PROSTRATION (προσφυγος). - It is the act of throwing oneself to the ground, touching it with the forehead, a sign of the deepest humiliation and submission.
A natural act found in various ancient cults, in the Jewish religion, and in the rituals of Eastern courts. Holy Scripture speaks of it (Gen. 42:6; 43:26; 28; Josh. 5:15). Thus the Magi worshipped the Child Jesus (Mt. 2:11); thus our Lord Himself prayed in the garden (Mt. 26:39); thus the Apocalypse presents the elders in adoration (Rev. 5:14; 19:4). Prostration, widely practiced in the ancient Persian court, was not unknown in Rome (Suetonius, Aul. Vitell., 2:5). Tertullian knew it as an attitude in urgent prayer (Adversus Marcionem, 3:18). The Byzantine court also adopted the act of its ceremonial officers, and from there it entered into Eastern liturgy and later into the Western as well. The first certain witness for the Roman liturgy, which is very late, is found in the *Breviarium ecclesiastici ordinis*, composed around 790–800, of Franco-monastic origin, where it appears as an act performed at the altar at the beginning of Mass (M. Andrieu, *Les Ordines romani du haut moyen âge*, III, Louvain 1951, Ordo XVII, no. 25, p. 179). The present Roman liturgy used it on Good Friday (Andrieu, Ordo XXIII of the 8th century, ibid., p. 271) at the beginning of sacred functions and in solemn personal consecrations and blessings while the litanies were being sung or recited.