Agnus Dei, Blessing of the

AGNUS DEI, Blessing of the. - The Agnus Dei currently in use are medallions of white wax, oval in shape, of varying size, blessed by the Supreme Pontiff on specific occasions, bearing on one face the image of the paschal lamb with the cross and around it the inscription Ecce Agnus Dei qui tollit peccata mundi, and on the other that of a saint or of some special event.

Scholars do not agree in determining their origin. It seems that it must be excluded that it goes back to the custom established among the faithful of preserving certain fragments of the paschal candle, to which special protection was attributed. What can be affirmed with certainty is the Christian origin, probably Roman, of the Agnus Dei; and that one must not go beyond the 9th century: in fact an Ordo Romanus of that period speaks of it clearly, and Amalarius and pseudo-Alcuin allude to it. In ancient times the blessing of the Agnus Dei was performed at the Lateran by the archdeacon, on Holy Saturday. With the Pope present, the archdeacon, vested in a dalmatic, received from the Pontiff the sacred chrism in a silver ampulla which he poured into a cauldron of liquefied wax. From this wax the Agnus Dei were made, which were distributed on Low Sunday to the faithful after the Agnus Dei of the papal Mass. The most ancient ones known go back to the time of John XXII (1316-34) and of Gregory IX (1227-41). Subsequently, the Supreme Pontiffs reserved to themselves the blessing of the Agnus Dei, and assigned to the Cistercian monks of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme the privilege of preparing them.

In the current rite, which goes back to the 16th century, holy water, chrism and balsam are used for the blessing. The Supreme Pontiff, in the first year of his pontificate, within the octave of Easter, proceeds to the solemn blessing of the Agnus Dei, and renews it every seven years. The ceremony consists of three prayers addressed respectively to the Father, to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, with which the Agnus Dei and the water into which the chrism and balsam are poured are blessed; then the former are immersed in this blessed water. When they are taken out, the paschal hymn Ad regias Agni dapes is sung. At other times too the solemn blessing of the Agnus Dei is customarily performed, that is, when they are exhausted, or on the occasion of special solemnities or recurrences. The Agnus Dei thus consecrated are sacramentals, and an object of devotion for the faithful. In the leaflet that usually accompanies their distribution are enumerated the virtues that the prayers of the Church confer upon them, such as: to free the faithful from every evil, from every danger, from every snare of the devil; to stir up the remembrance of our Redemption, contrition for sins, and to obtain from the divine goodness the remission of sins committed. Every element that contributes to the making of the Agnus Dei is full of mystical signification; and the very prayers of the blessing allude to this symbolism.

Enrico Dante