Faldstool

FALDSTOOL. - From the German Faltstuhl (folding chair). It is a chair with armrests but without a back, which is placed at the steps of the altar on the Epistle side for the bishop or abbot when he cannot use the throne, as on Good Friday and at pontifical Masses for the dead or in the presence of an apostolic legate or a cardinal, or at sacred ordinations. Other bishops use it when they have not obtained permission for the throne from the diocesan bishop; auxiliaries and coadjutors must always use it (Sacred Congregation of Rites, decr. 4023); protonotaries apostolic of number and supernumerary when they celebrate pontifically according to the motu proprio Inter multiplices of Pius X (1905).

It is already mentioned by the Ordo Romanus XIV of the 14th century (PL 78, 1159). It has no steps, but simply a dais or a stool. According to the Caeremoniale Episcoporum it must be covered with acta (originally with cloth: Pacian, 4th century, Epist. 2 ad Sympremianum calls it "linteatam sedem"). According to traditional usage it is covered with fabric of the color of the office of the day and has a cushion of the same color.

The origin of the f. is probably to be sought in the practicality of having a comfortable seat near the altar, given that the throne, or episcopal cathedra, was at the back of the apse behind the altar. In abbey churches the abbot's chair was next to the altar.

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