BALL. - In the current liturgical sense it is a small square of linen, about 20-25 cm, used to cover the chalice, especially from the Offertory to the Communion.
Until the 11th century the chalice was covered with the folded-back rear part of the corporal, called the palla grande (v.); this Franco-Italian custom is still followed by the Carthusians. For convenience in private Masses without a deacon, the chalice was at first covered with another folded corporal ("panno complicato instar sudari"), then with a small linen cloth almost detached from the corporal, the "corporale minus" or "p. corporalis" or simply p. This piece of linen, ornamented around the edge with lace, formerly soft, is now stiff or starched; in Belgium and Germany it is doubled and supported in the middle by cardboard. The p. must always be of pure linen, like the corporal from which it was detached (Decr. auth., 4174); if double, the upper part may also be made of silk and variously ornamented or embroidered (ibid., 1882, 4). St. Charles Borromeo calls the p. the "animetta" (little soul), because it is enclosed in the corporal as the soul is in the body; in the Mozarabic rite it is called "filola", because it derives from the palla grande. The p. is blessed with the same formula as the corporal, from which it derives; the first washing, like that of the corporal, must be done by a priest or a subdeacon. Medieval allegorism sees symbolized in the corporal the shroud in which Christ was wrapped and in the p. especially the sudarium (Jo. 20, 7).
In a broader and more original sense, p. was the name given to the altar cloth: two are distinguished: "p. altaris" and "p. corporalis", that is, the present-day corporal, from which the p. was detached. Sometimes indeed the chalice veil is called p. In the preparation of the chalice the p. is placed over the paten. The Theatines use a second p. to cover the paten.
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