FALDISTORIO. - From the German Faltstuhl (folding chair). It is a chair with arms but without a back, placed on 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 from the diocesan bishop to use the throne; auxiliaries and coadjutors must always use it (Sacred Congregation of Rites, decree 4023); apostolic protonotaries de numero and supernumeraries when they celebrate pontifically according to the motu proprio Inter multiplices of Pius X (1905).
It is already mentioned in the Ordo Romanus XIV of the fourteenth century (PL 78, 1159). It has no steps, but simply a platform or a stool. According to the Cneremoniale Episcoporum it must be covered with cloths (formerly with linen: Paciano, fourth century, Epist. 2 ad Sympremianum calls it a «linteatam sedem»). According to traditional usage, it is covered with fabric in the colour of the office of the day and has a cushion of the same colour.
The origin of the f. is probably to be sought in the practical need to have a comfortable seat near the altar, since the throne, or episcopal cathedra, was at the end of the apse behind the altar. In abbey churches, beside the altar, it was the abbot’s chair.
