CATAFALQUE. - For funeral services a special structure is erected in churches, surrounded by candles, called tumulus; castrum doloris; lectica mortuorum, which serves to support the coffin containing the body of the person for whom the funeral service is celebrated, or to represent it as present.

When the body is absent, the funeral bier may consist of a simple black cloth spread on the floor of the presbytery for the absolution. On the catafalque the bodies of the faithful are arranged so that the feet face the altar, while those of priests are placed in the opposite direction. On the cloth covering the coffin, or at the foot of the catafalque, the insignia of the deceased's civil or ecclesiastical dignity may be placed. For clerics are permitted the characteristic insignia: the stole, the chalice, the biretta, the mitre. To cover the catafalque of innocent children a white cloth is used, along with a crown of flowers, which may also be permitted to honor virginity.

Bibliography2 works

BIBL.: P. Bayart, Le mobilier d'Eglise, in R. Aigrain, Liturgia, Paris 1931, p. 256 ff.; P. Lugano, s. v. in Enc. Ital., IX (1931), p. 400 ff.

Filippo Oppenheim

@incollection{ec3_catafalco, author = {Oppenheim, Filippo}, title = {Catafalco}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {III}, pages = {1061--1062}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1949}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/catafalco} }

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Catafalque

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