INCENSE. - A resinous substance which, when burned, gives off a pleasant aromatic odor and smoke.
I. SACRED SCRIPTURE
In the Bible incense is often spoken of (Hebr. lābhōndh, Hellenized as Māvec, because it is "white," at least in its most prized quality, cf. Pliny, Hist. natur., XII, 14), especially in the ritual legislation. The use of incense recurred continually in Hebrew worship.
Already in the Mosaic Tabernacle there was a special altar (v.) of perfumes, on which morning and evening the priest burned a mixture of aromatic substances, namely storax, onycha, galbanum and incense (Ex. 30, 34). This mixture, called thymiana (ibid. 30, 9; Num. 16, 7, 47), was reserved for cultic use under penalty of death (Ex. 30, 38).
Incense was prescribed for the oblations (Lev. 2, 1. 2. 15. 16), while it was forbidden in the sacrifices of expiation (ibid. 5, 11) and in the offerings for the rite of jealousy (Num. 5, 15); the twelve "loaves of presentation" were also sprinkled with it (Lev. 24, 7). So great was the importance of incense that sometimes it is expressly named together with the animals and other unbloody offerings (cf. Jer. 17, 26; 41, 5); at the beginning of the Christian era there is mention, in a chronological specification, of the "hour of incense" (Lk. 1, 10). The fragrance of incense suggests graceful images to the Song of Songs (4, 6, 14); its column of smoke rises pleasing to God like prayer (cf. Ps. 140, 2; Apoc. 8, 3, 4). The Bible alludes to its high cost, since it was a product imported from Sheba (Jer. 6, 20) and from other localities of southern Arabia (Is. 68, 6). The same provenance is indicated by classical authors (cf. Virgil, Georg., I, 58). Incense was extracted, it seems, from the boswellia Carteri of the family of the bursaraceae.
Bibliography2 works
Angelo Penna
II. LITURGY
The use of incense in worship is attested from the most remote antiquity among all the Eastern peoples. Malachi had prophesied its use in the New Testament: "Et in omni loco thus adolebunt" (I, 11, according to the Hebrew text and the Greek version of the LXX). Christian liturgy was for some time hostile to it, only because it was anxious to break away from pagan customs. This explains the precise statements of Tertullian who, listing the Christian's gifts to God, affirms: "non grana thuris unius assi arabicae arboris lacrimas" (Apolog., 30); and of St. Augustine: "Securi sumus: non imus in Arabiam thus quaerere" (Enarr. in ps., IXI, 14). For this reason other statements earlier than the middle of the 4th century that seem to allude to the Christian use of incense must be understood as allegorical; and the one in the Liber pontificalis for Pope Soter (162-70) dates back to the 6th century. Nevertheless the use of incense in the houses of Christians and sometimes in sacred buildings was not excluded, but only for perfuming the air: for this purpose served the censers donated by Constantine to the Lateran Basilica. When, then, in the second half of the 4th century the pagan danger diminished, incense probably entered liturgical use.
Some authors doubt that a passage of St. Ambrose: "utinam nobis quoque adolentibus altaria, sacrificium deferentibus" (PL 15, 1625) had a real rather than allegorical meaning: others make it the oldest text attesting the use of incense in the Mass. Explicit statements, however, are found in Paulinus of Nola (ibid. 61, 637) and Gregory the Great (ibid. 77, 980). The first direct text, however, is from the 6th century (Ordo rom., I), and incense is used in honor of the Pope and of the Evangeliary in the procession that accompanies the Supreme Pontiff to the altar for the celebration of the Mass. The liturgical use of incense is therefore later in the West than in the East, where it is certainly attested from the 4th century.
Oriental influence then made itself felt first in Gaul and then in Rome, where, with the 9th century, the incensation of the altar was introduced and then of the clergy and of the oblates. In the first half of the 14th century (Ordo XIV) what the rubrics today prescribe was established. In parallel it was introduced at Lauds and Vespers during the singing of the Benedictus (in the Ambrosian liturgy the incensation is postponed to the psalms in Laudate) and of the Magnificat. Incense was also used in honor of the dead, all the more so if martyrs or confessors, and indeed from this came the practice of incensing from every side the altar where the relics of saints are in fact gathered. In the late Middle Ages, the primitive purposes of incense having been forgotten, the Office was given to it "ut omnis nequitia daemonis propellatur; fumus enim incensi videre creditur ad daemones effugandos" (Innocent III, De sacrificio Missae, 2, 17). The purifying force, however, was not understood as intrinsic to incense, but as due to the fact of its having been blessed. From then on palms, candles, ashes, etc. were incensed in the various ceremonies. It remains always fundamental, however, that incense is offered to the divinity directly or indirectly in the persons or things that recall God. It was always held to be the most beautiful symbol of prayer according to the very words of the Apoc.
(8, 3-4): "I saw an angel come, who carried a golden censer and stood at the altar: and much incense was given to him, and the fragrance of the incense rose from the angel's hands through the prayers of the saints up and up to God."