Consecration

CONSECRATION. - It is the stable and legally valid passage of a person or thing from the profane order (ius humanum) to the sacred order (ius divinum), by means of a rite. In Christian liturgy the c. par excellence is that which the priest performs in the Mass, changing the bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus Christ (v. EUCHARIST). Besides this, the Roman Pontifical enumerates five c. properly so called; that is, distinct from blessing (v.); they are: that of a bishop (v. ORDER), of a fixed altar, of the sacred stone for the altar, of the chalice and the paten, and of a church (v. the individual entries).

Fundamental to all religions, beginning with the lowest, is the belief in a double sphere into which being is divided: that of the sacred and that of the profane. The latter is often also considered as that of the impure (Lev. 10, 10; Ex. 22, 26). Hence forms of c. are found everywhere. The object of this is especially temples, altars, sacred groves, other immovable property of the temple, especially the image of the divinity: also men, women, boys and girls. Generally three moments can be distinguished in c.: 1) purification, necessary in the case where the profane is also impure: hence the precept of a preliminary bath, of ablutions, of shaving or cutting the hair, the beard, the nails; hence in Christian worship an exorcism or at least the sprinkling with holy water almost always precedes the c. 2) The detachment from the profane world, mostly by means of local separation, and sometimes more radically, by means of destruction; this element is found in Christian worship, where a consecrated thing is entirely segregated from its profane use and serves exclusively for sacred use; and a sacred person, in order to consecrate himself solely to the divine service, is exempt from many civil burdens, with special privileges. 3) The admission into the sacred world, with the assimilation of the divine force or spirit, whereby the one being consecrated becomes himself sacred. This element in the Christian religion is expressed by the handing over of the instruments, by the putting on of sacred garments, and by the rite of the imposition of the hands of the consecrator upon the one being consecrated, a rite used in the Old Testament, where it is encountered as a means of transmitting to others one's own virtue and one's own office; and in the New Testament also as a means of communicating the Holy Spirit (Gen. 48, 14 ff.; Num. 27, 18 and 23; Mk. 5, 25; 8, 23-25; 10, 13 ff.; Lk. 4, 40; 13, 31 etc.; Acts 6, 6; 13, 3; 28, 8; I Tim. 4, 14; II Tim. 1, 6); then with incensation, with the anointing of the sacred oils, especially of chrism, according to the circumstances, with the formula of the consecratory prayer, which, generally, is the most solemn one of the Preface. In the higher religions the c. also acquires another, more elevated and spiritual sense, of the destination of the person to the service of God, as interpreter of his will toward humanity and intermediary between the religious community and God.

In general, in pagan religions, the direct way to pass from the profane order to the sacred one is the communication that the divine makes of itself, even if only through a chance contact. But when the divine does not communicate itself spontaneously to the profane, the latter, in order to become sacred, must be artificially placed in communication with it, by means of a rite of c.

The negative goal is obtained, as regards purification, with the usual means of ablution, fasting, etc.; and as regards separation from the profane world, with retirement into the desert, dwelling in a sacred place such as the temple, with abstinence from certain practices of common life, such as from intoxicating drinks, from participation in funerals, from sexual practices, etc. The positive goal, that is, the communication of the supernatural divine force, is effected by means of the word or of the action, or of both. To words, that is, is attributed either a magical virtue of various kinds (among primitives), or the efficacy of actualizing their meaning; with the action, in many ways the thing or person to be consecrated can be brought into contact with a sacred person or thing, so that the divine virtue residing in this may pour itself out upon that. Such actions are: the introduction into the innermost part of the sanctuary and the placing upon the altar or near it, the handing over of the instruments of one's office and the putting on of sacred vestments, the touching of the statue of the deity, the participation in the table of the gods by tasting special foods and drinks or by taking part in sacrificial banquets, the sprinkling of lustral water or of the blood of the victim, the bathing of the entire person in the blood of a sacred animal, the anointing with oil or other precious unguents, the attendance at the representation of the deeds of the gods, and above all the sudden vision of the light gushing from the sacred place.

In Christianity the c. are generally performed with the word and with the action. Since, according to Roman law, the c. is the act by which a thing is withdrawn from civil commerce and is destined to the cult of the gods, making of it a res divini iuris (res sacra), the effect of conferring on the thing the quality of sacred came about only if the act was performed by magistrates or by others ex auctoritate populi Romani (in the imperial era the competence belongs to the prince or to the person designated by him), so in the Christian religion, for the c. of a person or thing, there is always required not just any priest, but a bishop, to whom the c. is reserved, or a delegate of his. Sacred things were considered as belonging to the divinity: Gaius (II, 9) excludes any right of property (quod divini iuris est, id nullius in bonis est); according to the jurist Trebatius (Macrobius, Saturn., II, 3) everything that the common people consider as belonging to the gods is sacred (sacrum est, quidquid est, quod deorum habetur).

Filippo Oppenheim