EasterSepulchreHolcombeBurnellChurchDevon

An Easter Sepulchre is a feature of British church interior

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings ...

Description

The Easter Sepulchre is an arched recess generally in the north wall of the

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. ...

, in which from

Good Friday Good Friday is a Christian holiday commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus and his death at Calvary. It is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum. It is also known as Holy Friday, Great Friday, Great and Holy Friday (also Ho ...

Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...

day were deposited the

crucifix A crucifix (from Latin ''cruci fixus'' meaning "(one) fixed to a cross") is a cross with an image of Jesus on it, as distinct from a bare cross. The representation of Jesus himself on the cross is referred to in English as the ''corpus'' (Lati ...

and sacred elements in commemoration of

Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religi ...

entombment Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objec ...

and

resurrection Resurrection or anastasis is the concept of coming back to life after death. In a number of religions, a dying-and-rising god is a deity which dies and is resurrected. Reincarnation is a similar process hypothesized by other religions, whic ...

. It was generally only a wooden structure, which was placed in a recess or on a tomb.

Distribution

The Easter Sepulchre is only found in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

and

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

, the practice having been peculiar to the

Sarum Rite The Use of Sarum (or Use of Salisbury, also known as the Sarum Rite) is the Latin liturgical rite developed at Salisbury Cathedral and used from the late eleventh century until the English Reformation. It is largely identical to the Roman rit ...

. However, there is a ruin presumed to be an Easter sepulchre at Kildrummy in north-east Scotland.

Use

EasterSepulchreHolcombeBurnellDevonDetail

The Easter Sepulchre contained the

Blessed Sacrament The Blessed Sacrament, also Most Blessed Sacrament, is a devotional name to refer to the body and blood of Christ in the form of consecrated sacramental bread and wine at a celebration of the Eucharist. The term is used in the Latin Church of the ...

of the altar, the Host. Following the doctrine of the

Real Presence The real presence of Christ in the Eucharist is the Christian doctrine that Jesus Christ is present in the Eucharist, not merely symbolically or metaphorically, but in a true, real and substantial way. There are a number of Christian denominat ...

, i.e. that Jesus is physically present within in the Host, on Good Friday the Host was taken from the

tabernacle According to the Hebrew Bible, the tabernacle ( he, מִשְׁכַּן, mīškān, residence, dwelling place), also known as the Tent of the Congregation ( he, link=no, אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד, ’ōhel mō‘ēḏ, also Tent of Meeting, etc.), ...

where it had been placed following the

Maundy Thursday Maundy Thursday or Holy Thursday (also known as Great and Holy Thursday, Holy and Great Thursday, Covenant Thursday, Sheer Thursday, and Thursday of Mysteries, among other names) is the day during Holy Week that commemorates the Washing of the ...

celebration of the Last Supper and, wrapped in linen cloths, 'buried' in the Easter sepulchre which was found on the north wall of the sanctuary. Cut into the wall, it was sometimes ornately carved but within it was a wooden frame on which was hung a cloth pall often embroidered with scenes from the Passion. Candles were lit around the sepulchre, burial clothes adorned it, and parishioners stood guard until early Easter morning at the first

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different element ...

. The Host was brought out, in imitation of Jesus having arisen out of the tomb, and was placed again in the tabernacle in the centre of the Church. Like Roods and their lofts, Easter Sepulchres were the object of iconoclastic fury by the Protestant Reformers, and few are left.

Surviving examples

There are throughout Great Britain many fine examples in stone, some of which are Decorated Gothic, such as:

Cumbria

Warwick Bridge Warwick Bridge is a village in the City of Carlisle district of the county of Cumbria, England. It forms part of a small urban area which includes the villages of Corby Hill and Little Corby. Warwick Bridge lies within the civil parish of Wet ...

Devon

Holcombe Burnell Holcombe Burnell is a civil parish in Devon, England, the church of which is about 4 miles west of Exeter City centre. There is no village clustered around the church, rather the nearest village within the parish is Longdown. Only the manor h ...

* Bishops Nympton * Heanton Punchardon * Monkleigh * St Mary's Church, Berry Pomeroy *

Throwleigh Throwleigh () is a village and civil parish located 3 miles from Chagford and 6 miles from Okehampton, in the West Devon district, in the county of Devon, England. The parish incorporates the village of Throwleigh and the hamlets of Wonson, Provi ...

Dorset

* Gillingham * Tarrant Hinton

Glamorgan

Coity Coity is a village in Bridgend County Borough, south Wales, part of Bridgend town urban area. Coity is part of the community of Coity Higher and is notable for being home to Coity Castle, one of the best preserved castles in Glamorgan. Other b ...

Herefordshire

Ledbury Ledbury is a market town and civil parish in the county of Herefordshire, England, lying east of Hereford, and west of the Malvern Hills. It has a significant number of timber-framed structures, in particular along Church Lane and High Stre ...

Lincolnshire

* Navenby * Heckington (1370)

London

St John the Divine, Kennington St John the Divine, Kennington, is an Anglican church in London. The parish of Kennington is within the Anglican Diocese of Southwark. The church was designed by the architect George Edmund Street (who also built the Royal Courts of Justice on S ...

Norfolk

* Fritton *

Kelling Kelling (also known as ''Low Kelling'' and as ''Lower Kelling'') is a village and a civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village is west of Cromer, north of Norwich, and northeast of London. The village straddles the A149 Coast ...

St Andrew's Church, Northwold St Andrew's Church is an active Church of England parish church in the village of Northwold, Norfolk, England. It is a Listed building, Grade I listed building. History The village of Northwold Northwold ("''North forest''") is a village an ...

Nottinghamshire

* Sibthorpe * Hawton (1370) *

Arnold Arnold may refer to: People * Arnold (given name), a masculine given name * Arnold (surname), a German and English surname Places Australia * Arnold, Victoria, a small town in the Australian state of Victoria Canada * Arnold, Nova Scotia Uni ...

Oxfordshire

* Bampton * Piddington

Suffolk

* Cockfield * East Harling * Long Melford * St Margaret South Elmham

Warwickshire

Long Itchington Long Itchington is a large village and civil parish in Warwickshire, England, which at the 2011 Census had a population of 2,013. The village is named after the River Itchen which flows to the south and west of the village. Long Itchington is ar ...

Withybrook, Coventry

West Sussex

* St Catherine of Siena Church, Cocking

East Riding of Yorkshire

Patrington Patrington is a village and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, in an area known as Holderness, south-east of Hedon, south-east of Kingston upon Hull and south-west of Withernsea on the A1033. Along with Winestead, it w ...

Notes

References

;Attribution * {{Easter Church architecture Easter liturgy Holy Week