LAMP. — For the typology and use of lamps: see ILLUMINAZIONE NELLE CHIESE ANTICHE.
Sometimes the lamp has taken on a symbolic meaning. Thus, for example, in some inscriptions the lit lamp has been depicted, as in the epitaph of a lanuaria (cf. G. B. De Rossi, Roma sotterranea, III, Rome 1877, p. 333 and plates 27–29 no. 22) and in two tombs in the Coemeterium of Pamphilus (cf. E. Josi, Il cimitero di Panfilo, in Riv. di arch. crist., 3 [1926], p. 79 and fig. 13, p. 89 and fig. 18). In the first and third examples the lamp, according to G. B. De Rossi, expresses the soul presenting itself to Christ with the lamp lit, as in the Gospel parable of the ten virgins, or the desire that the soul may have the reward of light (cf. G. B. De Rossi, Inscr. Christ., I, Rome 1857–61, no. 412); in the second example it is the sign of the name of the deceased Lucernius.
On a marble slab in the Coemeterium Maius a deceased woman is depicted praying between her two patron saints; the one on the right holds a lit lamp. G. B. De Rossi explained the scene with the vision narrated in the Acts of the African Martyrs of 259, Lucius and Montanus, where it is said that Christ is “lucerna pedibus nostris et qui est sermo scilicet Dei” (A vision narrated by the 3rd-century African martyrs and a symbolic graffito found in the Ostiarius cemetery, in Bull. d’arch. crist., 3rd ser., 5 [1880], p. 67 and plate III).
Enrico Josi
LAMP. — The evening hour of prayer when lights were lit in homes. It is not to be confused with Vespers, although the times of the two prayers are so close that their names and meanings sometimes overlap: Hora lucernalis (Cassian), Lucernarium (Caesarius, Egeria), Eucharistia lucernalis (Basil), Gratia vespertina (Gregory of Tours).
Among the Jews there was the custom in the evening of the Sabbath of lighting more solemnly and ritually greeting the light as a symbol of the divine. From this is easily explained the circumstance that at Troas, where St Paul presided over the nocturnal “breaking of bread,” the upper room was brilliantly illuminated (Acts 20:8). For Christians this time of lighting the lamp coincided with the Sunday vigil, and thus the rite symbolized the Resurrection of Christ and His parousia.
The Greeks and Romans also greeted the light as “good,” “lovely,” “pleasing”; the lamp-bearer pronounced a blessing, and with the kindling of the light sacrifices and prayers were added. In the homes of Christians and in the places of their assemblies this became a religious rite. St Basil (PG 32, 205) cites the ancient hymn Lumen hilare, perhaps dating from the time of the martyrs, which was recited on this occasion and which is still used today in the Greek Divine Liturgy and in the liturgy of the Presanctified. His brother, St Gregory of Nyssa, relates that, at the lighting of the lamp, the dying sister Macrina recited for the last time the customary lucernal thanksgiving (PG 46, 985). The Apostolic Constitutions (II, 59, 2; VIII, 35–37) prescribe for liturgical assemblies this rite: Psalm 140 is recited, already cited by St John as a daily prayer, followed by other thanksgiving prayers. The Nunc dimittis was also sung as a lucernal canticle. Similar prayers were in use at the agape ceremony, according to the Ethiopian recension of the Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus. Well known is the description of the lamp rite at Jerusalem, given by Egeria in her Peregrinatio. This shows that in the East it was practiced almost universally. There are many testimonies to its use in the West. Cyprian (De dom. orat., 35) admonished to pray “recedente sole ad diem.” St Jerome recommended (Ep., 107, 9, 3) to Leta, a Roman lady, to make for her daughter “accensa lucerna reddere sacrificium vespertinum.” Of St Paulinus it is related that in his last agony at lamp-lighting time he sang in a low voice, “Paravi lucernam Christo meo” (Ps 131:17; Uranius, De morte Paulini, 4: PL 53, 862). In the Ambrosian Office the lamp precedes Vespers. In Spain, Egeria notes, the lamp rite was used as in Jerusalem. Prudentius composed the lucernal hymn Inventor rutili, which in the Middle Ages was sung on Holy Saturday after the blessing of the fire. The Mozarabic rite still preserves, as does Milan, the memory of this lamp before Vespers; the deacon sings “In nomine Domini nostri Iesu Christi, lumen cum pace,” and the people respond “Deo gratias” (similar to our Lumen Christi of Holy Saturday). In Gaul the monastic Rules of St Caesarius and St Aurelian (PL 68, 395) attest the use of the lamp, following the Rule of Lerins; the lamp (with psalms and antiphons) is distinguished from Vespers. The Regula magistri (PL 88, 1004) at least alludes by name to the lamp, although it speaks of Vespers. According to the Antiphonary of Bangor (PL 72, 588), the lamp was also in use in Ireland; note the blessing of the candle with the hymn Ignis creator (with no Paschal allusion) and a special collect.
It is to be noted that St Benedict makes no mention of it at all in his Rule because it was not in use at Rome, and he ordered Vespers to be sung in daylight, thus excluding lamps and lanterns. Throughout the Mediterranean at the time of St Jerome, St Augustine, Ennodius of Pavia (d. 521), and even St Gregory the Great (in a letter of 60 to the Archbishop of Ravenna), on Holy Saturday the lamp rite of the Laus cerei was in use, not in the city itself but only in the suburban towns (Ord. Rom., 1: PL 78, 960). In the Lateran on Holy Thursday and the following days there was a procession cum supplici silentio; a spark was struck from a stone to light a candle fixed at the top of a reed, with which the seven lamps of the altar were then lit.
Today, on Holy Saturday, the Roman rite combines into one three originally distinct rites and prayers: a) the blessing of the fire with the four collects, which recall the primitive Eucharistia lucernalis; b) the procession of the Lumen Christi, another remnant of the lamp rite; c) the rite of the Exultet, the classic Laus cerei, long attributed to St Augustine.
LAMP. — See LUMINARE.