EUCHARISTIC ELEVATION

The act of lifting up the eucharistic elements of bread and wine after the consecration in the Roman Rite of the Mass.

The elevation of the bread at this point was introduced into the Mass rite early in the 13th century by Eudes de Sully (d. 1208) or his immediate successor in the Archdiocese of Paris. It was intended to keep the people from adoring the bread before it had been consecrated. During the preceding century many priests held the bread high above the altar while saying the words of consecration. The allegorical tendency of the time saw in this a representation of the lifting up of Christ on the cross, but the simple faithful seeing the eucharistic bread lifted up thought it was already consecrated and proceeded to adore it immediately. To prevent this material idolatry on the part of the people the bishop of Paris forbade priests to elevate the bread until it was consecrated.

At the same time the introduction of the new rite responded to the widespread desire of the people to look at the bread, and it was this desire more than anything else that contributed to the rapid spread of the new rite. Within 50 years, it spread to all the churches of the West and acquired extraordinary importance and popularity.

However, this veneration at times became excessive and often bordered on superstition. People went to any lengths to ensure seeing the elevated host, even calling out to the priest to hold it up higher so that they could see it better. Many exaggerated the efficacy of seeing the elevated host; they even believed that whoever looked at the host in the morning would be protected against misfortune and an unprovided death that day. Many regarded looking at the host as a substitute for receiving the Eucharist; once the Elevation was over they left the church.

The elevation of the chalice became general much later and more gradually, chiefly because the desire of the people to look at the chalice was not as great as their desire to look at the bread. For one thing they could see the bread but not the wine. So we find that the elevation of the chalice was not in common use until the 14th century and was prescribed only with the Missal of Pius V (1570).

The genuflections before and after the elevation were not prescribed until 1570; originally the priest merely made a profound bow at this point. The use of incense at this point in solemn Mass was introduced toward the middle of the 14th century.

The 1969 Roman Rite of the Mass retains the elevation of the bread and the cup at their traditional points during the consecration, followed by a genuflection or profound bow. A second elevation of both the bread and the wine occurs at the doxology of the eucharistic prayer, and a third elevation at the invitation to holy communion.

Bibliography: j. a. jungmann, The Mass of the Roman Rite, tr. f. a. brunner (rev. ed. New York 1959) 424–427. j

[w. j. o'shea/eds.]