The Blessed Sacrament Chapel

The Place of Christ the blessed sacrament chapel at st. benedict’s abbey

by Fr. Daniel McCarthy

When you visit the Abbey Church you may be confused as you walk through the main doors and look for the tabernacle housing the reserved Blessed Sacrament or the red candle. These are not immediately visible from the main doors, but rather are located in a separate chapel set off to the right, at the side entrance to the church. Interestingly, this chapel was dedicated in 1959, well before the Second Vatican Council, with the Blessed Sacrament reserved in a chapel distinct from the main body of the church.

It may surprise you further to learn that since 1600 the Roman church has preferred a separate chapel for the reservation of the Blessed Sacrament rather than on the altar where liturgy is celebrated. This is certainly not the common practice in our region where the tabernacle is typically placed front and center in the main hall of a church. How did this come to be?

We’ll pick up the story when St. Charles Borromeo was working in Rome. Toward the end of the Council of Trent (1545-1563) his uncle was elected Pope Pius IV (1559-1565), who then appointed his nephew Charles Archbishop of Milan (1560-1584). St. Charles remained in Rome to serve his uncle as cardinal secretary of state and as archpriest of the basilica of St. Mary Major (dedicated in the year 434). Charles was sympathetic to the novel fashion already practiced in Sienna and Verona and so wanted to reserve the Blessed Sacrament in a tabernacle placed on the main altar of the Marian basilica. But before he could do so, he returned to Milan. His predecessor and successor were both from the Sforza family. The first began to build a chapel attached to the basilica which was finished by the second who had the tabernacle installed in their chapel, where Pope Sixtus V (1585-1590) has since been buried. There the tabernacle remains, held aloft on the arms of golden angels.

Pope Pius IV gifted to his nephew a bronze tabernacle for the cathedral in Milan. Charles built a base to bear its weight and then inserted the free-standing altar into this base. He took a liking for the Roman way his uncle would sit in his cathedra (the chair of the bishop) at the head of the apse flanked by the clergy on both sides. Realizing the tabernacle would block his view, he instructed that it be raised and held aloft on the hands of angel statues (below, at left). This would allow him to look through the space between the altar and the tabernacle to see and be seen while sitting at his chair, the cathedra located in the head of the apse. Borromeo wrote instructions on arranging a church which became the standard thereafter, except for Rome.

The church of Rome responded by publishing the first edition of the ceremonial of bishops in 1600. It argued that the Blessed Sacrament should be reserved in the most prominent place in a church, which would be front and center, but because we can never show sufficient honor to the reserved sacrament, we should also work to balance other important elements, such as the proper functioning of the solemn celebration of liturgy by the bishop. The proper celebration of solemn Mass or vespers requires certain actions such as sitting in the cathedra, wearing a miter, incensing the bishop, none of which would be appropriate to do before the reserved sacrament, which should receive full attention, honor, reverence.

Thus, the Ceremonial of Bishops, following the Council of Trent, legislated that the Blessed Sacrament be reserved in a worthy place separate from the main body of the church. Indeed, if the bishop were to celebrate Mass on an altar where the Blessed Sacrament was reserved, the reserved sacrament had to be removed from the tabernacle and reserved in a different worthy place so that the proper reverences due to the Blessed Sacrament would not interfere with the solemn celebration of liturgy.

A commentary of the ceremonial of bishops published in two-oversized illustrated volumes in 1860 says that the bishop should not celebrate Mass with his kidneys turned toward the Blessed Sacrament. (The reference to kidneys may be a euphemism, where we might say that one should not turn one’s back on the reserved sacrament.) The commentary cites an authority named Crassus who said that when the bishop is to celebrate Mass, the Blessed Sacrament is to be removed from the locale of the altar.

It seems that two competing values were presented. In Milan they developed the primary place in the church for the reservation of the Blessed Sacrament, whereas in Rome they preserved the proper celebration of solemn liturgy by reserving the Blessed Sacrament in a separate chapel. None of the major basilicas of Rome to this day have the Blessed Sacrament reserved on the main altar, although lesser and later-built churches do.

Do you realize that Jesus is there in the tabernacle expressly for you – for you alone? He burns with desire to come into your heart...go without fear to receive the Jesus of peace and love. -st. thérèse of lisieux

The Blessed Sacrament Chapel at St. Benedict’s Abbey rests at the base of the 125’ bell tower. (Frontal view at right)

The Roman empire continued in Constantinople until the city fell to the Ottoman empire in 1453, only 39 years before Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492. When our region of the United States was settled, immigrants brought with them the Milanese custom of placing the tabernacle front and center on the high altar. But the Roman custom of reserving the Blessed Sacrament in a chapel separated from the main body of the church was traditionally preserved in cathedral and abbey churches like ours where liturgy was celebrated solemnly with some regularity.

The Second Vatican Council mandated the renewal of liturgy, which included a revision of the ceremonial of bishops, which to this day says: ¶ 49. It is recommended that the tabernacle, according to a very ancient tradition observed in cathedral churches, should be placed in a chapel separated from the central hall. If however in a particular case the tabernacle is on the altar on which the Bishop is about to celebrate, the Most Holy Sacrament should be transferred to another worthy place - Ceremoniale episcoporum, ¶ 49 2008.

After the council, the liturgy in Milan was renewed as was the cathedral church. The altar was removed from its backing – the base that supports the tabernacle. The altar was moved forward and is once again a free-standing table. The backdrop with its tabernacle was also moved forward in the apse so that it now stands as a backdrop to the sanctuary. This means that when the bishop stands at the altar his back is turned toward to the Blessed Sacrament.

Many churches in our region were renovated in a similar way, by placing a new altar out front where the priest celebrates Mass with his back turned towards the Blessed Sacrament reserved behind him, because of the desire for the tabernacle to be placed front and center in the church. The major basilicas in Rome, however, did not need to be renovated in a similar way because their altars have always been free-standing and they have reservation chapels separate from the main body of the church.

Our Abbey Church was constructed with a separate chapel for the reservation of the Blessed Sacrament according to the legislation since just after the Council of Trent, still in effect when our church was built prior to Vatican II, and that legislation remains in effect today. When we implemented the reform after the council, we did not need to change our altar, just as the major basilicas in Rome were not changed because they preserved the older practice.

I suspect that the practice of celebrating the Eucharist while standing at the altar with one’s back turned toward the Blessed Sacrament does not yet represent a lasting response to the desire for both a worthy place for the reservation of the Blessed Sacrament and a church arranged for the proper celebration of liturgy.

The arrangement of the Blessed Sacrament chapel in our Abbey Church, however, should be neither surprising nor confusing because it is Roman.

Read more about this in Fr. Daniel’s forthcoming volume: Word and Spirit. For a list of resources from Fr. Daniel visit Kansasmonks.org/danielmccarthy