis, the solid screen that now conceals the altar in the Byzantine Rite of the Greeks, Ukrainians, Russians, Melchites etc, in both Catholic and Orthodox churches. Here we see the tradition of concealing a sacred place and holy action to emphasise the mystery, the supernatural event. By concealing something you also reveal a mystery.
The altar and sanctuary in the Christian East seems to symbolise more the heavenly altar in the Letter to the Hebrews. Therefore the way Eastern Christians celebrate their beautiful liturgies reflects the offering Jesus Christ our great High Priest and the eterna angelic worship of God in heaven. Christians on the earthly pilgrimage are raised into the heavenly dimension each time they are gathered by God to celebrate the holy liturgy.
In the West, where the simpler Roman Rite prevailed, the altar was not concealed. In the Medieval era it moved closer to the back wall of the sanctuary.
Gradually it lost its cubic form, becoming longer. Behind it rose a reredos adorned with paintings, carvings or sculpture. A cross, candles and relics began to be placed on it in the Middle Ages.
With some exceptions, the tabernacle for reserving the Eucharist was not set on an altar in western Europe until the Sixteenth Century. Before that time the tabernacle took various forms: a eucharistic tower, a small shrine suspended over the altar (often shaped like a dove), a noble safe set in a wall (aumbry). The use of flowers on the altar or on shelves behind it seems to date only from the Eighteenth Century, and is still frowned upon by liturgists.
The celebrant at the Christian altar faced East from the earliest times. This custom was symbolic of God’s People looking towards the rising sun, a sign of the coming of the risen Christ with his light of grace, hope and salvation. To face East usually meant that the priest and people all faced the same way, so the priest was leading the people, with his back to them, as in a procession. But if the sanctuary happened to be at the Western end of the church, then the priest faced the people (eg. Saint Peter’s Basilica, Rome). This was also necessary if the tomb of a saint was set directly under and in front of the altar (also the plan of Saint Peter’s Basilica, Rome).
It has been argued that linking an altar to the tomb of a saint went back to when Mass was celebrated over the tombs of martyrs in the Catacombs. We still maintain this link by inserting the relics of saints under a new altar during the rite of dedication.
Some scholars in the liturgical movement of the last century claimed that the Eucharist was originally celebrated facing the people, a view that is strongly contested today. To promote better participation in worship, Mass facing the people was revived before the Second World War in parishes, monasteries and student chaplaincies in France and Germany. Mass facing the people therefore became the favoured option in the reforms of the liturgy, authorized after the Second Vatican Council. It was hoped that this arrangement would promote “full and active participation”, especially now that the language of the people was used for worship.
Mass facing the people had a radical effect on altars and sanctuaries. In many churches the existing altar was brought forward or a new freestanding altar was constructed in front of it.
The new altars took a simpler form, with reduced proportions because a cumbersome altar might dwarf the priest standing behind it. In some churches the ancient cube-shaped altar reappeared. While this is suitable in a small chapel, it can make the altar look trivial in a large church. The great sign of Christ must be significant.
Once the altar moved forward, the tabernacle had to be relocated.
We have returned to earlier methods of eucharistic reservation, that is, setting the tabernacle into the wall or in a tower or shrine apart from the altar but on the sanctuary of the church.
According to a second option, the tabernacle may be located on a side altar or in a separate eucharistic chapel, which is to be visible from the body of the church as in St Mary’s Cathedral, Perth (see the revised General Instruction of the Roman Missal, nos. 314-317).
Pope Benedict XVI is an expert liturgist. By public example, and in line with what he wrote when he was a Cardinal, he promotes what is being called “the Benedictine altar”. This is really a rearrangement of the crucifix and candles.
The crucifix is set on the altar, at the centre.
The candles (two, four or six) are arranged symmetrically on each side. When the celebrant faces the people the crucifix need not block the people’s view, because they all look at the altar from an angle anyway. The real point of this development is to make Jesus Christ the centre of the celebration, not the priest. Any altar can now “look like an altar”, not just a table adorned with candles and flowers.
Unfortunately we have not always maintained the deep sense of reverence for the altar which was part of the faith of the Christians of the first centuries. They expressed their eucharistic faith in the care they took to build beautiful and valuable altars.
Some of our churches contain altars that still seem temporary, even cheap tables. Yet the Church calls us to set up noble and permanent altars for the celebration of the Eucharist according to the post-conciliar liturgy. The guidelines are set out clearly in the revised General Instruction of the Roman Missal, nos. 296-308.