Lamps
lamps
Small clay lamps adorned with Christian symbols have been found in numbers in all Christian centers, especially in the Roman Catacombs. They may be divided into two classes: lamps of the classic period, before Constantine, which are round with an ascending perforated handle, of workmanship superior to those of the later period; those of the Constantinian epoch which are boat-shaped with an unperforated handle running to a point. Lamps of bronze have also been found, sometimes patterned after symbolic animals. The early Christians used lamps from necessity; a burning lamp before the Blessed Sacrament is now obligatory.
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Lamps
(their use in the Christian Church). Among the Jews lamps were freely used in the synagogue for freely used in the synagogue for various purposes. In fact, all the ancient nations had them in their temples; but how soon they were made use of by Christians, and what significance they had in symbolism, remians a matter of dispute between the Romish and Protestant churches. The Protestants generally hold that there is no evidence that lamps were used in the early Church for any other purpose than to light up the dark places where they were obliged to congregate for worship, whicle Romanists claim that they were used as sumbols. (Compare, on the Roman Catholic view, Martigny, Dict. Des Antiquites Chretiennes, page 151, s.v. Cierges; see also the art. LIGHTS SEE LIGHTS .) Several of the fathers, among them Chrysostom, condemn in strong terms the custom of setting up lamps on days of festival as the relic of some pagan rite. In the days of Jerome, it its true, lights were freely used in churches, but Romish theologians forget to tell that the propriety of the custom was much questioned even then. In graves of the Catacombs “lambs were often placed,” says Walcott (Sacred Archaeology, s.v.), “as a symbol of the eternal light which the departed, it is hoped, enjoy as memorials of their shining lights before men, and their future glory” (Mat 13:43). But it is evident that even this custom was early diapproved of, for the Council of Eilbaris forbade the faithful, on pain of excommunication, lighting wax candles in the daytime in cemeteries or other burial-places of the martyrs (compare Eadie, Eccles. Dict. page 367). In our day it is the custom in the Roman Catholic churches to keep a lamp (eternal light) constantly burning before or by the side of the tabernacle. (J.H.W.)