Light of the world

Summary.  Jesus said he was the light of the world, and divine illumination has shaped Christian worship, art, and architecture for nearly two millennia. Baptism occurred at Eastertime in a new Spring light. Early Gospels contained glistening gold and silver and called illuminated texts. Gothic architecture embraced windows that flooded churches with light, especially around the altar, reinforcing the symbolism of Christ as the source of spiritual radiance.

Jesus said, “I am the light of the world: he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life”.[1] Light is a symbol for holiness, wisdom, grace, hope, and divine revelation, whereas darkness is associated with evil, sin, and despair.

AI Candlemas procession for blessing of candles on February 2.

     There is no evidence for ceremonial light in Christian worship during its first two or three centuries, which is unsurprising since it had to be a secretive religion and kept in the dark.[2] There were Christian gatherings hidden away in catacombs and for this purpose small terra-cotta lamps, plain or decorated with Christian symbols, were used, as attested by numerous archaeological discoveries.

 

St Paul’s catacomb in Malta where an agape meal was held on a stone table close to tombs. The tombs had wall niches which would have held an oil or fat burning lamp. Christian signs were scratched on the walls and the one shown is thought to have been 4th or 5th century. It could be a trident and symbolising the Trinity.

 

AI gen. secretive eucharist in a catacomb 3rd-century.

     Early baptised Christians were described as being ‘illumined’ and Easter was the time for this transformative event. The apostle Paul wrote: “For it is impossible to restore again to repentance, those who have been enlightened”. [3] In modern translations the word inluminati becomes enlightened and it has been questioned whether a light was physically present at baptism. Some think those baptised were given a lighted taper in the way a candle is given today.

When the Romans accepted Christianity as their religion in the 4th-century new well-lit churches were built. A 4th-century inventory of items in the church of Cirta, in Algeria, listed 7 silver lamps, two chandeliers, 7 small brass candelabra with lamps and 11 lamps with chains. Lamps were beginning to be used in large churches in the early 4th-century.[4]  Constantine I gave to the Archbasilica of the St John Lateran Church, Rome, two sets of seven 10 ft bronze candelabra with as many as 120 dolphin-shaped branches, each supporting one or more lamps.[5] When Constantine's body lay in state, lighted candles on golden stands surrounded him.

     Sometime after 630, a dramatic change in furnishing the church occurred in Britain.  Rough timber oratories changed into rectangular stone churches with glazed windows. Books were illustrated and pages painted with vivid pigments.  Singing and playing music was encouraged. If God was the light of the world, then the church would reflect his illumination. It contrasted with dark pagan temples. Aldhelm, Abbot of Malmesbury and Biship of Sherborne, described the church of St Mary built by Bugga in a poem, 689–709, which gives an insight into a late 7th-century church. It was described as rectangular, lofty and with 12 altars. It glowed within with gentle light, presumably from oil lamps or bee’s wax candles. It had glass windows. The altar cloth glistened with gold twisted threads. A gold chalice had jewels attached and the paten was silver. A main cross was burnished gold and silver and had jewels attached. A metal censer embossed on all sides hung down by chains and through openings, it let out the smell of frankincense.

AI gen. Bugga’s church of St Mary, late 7th-century.

AI gen. Venerable Bede writing the first reliable English History published 731. It would have been written in a cloister cell                                                                    with much window light.

 

          Eighth century Gospel books, such as St Chad’s Gospels, were illuminated, that is, decoration included gold or silver, or other bright, luminous colours.[6] Illumination could be richly coloured and decorated lettering, elaborate tracery in the text, margins, or borders, and other ornamental or pictorial features. They had painted pages to illustrate symbolically parts of the Bible. Some hold such texts must have gold and silver pigments which can reflect the light to justify being illuminated.

An illuminated page of the St Chad’s Gospels.

The timing of church events was important in the 7th-century. The Synod of Whitby settled the dating of Easter. It was established at the Spring Equinox, falling on the 19, 20 or 21 March when the length of day equalled the length of night. At the first full moon that followed, the 24 hours for that day was filled with full moonlight and full sunlight (assuming no clouds) and thus light had overcome darkness. Easter was then the first Sunday to follow. This calculation, Computus, emphasised Jesus’s word.

Having strong light in a church was essential for Gothic architecture. Large windows let in much light, especially shining on the altar. This has been traced to the centrality of the eucharist. See the post, ‘Lady Chapel’.

 

AI gen showing illumination of altar with communion vessels.

 Transepts had their narrow lancet windows replaced with wider compound windows with fine tracery. The triangular windows near the roof of the nave brought much light into the upper clerestory. Opening up the dark inner church, choir and presbytery in Lichfield’s cathedral by George Gilbert Scott in the 1850s by removing plaster between the columns and taking down the wall by the crossing was part of this move to enhance lighting the cathedral.

This illumination of the altar might also explain why churches usually face eastwards. The rising morning sun shines through the east windows and gives, like God, a new dawn. This would be even more evocative at Easter.

     The use of ceremonial candles was either reduced, or totally abolished with Reformation. The Victorian Revival restored two candles on the altar during the Eucharist and two candles either side of someone reading the Gospels. Today visitors frequently light a candle.

Choir stalls with candles and overhead electric lighting.

High altar candle. Candles on the altar did not occur before the 12th-century.

 

Candles lit for remembering Ukraine

Paschal candle lit either in the late Saturday or early Easter Sunday morning service. It is also used for lighting baptismal candles.

  

1] NRSV John 8 v 12.

[2] The ceremonial use of light occurs in the Jewish, Zoroastrian and Hindu rites and customs. Jewish temples can have an eternal lamp. Certain religions have fire-worship.

[3] NRSV Hebrews 6 v 4.

[4] Recorded in the Liber Pontificalis. Volume 1 173–6. Also called the book of the popes.

[5] Ibid, 173–6.

[6] Gold or silver has not been found in St Chad’s Gospels, but that does not mean it never had the bright metals. Overuse of the book could have dislodged any metal attached to the vellum.