Luluabourg [Kananga], Apostolic Vicariate of

LULUABOURG [KANANGA], APOSTOLIC VICARIATE OF. - In the central-southern part of the Belgian Congo, entrusted to the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (Missionaries of Scheut), who have worked there since 1887.

It was erected as a sui iuris mission under the name of Upper Kassai on 26 July 1901, with territory detached from the apostolic vicariate of the Belgian Congo; raised to an apostolic prefecture on 18 March 1904, and to an apostolic vicariate on 13 June 1917. After several cessions of territory for the creation of other missions, it received its new name of L. on 10 March 1949.

It has an area of 196,000 sq. km. with 1,500,000 inhabitants, of whom 386,558 are Catholics, with 2,158 churches and chapels, served by 26 diocesan priests and 155 religious, assisted by 5 male and 29 female religious communities. It has 1 major and one minor seminary; more than 2,000 schools (among them 1 vocational and 5 normal schools) and 120 works of charity and welfare (among which 15 hospitals, 2 leprosaria, 5 orphanages). It has a printing press with a periodical of 13,000 copies.

Carlo Corvo

«LUMEN CHRISTI! DEO GRATIAS!» - An ancient Christian acclamation, used when lighting the lamp. In the Roman (Benedictine) monasteries, when during supper, at the approach of night, the lamp had to be lit, the lamp-bearer, entering, exclaimed in a loud voice «Lumen Christi!», and all responded «Deo gratias!» (Ordo of John the archchanter, ed. C. Silva-Tarouca [v. bibl.], p. 214). It was perhaps already in use at the time of St. Benedict (F. J. Dölger [v. bibl.], p. 37). It is also indicated on two lamps of the 5th century, found one at Selinunte (Sicily), the other in ancient Cuicul (Djemila in Numidia), both with the inscription «Deo gratias!» around the Christogram (F. J. Dölger, p. 37 f.). Similarly the word of blessing with the «Lumen Christi!» is found on many lamps coming from Palestine or Asia Minor. It is used in the Mass of the Presanctified (of St. Gregory) of the Greek rite during Lent (F. J. Dölger, pp. 19-20). In this way one explains well the fact that in Africa, when the light was lit, from the Catholic houses the voices «Deo gratias!» were heard, while the Donatists shouted «Deo laudes!» (F. J. Dölger, pp. 37-38).

This Christian acclamation of the «Lumen Christi!» replaces a pagan rite already used by the ancient Romans. According to Servius (Coment. in Aen., ed. Thilo, I, Leipzig 1881, p. 720), when the light was lit the Romans remained silent for some moments, so as not to lose the Grace with a useless word, while the lamp-bearer uttered the acclamation. Similarly, in the 4th century, an acclamation to the light was uttered in the houses of Spain, as Ammianus Marcellinus relates: «inferentes vespertina lumina pueros exclamasse ex usu 'Vincamus'...» (F. J. Dölger, pp. 40-41). The use of an acclamation or of a word of blessing when lighting the light is observed down to our own time in monasteries or in the southern regions (F. J. Dölger, pp. 143-44). The ancient Christian acclamation of the «Lumen Christi!» is preserved in the rite of Holy Saturday.

After the new fire has been blessed outside the church, the deacon in the procession lights three times the three candles placed on the top of the arundo (v.), and raising his voice says each time: «Lumen Christi!»; all respond: «Deo gratias!». In Rome, this procession with the new fire, introduced in the 8th century (Ordo Suburbicalis; B. Capelle [v. bibl.], pp. 113-114), took place in silence («cum supplici silentio»), not only on Holy Saturday, but in the evening on the last three days of Holy Week. In the Mozarabic rite, on the other hand, after the new fire had been blessed on the evening of Holy Saturday, the bishop, on entering the church, said three times «Deo gratias!», and the people repeated it. The silent rite of the Ordo Suburbicalis was still used in the Ordo of the Roman-Germanic Pontifical of the 10th century (M. Andrieu [v. bibl.], I, pp. 495-525; B. Capelle, pp. 117-18). But from an Ordo of upper Italy of the 10th century (edited by H. M. Bannister, in Miscellanea Ceriani, Milan 1910, p. 135), the cry «Lumen Christi!» is mentioned for the first time; the same in the Ordo Cassinensis hebd. maj. of the 12th century (ed. T. Leuterman, Montecassino 1941, p. 78 f.), perhaps of Beneventan origin: the deacon, after the still silent procession, having greeted and pointed out to the faithful the paschal candle lit by the acolyte with the flame obtained from the new fire brought from outside, uttered three times «Lumen Christi!»; that cry referred to the paschal candle itself, not, as today, to the triple candle. Of our custom, that is, of the «Lumen Christi!» in the procession and of the arundo, mention is found for the first time in the Ordo Apameus of the year 1114 (B. Capelle, p. 118), in the Ordo Romanus XII, n. 30 (of the 12th century) and in the Ordo Romanus XIV, n. 94 (of the 14th century). The tricerium (arundo) had at first a purely practical purpose: if the wind extinguished one, another flame remained lit (Ordo offic. Eccl. lat.; F. J. Dölger, pp. 32-33). The cry of the «Lumen Christi!» instead, in Spanish usage, is derived from the ancient Christian acclamation used in lighting the lamp (F. J. Dölger, p. 40). Instead of the «Lumen Christi!» there was sung in the procession in some particular rites down to modern times the hymn of Prudentius «Inventor rutili» (B. Capelle, p. 118; Missale Treverense, 1608); the Cluniacs at the procession of the light on these last three days of Holy Week recited psalms 52, 50, 66, 69 (B. Albers, Consuet. Parfentes, in Consuet. Monast., I, pp. 48, 55). The use of so splendid a light in the Holy Night derives from the rite in force at Jerusalem on this night.

119; F. J. Dölger, Lumen Christi. Untersuchungen zum abendlichen Licht-Segen. Die Deo Gratias Lampen von Selinunt in Sizilien, und Cuical in Numidien, in Antihe und Christentum, 5 (1936), pp. 1-43, 143-44; T. Leuterman, Ordo Cassinensis Hebdomadae Maioris (sacc. XII), Montecassino 1941, pp. 78-80, 114-15; M. Righetti, Manuale di storia liturgica, II, Milan 1946, pp. 171-174.