'T-Shaped' Altar?

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Early altars that were discovered by Archiologists in Rome and the surrounding area include altars that are similar to the ones depicted. Some of the first altars were wood, before the Church moved to stone. Many of the original stone altars after the Church gained freedom with the Edict of Milan, continued to preserve portions of the older wooden altars on them, much the way that in modern days wooden altars required an Altar stone in the Latin Rite.

Both the styles you depicted, and the use of wood existed in various forms in Apostolic and Post-Apostolic times. Such altars were in use prior to Vatican II, however they were usually in use Eastward facing, and not facing the congregation. While I don’t want to re-open the Eastward, or Versus arguments again here, the styles of altars used in the days before Vatican II were quite a bir more varied than many are led to believe.

Please refer to this Catholic Encyclopedia link.

newadvent.org/cathen/01362a.htm
 
Filioque said:
Such altars were in use prior to Vatican II, however they were usually in use Eastward facing, and not facing the congregation.
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Very true. Let me add here that there is actually nothing (other than their physical positioning a bit close to the lip of the step, but that is not an insurmountable obstacle) to prevent the use of either of the depicted altars for ad orientem celebration.
 
japscarousel said:
What is the origin of the ‘T-Shaped’ Altar? I don’t know what’s the proper term, so here are the pictures:

and the ‘two legged’ altar?
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The “two-legged altar” has quite a lengthy, history, as you can see here:

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

I would suspect, though I don’t know, that the origin of the “T-shaped altar” – which is merely a smaller base with the altar mensa cantilevered out farther – is an attempt to emphasize the mensa, which is the surface upon which the sacred action takes place, and to correspondingly deemphasize the unimportant base. So, for instance, the altar at Holy Name Cathedral is a six-ton granite monolith set on perhaps an exaggeratedly small base. I was going to insert a picture, but it’s huge and it stretches the window out too much, so here’s a link.
 
If there are any Church historians out there, please correct me if I’m wrong. To the best of my knowledge the altar on two pillars was a very Roman concept that the Christians of Rome borrowed from the Roman temples. I know that once Christianity was legalized, many Roman temples were converted into churches. It would not suprise me if they kept the altar.

The Tau shaped altar dates back to ancient Israel. I was commonly used in many synagogues. Legend has it that it was resurrected by Pope Innocent III, though historical evidence points to St. Francis of Assisi.

Francis was present at the Lateran Council where heard Innocent make reference to the Tau in the writings of the Prophet Ezequiel. He brought the Tau back into use in our houses. It became the official cross of our early houses. The altars were built to form a Tau. The habits were cut in the shape of a Tau and crucifixes were often replaced by a Tau. The Tau is still in use by the Franciscans today. If you visit the Blessed Sacrament Shrine that Mother Angelica built, it has a Tau over the the roof, not a cross.

As I said, some people credit Innocent III with the Tau altar. But I have never seen anything built by him with such an altar. St. Francis and the early friars did build such altars. They were very interesting, because they were a few feet away from the wall, allowing the friars to gather around it, though the tabernacle sat on the altar for lack of space. There were no side altars or separate chapels in Franciscan houses. That was a Benedictine custom. The Benedictines did have the altars with the pillars, which would make sense, since their order dates back to to the first millenium. We’re younger.

The altars with the spires and nitches that are more familiar to us are very young. They came at the latter end of the Middle Ages. Often they resembled the outside of the great cathedrals built during the second millenium of Christianity.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
JReducation said:
The Tau is still in use by the Franciscans today. If you visit the Blessed Sacrament Shrine that Mother Angelica built, it has a Tau over the the roof, not a cross.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
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Funny story about that cross, I had seen an interview about her and she was speaking about the Tau cross on the roof. Originally it was an ordinary Latin cross, but her intention was to use a Tau cross, one night there was a severe thunderstorm, and the next morning the “top” of the cross and been cut off by lightning! So she took it as a sign from God that He had wanted the Tau cross lol.
 
archangel04 said:
Funny story about that cross, I had seen an interview about her and she was speaking about the Tau cross on the roof. Originally it was an ordinary Latin cross, but her intention was to use a Tau cross, one night there was a severe thunderstorm, and the next morning the “top” of the cross and been cut off by lightning! So she took it as a sign from God that He had wanted the Tau cross lol.
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I too saw that. Apparently, Mother and the architect had different plans. She foresaw a Tau and he a Roman cross. Apparently, God decided, probably with a little word from St. Francis and St. Clare. 😃

If one visits the chapels built by the early Franciscans, they all had that Tau altar. Many are still standing all over Europe, even though they are not in use, because of age and size. These were very small chapels. Obviously, the altars were also very small. The one at Carcieri, which tradition says was built by Francis himself is about the size of a kitchen island. Not a large one either. It is just wide enough for the priest and the deacon. That one is built of stone. The wooden ones are replacements of the original wooden ones from 800 years ago.

The early friars built many wooden altars, because they were meant to be portable. Many people don’t know this little fact. Because the friars were mendicants, they often moved from place to place, leaving behind buildings. They took the altar with them. They were light enough to be placed on a cart and carried away. Also, many houses then and now, did not have priests. In those houses the altar was rarely used for mass. It was a place for the Blessed Sacrament, a focal point for the chapel.

