- Source: Easter Sepulchre
An Easter Sepulchre is a feature of British church interior architecture.
Description
The Easter Sepulchre is an arched recess generally in the north wall of the chancel, in which from Good Friday to Easter day were deposited the crucifix and sacred elements in commemoration of Christ's entombment and resurrection. It was generally only a wooden structure, which was placed in a recess or on a tomb.
Distribution
The Easter Sepulchre is only found in England and Wales, the practice having been peculiar to the Sarum Rite. However, there is a ruin presumed to be an Easter sepulchre at Kildrummy in north-east Scotland.
Use
The Easter Sepulchre contained the Blessed Sacrament of the altar, the Host. Following the doctrine of the Real Presence, i.e. that Jesus is physically present within the Host, on Good Friday the Host was taken from the tabernacle where it had been placed following the Maundy Thursday celebration of the Last Supper and, wrapped in linen cloths, 'buried' in the Easter sepulchre which was found on the north wall of the sanctuary. Cut into the wall, it was sometimes ornately carved but within it was a wooden frame on which was hung a cloth pall often embroidered with scenes from the Passion. Candles were lit around the sepulchre, burial clothes adorned it, and parishioners stood guard until early Easter morning at the first Mass. The Host was brought out, in imitation of Jesus having arisen out of the tomb, and was placed again in the tabernacle in the centre of the Church. Like Roods and their lofts, Easter Sepulchres were the object of iconoclastic fury by the Protestant Reformers, and few are left.
Surviving examples
There are throughout Great Britain many fine examples in stone, some of which are Decorated Gothic, such as:
= Cumbria
=Warwick Bridge
= Devon
=Holcombe Burnell
Bishops Nympton
Heanton Punchardon
Monkleigh
St Mary's Church, Berry Pomeroy
Throwleigh
= Dorset
=Gillingham
Tarrant Hinton
= Glamorgan
=Coity
= Herefordshire
=Ledbury
= Lincolnshire
=Navenby
Heckington (1370)
= London
=St John the Divine, Kennington
= Norfolk
=Fritton
Kelling
St Andrew's Church, Northwold
= Northamptonshire
=Lutton
= Nottinghamshire
=Sibthorpe
Hawton (1370)
Arnold
= Oxfordshire
=Bampton
Piddington
= Suffolk
=Cockfield
East Harling
Long Melford
St Margaret South Elmham
= Warwickshire
=Long Itchington
Withybrook, Coventry
= West Sussex
=St Catherine of Siena Church, Cocking
= East Riding of Yorkshire
=Patrington
See also
Holy Sepulchre
Tomb of Jesus
Notes
References
Attribution
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Sepulchre, Easter". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 24 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 655.