American Cardinal Raymond Burke, prefect emeritus of the Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signatura in the Vatican, recently consecrated several altar stones, as seen in a video from the Sanctuary of the Virgin of Guadalupe in La Crosse, state of Wisconsin (USA).
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The altar stone of a church or altar is a consecrated slab of natural stone, usually containing relics of saints. It is the essential piece on which the mass is celebrated and its consecration must be done by a bishop.
These consecrated stones “are now more typically used in situations where a normal altar is not available” to celebrate mass, such as in a cemetery, a prison, hospital or somewhere where there is no temple, according to Sean Pilcher, director of Sacra, Relics of the Saints —apostolate that studies, restores and cares for relics of saints—in the video titled The unusual Catholic rite never seen before.
During the First and Second World Wars, the expert recalls, these consecrated stones “were taken to the trenches so that the faithful could access the sacraments” since, wherever they are taken, they carry “the full force of the blessings of Holy Mother Church that she offers to her sons and daughters.”
The rite of consecration of the altar stone and its meaning
Pilcer details that “the rite of consecrating an altar stone is very ancient and also very profound. Basically, it has everything that the church can provide to sanctify the altar stone. And this is one of the reasons why it is normally performed by a bishop, because a bishop has the fullness of the priestly order and represents the priesthood of Jesus Christ, which is transmitted through Jesus to the apostles.”
The stone that is consecrated, the expert continues, “is a piece of marble with engraved crosses and has a space to place relics: first it is blessed with Gregorian water, which is a very powerful type of holy water, each of the crosses on the stone of the altar. There is one in each corner and another in the center. And this is what the priest kisses when he kisses the altar before mass.”
“Next, the stone is anointed with consecrated chrism (oil), which is what priests are anointed with, what we are anointed with at our baptism,” he continues.
The stone is also “blessed with incense, which is burned on the top of the altar while songs are sung over our prayers as a sweet fragrance rising before the Lord, invoking the saints.”
Then “the relics of the saints are placed on the stone and that takes us back to the early days of the Church, when the mass was celebrated on the tombs of the martyrs. Every time we celebrate mass, we especially have the relics of the martyrs there.”
Pilcer then recalls that “the preface of the mass, before the Saint, reminds us that all the heavenly hosts, the angels and the saints, are there with us while we worship God. In a particular way, the saints are really physically present through their relics in the stone. Then it is sealed and blessed again. Afterwards it can be taken anywhere.”
Walter Sánchez Silva
I have been a husband since 2008. My wife and I have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before he was born. Since I joined ACI Prensa in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Cologne, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and of Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the Family synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Synodality, in 2023. I closely follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers persecution from the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as current ecclesiastical events in the region.