After Vatican II, many designers copied this simple and austere altar, but built it much larger for the large parish churches. I don’t like the large one as much, because they don’t look right to me. The proportions are off. It’s supposed to be taller than it is wide. The new designs are wider than they are tall. I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder. 🤷

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
JReducation said:
If there are any Church historians out there, please correct me if I’m wrong. To the best of my knowledge the altar on two pillars was a very Roman concept that the Christians of Rome borrowed from the Roman temples. I know that once Christianity was legalized, many Roman temples were converted into churches. It would not suprise me if they kept the altar.

The Tau shaped altar dates back to ancient Israel. I was commonly used in many synagogues. Legend has it that it was resurrected by Pope Innocent III, though historical evidence points to St. Francis of Assisi.

Francis was present at the Lateran Council where heard Innocent make reference to the Tau in the writings of the Prophet Ezequiel. He brought the Tau back into use in our houses. It became the official cross of our early houses. The altars were built to form a Tau. The habits were cut in the shape of a Tau and crucifixes were often replaced by a Tau. The Tau is still in use by the Franciscans today. If you visit the Blessed Sacrament Shrine that Mother Angelica built, it has a Tau over the the roof, not a cross.

As I said, some people credit Innocent III with the Tau altar. But I have never seen anything built by him with such an altar. St. Francis and the early friars did build such altars. They were very interesting, because they were a few feet away from the wall, allowing the friars to gather around it, though the tabernacle sat on the altar for lack of space. There were no side altars or separate chapels in Franciscan houses. That was a Benedictine custom. The Benedictines did have the altars with the pillars, which would make sense, since their order dates back to to the first millenium. We’re younger.

The altars with the spires and nitches that are more familiar to us are very young. They came at the latter end of the Middle Ages. Often they resembled the outside of the great cathedrals built during the second millenium of Christianity.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
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What a wonderful explanation, Brother JR! Thank you. I just love the history of the Church.
 
georgewithfaith said:
In your first picture on top I felt a compelled to move the small altar out of the way so it could stop blocking the beautiful one behind it!
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I have to agree that this is a very ugly Tau altar. I would have had someone design an altar that blended with the one in the background or found a way to separate the one in the background from the wall. I’ve seen that done too. Often, you can take the old altar and just move it forward.

Someone has bad taste. They could have matched the materials, colors and style. Again, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But I don’t see the match between the two altars. The one in front is ugly.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
JReducation;7003014 said:
Although St. Francis did adopt the cross after Innocent III, he did not use it for the altar, and the crosses on the altar were of the regular shape, as one infers from Cellano speaking of the four points. He did use it as signature, on the habit, on the walls, and so forth, but not for the altar. The canons of the time prescribed that the altar, even portable, as was granted by Quia populares tumultus be supported by 3-4 columns.The T-altar that one now sees at various Franciscan shrines are none of them original or patterned after altars at the era of Francis. This style of altar was claimed in the 60s to be the “more ancient” form that dually expressed both the function of altar and table. The fact that it resembles a “Tau” was used as post hoc justification in many Franciscan sanctuaries for one of two designs - either the straightforward “T” consisting of a single column, with a mensa placed on top, or more innovatively, the mensa placed over a horizontal and vertical crosspiece which formed a tau.
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AJV said:
Although St. Francis did adopt the cross after Innocent III, he did not use it for the altar, and the crosses on the altar were of the regular shape, as one infers from Cellano speaking of the four points. He did use it as signature, on the habit, on the walls, and so forth, but not for the altar. The canons of the time prescribed that the altar, even portable, as was granted by Quia populares tumultus be supported by 3-4 columns.The T-altar that one now sees at various Franciscan shrines are none of them original or patterned after altars at the era of Francis. This style of altar was claimed in the 60s to be the “more ancient” form that dually expressed both the function of altar and table. The fact that it resembles a “Tau” was used as post hoc justification in many Franciscan sanctuaries for one of two designs - either the straightforward “T” consisting of a single column, with a mensa placed on top, or more innovatively, the mensa placed over a horizontal and vertical crosspiece which formed a tau.
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Actually, we have houses that date back to the 1200s with those altars.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
JReducation said:
Actually, we have houses that date back to the 1200s with those altars.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
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Brother,

The “T- altar” so called was not invented by St. Francis. If you cursorily glance at the CE page linked above, you will see that the general shape was much more common earlier.

I am not arguing that it was impossible for there to be T-altars at the time of Francis, but that
  • there was no systemized program for it, nor has any biographer or historicist of the Franciscans, until relatively lately made this connection between the altar and the Tau, though it has been made for other items.
  • modern altars that exist in this form have rarely copied an original altar and have usually relied on claims of early Church architecture and overall fittingness that the altar should resemble a Tau.
  • in most of the places where the friars were, canon law (which you can look up online through scanned copies of Gratian) would have prohibited this form of altar.
 
JReducation said:
I have to agree that this is a very ugly Tau altar. I would have had someone design an altar that blended with the one in the background or found a way to separate the one in the background from the wall. I’ve seen that done too. Often, you can take the old altar and just move it forward.

Someone has bad taste. They could have matched the materials, colors and style. Again, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But I don’t see the match between the two altars. The one in front is ugly.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
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Or maybe the designer was the lowest bidder. 😉
 
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