Corporal

CORPORALE. – It is a square of linen on which the Eucharistic Species and the sacred vessels are placed. Its name derives from the office of gathering up the Body of Christ. In the first centuries, cloths were not spread on the altar; only at Mass, before the offering, did the deacons spread a linen cloth on which to place the bread and wine intended for the Eucharistic sacrifice, and one edge was used to cover the chalice. Once the practice of covering the altar with two or three cloths had been introduced and, on the other hand, the offerings had diminished, the c. was shortened, so that as early as the Middle Ages it already had the form it has today. The chalice was then covered with another small c. palla (v.).

The material was determined by reference to the Shroud in which the lifeless body of Jesus had been wrapped: therefore the sacrifice of the Mass must be offered upon a linen cloth. In the Ambrosian liturgy, this is kept alive

This comparison is kept alive with the prayer preceding the Offertory, called “above the Shroud.” Nevertheless, ancient silk c. are preserved. In former times, after consumption, the c. was folded three times, placing the two ends inward so that “neither one end nor the other might appear outside.” Medieval liturgists saw therein a symbol of the divinity of Christ, which has neither beginning nor end; rather, however, the reason lay in the concern that the minute Eucharistic fragments remaining there should not fall in a profane place. For this reason, the keeping and washing of the c. always required religious care; and as early as the ninth century there was already a prescription forbidding c. to be sent to the laundry before they had been washed at least once by a priest, deacon, or subdeacon. The prescriptions of Cluny on this subject are minute and most curious. Highly ornamented c. are known, but current legislation permits only damask linens, some embroidery at the corners, and a small cross in the center without relief; the edges may be decorated with lace. It is carried to the altar in a burse that follows the rules governing liturgical colors.