PURIFICATORIO (Abstensorium, Exstorsorium). - A small rectangle of linen (25/30 cm. x 40/50 cm.) used at Mass to dry the fingers, the lips and the chalice after the second ablution, to purify the paten before placing the consecrated Host upon it after the "Pater noster"; and the chalice before pouring the wine and water into it at the Offertory.
Until this moment, as also after the ablution, the purificator lies folded over the chalice, above or below the paten (Decr. Aut. S. Rit. Congr., n. 2572, 14 and 15). From the Offertory until the ablution the purificator lies spread out on the corporal to the right of the celebrant. The purification of the chalice and of the fingers was necessary, so that no residues of the consecrated elements might remain, but ecclesiastical writers do not indicate special cloths for this purification.
The "consuetudines Cluniacenses" are the first to mention it, while the "consuetudines" of St. Victor of Paris distinguish the "tersoria" for the purification of the chalice and the "mapulac" for that of the priest's fingers after holy Communion. In the Ordo Rom. XIV, 53, the pope had a tersorium for purifying the fingers and the lips. The name purificator occurs in an inventory of the papal Treasury of 1295. In the aforementioned inventory the purificators are kept in a "copertorium", the corporals in the "repositorium". The use of the purificator became general with the Roman Missal of Pius V. No special blessing is prescribed for the purificator (Decret. auth., 2572 ad 12 et 13). A cross embroidered in the middle of the purificator, already mentioned by St. Charles Borromeo, distinguishes the purificator from the manutergium used for the "Lavabo". The first washing of the purificators must be done by clerics (CIC 1306, 1, 2).