Garland
garland
A wreath of flowers or evergreens formerly used in baptismal, nuptial, and funeral rites.
A crown of precious metal made for the arrangement of flowers before a shrine at festival times.
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Garland
A wreath of flowers or evergreens formerly used in connection with baptismal, nuptial, and funeral rites, as well as in solemn processions. The earliest certain reference to the baptismal garland, as worn by neophytes, occurs in a seventh-century description of the Alexandrine ritual, written by the patriarch Severus, who says that, after the baptism and unction (i. e. confirmation), the priest administered Holy Communion, and crowned the newly-baptized with garlands. This custom was still observed at Alexandria in eighteenth century. A similar rite has also been inferred from a passage in the Gallican liturgy (baptizati et in Christo coronati), but more probably this expression is merely metaphorical. The bridal crown or wreath is said to be of pre-Christian Greek origin, adopted later by the Romans. Tertullian refers to it as a sign of paganism, but this prejudice was afterwards set aside, and it was in common use among Christians by the time of St. John Chrysostom. the bride and bridegroom were crowned to symbolize their victory over the temptations of the flesh. (For the continued use of garlands at the marriage ceremony during the early medieval period at Rome, see Duchesne, “Christian Worship”, tr. London, 1903, 428-434.) The rite has been retained by the Greek Church, silver crowns taking the place of floral wreaths.
Funeral garlands were used in primitive times, in connection with the burial of virgins, and especially of virgin martyrs, to symbolize their victory, and by analogy they came also to be used for all martyrs. Hence they are constantly found represented in painting or sculpture, on the tombs of the early Christians. In later times a crown, consisting of a wooden hoop, with two half-circles crossing each other at right angles and covered with flowers and streaming ribbons, used to be carried before the bier of an unmarried woman, and afterwards suspended over or near to the grave. This custom was continued in England all through the middle ages and Reformation period, and it survives even now in certain remote places, especially in Devon and Cornwall. The iron hook upon which such wreaths were hung, in the seventeenth century, may still be seen in the south aisle of St. Alban’s Abbey. In medieval times the clergy were wont to wear floral garlands or crowns on their heads, on the occasions of solemn processions. Stow mentions on at St. Paul’s, London, when the dean and chapter “apparelled in copes and vestments, with garlands of roses on their heads, issued out at the west door” (Survey of London, ed. 1750); and in the inventories and church-wardens’ accounts of many an English church, items of expenditure on similar ornaments occur. The same custom prevailed also in German, France and Italy. Martene (De Ant. Eccl. Rit., III, iv) mentions an illuminated missal belonging to a church a Melun, in which such floral garlands are pictured in a Corpus Christi procession, and the same is recorded at Angers, Laon, and elsewhere. According to Martene also, in certain places in France, a priest celebrating his first Mass was similarly decked, which custom still survives in certain parts of Germany and Bavaria. The term garland was also technically used to signify a crown of precious metal, often adorned with gems, made for the arrangement of natural or artificial flowers before the altar or sacred image at festival times.
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ROCK, Church of our Fathers (London, 1849); WALCOTT, Sacred Archaeology (London, 1868); MARRIOTT in Dict. Christ. Antiq., s. v. Baptism; PLUMPTRE, ibid., s. v. Crowns for Brides; LEE, Glossary of Liturgical and Ecclesiastical Terms (London, 1877); SCANNELL (ed.) Catholic Dictionary (London, 1905), s. v. Marriage; LECLERCQ, Manuel d’Archéologie Chrétienne (Paris, 1907).
G. CYPRIAN ALSTON Transcribed By Scott Anthony Hibbs
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VICopyright © 1909 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, September 1, 1909. Remy Lafort, CensorImprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Garland
(, Act 14:13). SEE WREATH. It was customary in heathen sacrifices to adorn victims with fillets and garlands; but commentators are not agreed as to the purpose to which the “garlands” mentioned in the above passage are to be applied. As the idolaters used to put garlands on the head of their idol before they offered sacrifice, it has been thought by others that they were intended to be set on the heads of the apostles. They were generally composed of such trees or plants as were esteemed most agreeable to the god who was the immediate object of worship (see Kuinl and others, in Ioc.). See Rose, De (Jgia, 1669); Schmid, De Coronis (Lips. 1701); Gerhard, id. (Jen. 1646); Schmeizel, id. (ib. 1713); Paschalis, id. (L.B., 1671); Grefe, De corones epularibus (Lips. 1670). SEE CROWN; SEE WEDDING.
Garlands in the marriage service. It was usual in the early Church to crown persons contracted in marriage with garlands (Chrysostom, Hom. 9 in 1 Timothy). This practice was derived from the heathen ceremonies; but, as it was deemed innocent, the Christians made no scruple to adopt it. It is still practised in the Greek Church. At funerals, however, the custom of crowning the corpse and the coffin was rejected as savoring of idolatry (Tertullian, De Corona Militis, c. 10). It was usual to strew flowers on the grave. Riddle, Christian Antiquities, book 7, chapter 3.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Garland
GARLAND.The garlands (Gr. stemmata) of Act 14:13 were probably intended to be put on the heads of the sacrificial victims. For the use of a garland (Gr. stephanos) as a prize to the victor in the games, see art. Crown, 2, and cf. Games.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Garland
garland (, stemma, wreath): Mentioned only in Act 14:13, where it is said that the priest of Jupiter brought oxen and garlands unto the gates with which to offer sacrifices unto Barnabas and Paul. The rendering oxen and garlands, instead of oxen garlanded, seems to imply that the garlands were for the priests and altar and worshippers themselves, as well as for the victims sacrificed. Only occasionally did the Hebrews use such ornaments for themselves, and that almost altogether in their later history. See CROWN.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Garland
denotes “a wreath” (from stepho, “to put around, enwreath”), as used in sacrifices, Act 14:13.