Number of Steps to high alter

[Tiger84]

I have been looking for an answer to this for awhile. I hope that someone can answer this for me.

When I was little, I noticed that all Catholic churches had an uneven number of steps that led up to the high altar.

Eventually, I asked my dad about this. He said that it was just a tradition that had been present for a long time, but he didn’t know anything other than that.

Anyone out there know why this is?

Thanks.

 

[tbtcom1213]

The number of steps to a high altar where the tabernacle, crucifix and candles are mounted on a higher platform are usually 3 or more. In a discussion with a priest and other altar servers about the latin mass the priest said the number of steps preceding the main high altar at a church had to be odd (3,5,7 et cetera). That’s the kind of reverence we give to Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. It symbolizes how we are humble and below God in all things and that his ways are higher. May Churches in America return to reverent architecture as it was before the reforms.
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Introibo ad altare Dei ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meam. Spera in Deo quoniam adhuc confitebor illi salutare vultus mei et Deus Meus*

 

[AJV]

I have been looking for an answer to this for awhile. I hope that someone can answer this for me.

When I was little, I noticed that all Catholic churches had an uneven number of steps that led up to the high altar.

Eventually, I asked my dad about this. He said that it was just a tradition that had been present for a long time, but he didn’t know anything other than that.

Anyone out there know why this is?

Thanks.

Odd numbers are always good fodder for mystical interpretations and you can find a dozen which interpret 3, 5, 7 etc. in various ways. A practical origin may simply be that the ministers are solemn Mass stood on different steps. For three, it can be seen immediately - priest, deacon and subdeacon. More than three is not readily seen, but in mediaevel times, as in for example, Pontifical and solemn functions of the liturgical year, there were more ministers.