Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11.djvu/301

 ORANS

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ORATE

Orans (Orante). — Among the subjects depicted in the art of the Roman catacombs one of those most numerously represented is that of a female figure with extended arms known as the Orans, or one who prays. The custom of praying in antiquity with out- stretched, raised arms was common to both Jews and Gentiles; indeed the iconographic type of the Orans was itself strongly influenced by classic representa- tions (see Leclercq, "Manuel d'arch. chret.", I, 155). But the meaning of the Orans of Christian art is quite different from that of its prototypes. Numerous Bib- lical figures, for instance, depicted in the catacombs — Noah, Abraham, Isaac, the Three Children in the Fiery Furnace, Daniel in the lions' den — are pictured asking the Lord to deliver the soul of the person on whose tombs they are depicted as He once delivered the particular personage represented. But besides these Bibhcal Orans figures there exist in the cata-

dating from the early fourth century, is interpreted by Wilpert as the Blessed Virgin interceding for the friends of the deceased. Directly in front of Mary is a boy, not in the Orans attitude and supposed to be the Divine Child, while to the right and left are mono- grams of Christ.

LowRiE, Monuments of the Early Church (New York, 1901); KRAtTs. Gcschichte der christl. Kunst. (Freiburg, 1895); Wilpert, Ein Cyklus christologischer Gem&lde (Freiburg. 1891); North- cote AND Brownlow, Roma Sotterranea (London, 1S79).

Maurice M. Hassett.

Orate Fratres, the exhortation ("Pray brethren that my sacrifirc and yours be acceptable to God the Father alniiglity ") addressed by the celebrant to the people before the .Secrets in the Roman Mass. It is answered: "May the Lord receive the sacrifice from thy hands to the praise and glory of his name, and for our benefit also and for that of all his holy Church."

The Blessed Virgin as an Orante Fourth Century fresco in tho Ccemeterium Ostrianum

combs many ideal figures (153 in all) in the ancient at- titude of prayer, which, according to Wilpert, are to be regarded as symbols of the deceased's soul in heaven, praying for its friends on earth. This symbolic mean- ing accounts for the fact that the great majority of the figures of this order are female, even when depicted on the tombs of men. One of the most convincing proofs that the Orans was regarded as a symbol of the soul is an ancient lead medal in the Vatican Mu.seum show- ing the martyr, St. Lawrence, under torture, while his soul, in the form of a female Orans, is just leaving the body (see Kraus, "Gesch. der christl. Kunst", I, 126, fig. 56). An arcosolium in the Ostrianum cemetery represents an Orans with a petition for her interces- sion : FidoritE FiVgini. . . Pete. . . . The Acts of St. Cecilia speaks of souls leaving the body in the form of virgins: "Vidit egredientes animas eorum de corpori- bus, quasi virgines de thalamo", and so also the Acts of Sts. Peter and Marcellinus.

Very probably the medieval representations of a diminutive body, figure of the soul, issuing from the mouths of the dying, to be received by angels or demons, were reminiscences of the Orans as a symbol of the soul. The earlier Orantes were de- picted in the simplest garb, and without any strik- ing individual traits, but in the fourth century the figures become richly adorned, and of marked individ- uality — an indication of the approach of historic art. One of the most remarkable figures of the Orans cycle,

The celebrant adds : ' ' Amen ' '. The form is merely an expansion of the usual Oremus before any prayer. It is a medieval amplification. The Jacobite rite has an almost identical form before the Anaphora (Bright- man, "Eastern Liturgies", Oxford, 1896, 83); the Nestorian celebrant says : " My brethren, pray for me " (ib., 274). Such invitations, often made by the dea- con, are common in the Eastern rites. The Galilean rite had a similar one (Duchesne, " Christian Worship", London, 1904, 109). The Mozarabic invitation at this place is : " Help me brethren by your prayers and pray to God forme" (P. L., LXXXV, 537). The medieval derived rites had similar formute (e. g. "Missale Sarum", Burntisland, 1861-3, 596). Many of the old Roman Secrets (really Offertory prayers) contain the same ideas. Durandus knows the Orate Fratres in a slightly different form ("Rationale", IV, 32). A proof that it is not an integral part of the old Roman Mass is that it is always said, not sung, aloud (as also are the prayers at the foot of the altar, the last Gospel etc.). The celebrant after the "Suscipe Sancta Tri- nitas" kisses the altar, turns to the people and says: Orate fratres, extending and joining his hands. Turn- ing back he finishes the sentence inaudibly. At high Mass the deacon or subdeacon, at low Mass the server, answers. The rubric of the Missal is: "The server or people around answer,~if not the priest himself." In this last case he naturally changes the word luis to meis.