Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/851

 CIBORIUM

767

CIBOT

tionem Dogmaticam do Fide Catholica editam in Ses- sione tertia SS. CEcumeniei Coneilii Vaticani", 270pp. Svo (Rome, 1S72) ; " I Papiri Copti del Museo Borgiano della S. C. de Propaganda Fide tradotti e commen- tati", pamphlet of 55 pp. (Rome, 1881); "Sacrorum Bibliorum Fragmenta Copto-Sahidica Musei Borg- iani", vol. I, 4to, 225 pp., with 18 photolithographic plates; vol. II. 362 pp., with S phototypic plates (Rome, 1885and 1889). — These two volumes deal with the Old Testament; vol. Ill, dealing with the New Testament (509 pp., with 40 phototypic plates) was published by the author of the present article in 1904. — "Tatiani Evangeliorum Harmonia; Arabice nunc primum ex duplici codice cdidit et latina translatione donavit. . . ", m 4to, 108 pp., with 210 of the text and a phototypic plate (Rome, 1888).

Perini, Studio Bio bihliografico sul Cardinals Agostino Ciasca (Home. 1903).

P. J. Balestri.

Ciborium, a chalice-like vessel used to contain the Blessed Sacrament. The word is of rather doubtful etymology-. .Some derive it from the Latin word cibus, "food", because it is used to contain the Heavenly Bread; while others trace it to the Greek KipJipiov, "cup", because of the original sliapeof thisEucharistic receptacle. The term was also applied in early Chris- tian times to the canopy that surmounted and crown- ed the altar (see article Altar, sub-title Altar- Canopy), but ac- cording to modern liturgical usage the word denotes exclusively the sacred vessel em- ployed for the re- servation of the Consecrated Spe- cies. At the pres- ent day two ves- sels are used to re- serve the Blessed Sacrament: one, called a pyx, is a small round box and serves for car- rying the Blessed Sacrament to the sick; the other, generally styled a ciborium, is used for distributing Holy Communion in churches and for reserving the con- secrated particles in the tabernacle. In shape the ciborium resembles a chalice, but the cup or bowl is round rather than oblong, and provided with a conical coversurmounted by a cross or some other appropriate device. The bottom of the cup should be a little raised at the cen- tre so thai the last particles may be easily removed and the purification more conveniently performed. The material should be gold or silver (baser metals are sometimes allowed), but the interior of the cup be always lined with gold. The ciborium is insecrated, but blessed by a bishop or Bome priest deputed by him, according to the form given in the Roman Ritual. While containing the Sacred it should be covered with a small white veil of silk or cloth of gold, and may not be handled ex- cept by sacred ministers; when empty and purified it maj be touched by all clerics (Cong, of Rites. Jan.. 1907), and by lay persons if specially authorized. In Eastern Churches the paten is commonly used for the distribution of Communion, and the Blessed Sac-

rament is reserved in gold or silver boxes covered with silk and suspended from the altar-canopy in accordance with ancient custom.

During the first three centuries the Blessed Eucha- rist was not generally reserved in churches, owing to the danger of profanation and the persecutions, but the faithful sometimes kept the Sacred Species in silver boxes in their homes for the purpose of receiv- ing it at the time of death (St. Jerome, De Afr. Pers., I; Tertullian, De Orat., c. xiv, etc.). In the fourth century there are evidences that it was reserved in churches, but only for the sick. In the fifth and sixth centuries reservation was more common, and the method adopted varied with time and place. The vessels in which the Sacred Species was kept were called indiscriminately capsa, pyxis, cuppa, turns, columba, and ciborium., and were themselves preserved either in a chamber in the sacristy (secretarium), in a niche in the wall or pillar (ambry), under an altar, or in other places designated by the words diaconium, pastophonum, vestiarium, etc. Subsequently it be- came the practice to reserve the Blessed Sacrament in dove-shaped receptacles (columba?) or in little towers (lurres), the former being suspended by chains from the ciborium or canopy of the altar, and the latter being usually placed in the Armarium. In the sixteenth century the columba: and the towers began to disappear, and gave way to the tabernacle and the custom which is now universal throughout the Western Church. Ancient vessels of reservation may still be seen in the treasuries of continental cathedrals at Milan, Cologne, Rouen, and elsewhere. (See Taber- nacle; Reservation of the Blessed Sacrament.)

Bona. Rer. Lit. duo libri, I, xxv; Martene, De antia. eeel, ritibue, I, xix; Van derStappen. Deadm. S,„-r. (Mechlin. lttOOi; Corbi.et in Hist, du aacremeni de Veucharistie i Puris, lsstii, especially II, 285-314, and I, 520-82; Lerosey, Manuel U- turgique (Paris, 1S90). I, 179 sq.; Duc.dai.e. Monaaticon Anali- canum (London, 16S2). passim; Knus, Geach. der christlichen Kunst (Freiburg im Br., 1896), passim; Reubens, EUmenU d'archcot. chret. (Louvain, 1885), I. 464, II. 327 sq.

Patrick Morrisroe.

Cibot, Pierre-Martial, missionary, b. at Limoges, France, 14 August, 1727; d. at Peking, China, 8 Au- gust, 17S0. He entered the Society of Jesus 7 Novem- ber, 1743, and taught humanities with much success. He was sent to China at his own request 7 March, 1758, and arrived at Macao 25 July, 1759, whence he reached Peking (i June, 1760, joining the Jesuits who were retained at the court of the emperor. Cibot during his many years of missionary labour in China found time also to devote to historical and scientific studies Many of his notes and observations on the history and literature of the Chinese were published in the "Memoires concernant l'histoire, les sciences, les arts, les mceurs, les usages, etc., des Chinois: par les missionaires de Pekin" (Paris, 1770-89, 16 vols.). These volumes were at the time the chief source of information in Europe regarding China and its people. Cibot's most lengthy work, his " Essai sur l'antiquite des Chinois", appeared in the first volume of the "Memoires". In it he claims Yaou (2356 B. c.) as the founder of the Chinese Empire. This view was not held, however, by other contemporary writers; in the second volume of the "Memoires" bis league. Father Amiot. in his "L'antiquite des Chinois prouvee par les monuments ".defended the traditional Chinese chronology. Cibot also instituted a compari- son between the Jews and the Chinese in connexion with a commentary on the Hook of K.-iher i Me moires, vols. XIV-XVI). He collected a herbarium of some value and seems to have been particularly interested in botany, though he contributed a number of articles on various topics in natural science to the "Memoires", e. g. "Notices de quelques plantes arbrisseaux de la Chine" (vol. Ill), "Observations sur les plantes, les flours, et les arhres de Chine qu'il est possible et utile de se procurer en France";