ARUNDINE (from Lat. *arundo* «reed»). — A decorated staff surmounted by three candles arranged in a triangle, used in the Holy Saturday liturgy. After the blessing of the fire (v.) at the church door, the deacon enters carrying the arundine in his right hand and sings the *Lumen Christi* three times at the entrance, midway, and near the altar, raising his voice each time and lighting one of the three candles. The arundine then remains beside the high altar until Low Sunday.
The rite may have its origin in a Roman custom where, on Holy Thursday at about the ninth hour, a candle placed on a reed was lit at the door of the Lateran with a spark struck from flint; with this candle seven lamps were then lit and the Mass began (*Ordo Rom. I*, appendix 1, from the Carolingian age). A miniature in an *Exultet* (Cod. Vat. lat. 3784, 12th cent.) suggests that originally the arundine was nothing more than a staff fitted with one or more candles, used to light the Paschal Candle. In any case, the present ceremony of the *Lumen Christi* appears only in *Ordo Rom. XII*, 30 (late 12th–early 13th cent.).