Antimension - Question

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daniel32708

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Dear brethren.

We have and use this antimension at our church in Costa Rica (Roman church). I wanted to know if someone here could please translate the text for us, into English or Spanish. Apparently it from the 50s. It says 1955 in the left side (vertically, in the border, small print)

Any other information which you might know about this antimension (the origin, the rite, etc) will also be greatly appreciated.

May God bless you all,

Daniel V

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GGLsZ3gTUM0/Tj4N5xFsEZI/AAAAAAAAApo/K0cgl2ybp-g/s1600/P7301054+%28copy%29.JPG
 
daniel32708 said:
Dear brethren.

We have and use this antimension at our church in Costa Rica (Roman church). I wanted to know if someone here could please translate the text for us, into English or Spanish. Apparently it from the 50s. It says 1955 in the left side (vertically, in the border, small print)

Any other information which you might know about this antimension (the origin, the rite, etc) will also be greatly appreciated.

May God bless you all,

Daniel V
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Welcome to CAF. 🙂

Hopefully it can be translated so that this antimension can be returned to the eparchy of the bishop who
consecrated and signed it. It’s unlikely if this was consecrated by him in 1955 that he is still living.

The antimens represents the permission a bishop gives to a priest, or community, to celebrate the Holy Mystery in his name and by his authority.
It represents the presence of the bishop in his absence.

I hope you and your clergy will read this article on the atimins which gives the basics as to why it’s highly unlikely you should be in possession of this.

From time to time an atimins comes up for sale on e-bay and horrified posts can be found about this on at least one forum I’m part of.

While your parish may feel an attachment to and love for this atimins/antimension I hope you will find out how to return it where it should be.
 
5Loaves said:
Welcome to CAF. 🙂

Hopefully it can be translated so that this antimension can be returned to the eparchy of the bishop who
consecrated and signed it. It’s unlikely if this was consecrated by him in 1955 that he is still living.

The antimens represents the permission a bishop gives to a priest, or community, to celebrate the Holy Mystery in his name and by his authority.
It represents the presence of the bishop in his absence.

I hope you and your clergy will read this article on the atimins which gives the basics as to why it’s highly unlikely you should be in possession of this.

From time to time an atimins comes up for sale on e-bay and horrified posts can be found about this on at least one forum I’m part of.

While your parish may feel an attachment to and love for this atimins/antimension I hope you will find out how to return it where it should be.
Click to expand...
I heard back in the day that Eastern Bishops would give antimension to Latin Rite priests who go into the field to say Mass at missions and such. Maybe thats how they got this one.
 
Hello. To clarify: This Antimension is used because there is no consecrated altar in that chapel. While mass can be celebrated without one, it is highly recommended to have one. If we return it, we will - in other words - be left without an altar. :eek:
 
Can I ask, I’m curious, you have a Latin Church parish which since 1955 has had no altar? Are you very tiny and meeting in someone else’s space?
 
No. I think the Antimension is from 1955 because it has that year printed in the side. The chapel has a couple of years. Another priest donated the antimension to the chapel, and since then it has been in use there.

I am sure this is not the only church (Roman) to have one, and I also do not see any violation of church rules. It is used as an altar. I feel that some of you guys are not very comfortable with this 🤷
 
Antimensia were at one time availible to Latin Rite Clergy through the Catholic Near East Welfare Association, in New York. They no longer distribute them, and the last time I checked, (A bit over ten years ago) they would refer Latin Rite Clergy to Bishop Basil Lostin, of Stamford Conn, (Now retired it is doubtful he would still be consecrating antimensia). Over the years the CNEWA distributed several different antimensia consecrated by various Eastern Bishops to Latin Rite priests who served in the missions or travelled frequently. Not falling under Eastern Canons, most Latin Rite priests were not bound to or do not follow the rubrics to return them to the bishop when he retires. The one pictured looks like the ones consecrated by Bp. Basil.

Pope Pius XII from what I have read allowed for military chaplains to use the antimension in place of a consecrated portable altar stone due to the extra weight and possiblity of breakage. The Roman Rite Pontificale Romanum added the rite for the consecration of a Latin RIte form of the Antimension when it was published under Pope John XXIII. Typically Latin Rite “Antimensia” are not adoned, and look like any white linen corporal. The only difference is that there are relics sewn into a corner of the corporal, and sometimes the date of consecration and signature of the bishop appears on the outside of the antimensia.

The Eastern Antimensia says something like, (I’ll have to find the pamphlet from the ones I got for distribution from the CNEWA when I was a seminarian) The Holy Joseph of Aramathea took down the sacred body of our Lord from the Cross anointing it with oil (and spices?) and wrapped it in linens and laid it in a freshly hewn tomb. (Around the boarders) The consecration information I think you can already figure out. My slavonic is very rusty, but the names that appear next to the illustrations are of the Four Evangalists, and Saints Vacili (Basil perhaps) on the right and John Chrisostom, the persons identified with names on the center are our Lord, our Lady, St. John the Beloved, and St. Joseph of Aramethia, The others in the background are usually accepted to be the other Marys, and St. Peter. (If my memory reaching back over 40 years serves me.)
 
