Cross-bearer
CROSS-BEARER
In the Romish church, the chaplain of an archbishop, who bears a cross before him on solemn occasions. Cross-bearers also denote certain officers in the Inquisition, who make a vow before the Inquisitors, or their vicars, to defend the Catholic faith, though with the loss of fortune and life. Their business is also to provide the Inquisitors with necessaries.
Fuente: Theological Dictionary
cross bearer
The cleric or minister who carries the processional cross , or crucifix with long handle.
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Cross-Bearer
The cleric or minister who carries the processional cross, that is, a crucifix provided with a long staff or handle. An archbishop’s cross is borne with the figure of the crucifix towards the prelate, but in all other cases the figure should be turned forward. The cross-bearer should, whenever possible, be a cleric (Council of Milan, seventeenth century), but in lay processions the most worthy of the laity should be selected for the office. In the more solemn processions such as those of the Blessed Sacrament, Palm Sunday, and Candlemas Day, the cross should be borne by a subdeacon vested in amice, alb, and tunic; on less solemn occasions by a clerk in surplice. The staff is held with both hands so that the figure is well above the head. The cross-bearer and the two acolytes by whom he is accompanied on the more solemn occasions should walk at the head of the procession, except when the thurifer is there, and should not make any reverences whilst engaged in this function.
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Cæremoniale Episcoporum, passim; DE HERDT, Praxis Liturgiæ Sucræ (Louvain, 1904), III, 318; LE VAVASSEUR, Cérémonial Romain (Paris, 1876), I, 680.
PATRICK MORRISROE Transcibed by Wm Stuart French, Jr.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume IVCopyright © 1908 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat. Remy Lafort, CensorImprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Cross-bearer
(cruciger).
1. In the Romish Church, the designation of the chaplain of an archbishop, or a primate, who bears a cross before him on solemn occasions. The pope has the cross borne before him everywhere; a patriarch anywhere out of Rome; and primates, metropolitans, and those who have a right to the pallium, throughout their respective jurisdictions. A prelate wears a single cross, a patriarch a double cross, and the pope a triple cross on his arms.
2. The name cross-bearers (cruciferi) was also applied to the Flagellants in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. SEE FLAGELLANTS.