It was consecrated by Andrew (by the grace of God and of the holy Roman apostolic throne) bishop of Nauplia/Nafplion(?);.

Date of consecration is the 17th day of the month of September, the 7,476th year from the creation of the world,
the 1,968th year from the Incarnation of The Lord (i.e. 1968).

The name of the church for which it was consecrated has not been entered.

The other older man is Nicodemus.

It appears to be Ukrainian rather than Russian.
 
daniel32708 said:
No. I think the Antimension is from 1955 because it has that year printed in the side. The chapel has a couple of years. Another priest donated the antimension to the chapel, and since then it has been in use there.

I am sure this is not the only church (Roman) to have one, and I also do not see any violation of church rules. It is used as an altar. I feel that some of you guys are not very comfortable with this 🤷
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An antimension, in Byzantine use, is properly retired when either the bishop who issued it dies, or the priest to whom it was issued dies. They are not generally “parish property”… they remain the bishop’s authorization to a specific priest to say the liturgy as a priestly vicar of the bishop.

I’d like to see a better (higher resolution) image of the lower right hand corner - the signature.
 
It appears to be Bishop Andrei Katkoff

GCatholic Entry: gcatholic.com/hierarchy/data/bishops-28.htm#10607
Katkoff, Andrei, M.I.C.

Born: 1916.10.26 (Russia)
Ordained Priest: 1944.07.30
Consecrated Bishop: 1958.12.21
Died: 1995.09.18 († 78)
Titular Bishop of Nauplia (1958.11.14 – 1995.09.18)

As an auxiliary, he properly shouldn’t have been consecrating antimensia for other than his own parish…
 
Again. The Catholic Near East Welfare Assoc. used to distribute them, The stipend some 30-40 years ago was $25.00 each and they would only distribute them to Latin Rite Seminarians (in major orders) or priests, for use in travelling and missions. While I respect the Canons of the East and the tradition of only the Ordinary consecrating an Antimens, as well as it being returned when the priest or parish were no longer “licensed” I’m sure with some research we would find out that the ones distributed to Latin Rite priests as a substitute for a Latin Altar Stone are used in the same manner as a Latin Altar Stone. That is that they only loose consecration when torn or so soiled that they are unusable, and that the transfer from one parish or priest to another does not cause it to loose consecration (unless it goes up for public sale). I think with further research we would find that the intention of consecrating them and distrbuting them to the Latin Rite and the continued use after a bishop retired or died would follow the Latin Rite rules. I don’t think the CNEWA would have distributed them and left out such an important instruction. After all, it would be breaking Eastern Canon Law for a bishop to consecrate them without intent to distribute them only to priests in his own Eparchy, unless there was an exception made by compitent authority. I’ll be going on retreat later this week for 9 days, but when I return I may write CNEWA and ask about their former policies. I know when I obtained an Antimens they issued in the 1960;s (Beautiful polychrome Russian printed by the Vatican Polyglott press) that was missing the relics, I was given Bp. Lostin’s address, and his secretary informed me that he would be happy to recieve it back from me, and while the CNEWA no longer distributed them, Bp. L and a couple other Ukranians would be happy to supply Latin Rite priests with Antimensia for Missionary endevors.

As an aside, I’ve found that when a Latin Rite priest uses an Antimension in a respectful manner, it offers an opportunity to educate others about the Eastern Church, as well as can be used to show the unity of East and West.
 
Around the edges this is Church Slavonic Tropar for Great Friday:

Благообразный Иосиф, с древа снем Пречистое Тело Твое, плащаницею чистою обвив, и вонями во гробе нове покрыв положи in modern Church slavonic orthography.

This means Blessed Iosif (aramafeiski) from the tree tooks down your Immaculate body, and surrounds it in a clean plaschanitsa (shroud) and with aromas places it in a new tomb.

The central portion is some kind of explanation of where made and blessed this comes from but is from a certain bishop Andrei with his official seal. His eparchy think would be called in modern Russian Naiplinsk - the third letter of his name is an ijhitsa which was last letter of Slavonic alphabet but not in use in modern Russian This is also attirubted to Roman Church.
 
at bottom (upside down) to read it says

/ но тридневен воскресл еси, Господи, / подаяй мирови велию милость.

This is added to above Tropar for ressurection.

But three days Lord you resurrected giving to the world great mercy.
 
Aramis said:
It appears to be Bishop Andrei Katkoff

…

As an auxiliary, he properly shouldn’t have been consecrating antimensia for other than his own parish…
Click to expand...
Bishop Andrei, memory eternal, wasn’t an auxiliary. He was the last ordained hierarch of the Russian Greek Catholic Church. He served in Rome as an epicopus ordinans - or ordaining bishop - for Byzantine and Oriental seminarians there. As well, when requests were made of the Oriental Congregation for antimensia to be sent to churches without hierarchs or to missionaries or military chaplains, it was he who blessed them.
 
HG Andrei was listed as a titular bishop. With few exceptions, that usually means auxiliary bishop; he was not a territorial bishop.
 
How beautiful!!

I’ve always found it interesting how the Antimension is made in the same style as the Epitaphion of Good Friday (and the latter is always placed on the Altar from Easter to the Feast of the Ascension on which the Divine liturgy is served.)

You are so lucky!!

Alex
 
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