Houseling cloth? And also, interesting concentrations of beautiful churches

[Alpha60]

What do we call the cloth that is held by two servers (usually) before each priest serving communion in the Eastern Orthodox liturgies?  The cloth used to catch any drops from the spoon or loose particles of the Eucharist.

The Roman Catholics and extremely high church Anglicans use in the Tridentine mass, on some occasions, something called a Houseling Cloth, which is unfurled across the altar rail, in addition to a device that looks like a giant putty knife, which an altar boy will hold rather too close to one’s throat, to catch any particles.  Of course the Western houseling cloth is inapplicable in Orthodox churches as our parishes generally lack altar rails, with the exception of a few historic parishes borrowed from other churches in the diaspora, for example, St. Botolph’s-without-Bishopgate, a Church of England parish in the City of London, which like most of the churches in the Square Mile, is not heavily used, except by the Antiochian congregation which meets there on Sunday.

(For the curious, here is the lovely Western interior of that parish: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:St_Botolph-without-Bishopsgate_nave.jpg) 

I have to confess to being somewhat of a fan of churches in the City of London; it, along with the Kremlin in Moscow, Coptic Cairo, Ravenna, Rome, Lalibela, the historic churches of Boston, the baroque churches of Munich, the old churches associated with Bach in Leipzig, the monasteries in Mount Athos,, and the Tur Abdin region of Turkey, is one of those places where a disproportionate number of beautiful and historically important churches exist.  I am particularly keen to find the places in the Orthodox world where such concentrations of churches have survived Turkocratia and Communism (of which Coptic Cairo, Tur Abdin, Meteora, and Mount Athos, are examples, but the first two are of course endangered, Tur Abdin to a particular degree).

 

[isxodnik]

What do we call the cloth that is held by two servers (usually) before each priest serving communion in the Eastern Orthodox liturgies?

In ROC - plat (плат).

 

[LizaSymonenko]

In Ukrainian, Platok or Playtochok (Платок Платочок) - which simply means "cloth". 
It is the Communal Cloth.

 

[Alpha60]

In Ukrainian, Platok or Playtochok (Платок Платочок) - which simply means "cloth". 
It is the Communal Cloth.

Thank you Liza. 

Communal as in Communion?

Also I should have enumerated Kiev on my list of cities with an unusual number of splendid Orthodox churches.  I particularly like St. Andrew’s (known in Ukrainian as Андріївська церква), but there is an urgent need for engineering works to shore it up structurally, and I am praying that will happen.  Apparently the foundation has cracked and bits of the church have fallen off.      I find St. Andrew’s to be such an exquisite example of Ukrainian Baroque architecture, which also goes hand-in-glove with the Ukrainian Baroque music which has beautified all Slavonic church services (the compositions of Bortnianski, Chesnokov, and other Ukrainian composers who benefitted from exposure to the Italian school and implemented four part harmony, which in turn not only facilitated the exquisite music that followed throughout the Russian, Ukrainian and Bulgarian churches, but also facilitated the emergence of extremely talented Russian and Ukrainian composers such as Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev).  So I see in St. Andrew a symbol of that beauty. 

But the other churches of Kiev are also stunning, like the cathedral of St. Sophia, and St. Michael’s Monastery.

~

Are there any other conglomerations of exquisite churches people might like to mention?

 

[MalpanaGiwargis]

The Roman Catholics and extremely high church Anglicans use ... a device that looks like a giant putty knife, which an altar boy will hold rather too close to one’s throat, to catch any particles.

That's called a "paten," from Latin patina; the Western equivalent of the diskos has the same name.

 

[Alpha60]

The Roman Catholics and extremely high church Anglicans use ... a device that looks like a giant putty knife, which an altar boy will hold rather too close to one’s throat, to catch any particles.

That's called a "paten," from Latin patina; the Western equivalent of the diskos has the same name.

Wait, are you saying that the putty knife shaped device is also called a Paten?  Because if so, that is confusing; they ought to call the Paten on the Altar the Diskos to avoid confusion.  Of course the Orthodox diskos tends to have a stand, for easier holding, whereas Roman priests set the Paten with one host on it atop the chalice in a complex ceremony.

 

[MalpanaGiwargis]

The Roman Catholics and extremely high church Anglicans use ... a device that looks like a giant putty knife, which an altar boy will hold rather too close to one’s throat, to catch any particles.

That's called a "paten," from Latin patina; the Western equivalent of the diskos has the same name.

Wait, are you saying that the putty knife shaped device is also called a Paten?  Because if so, that is confusing; they ought to call the Paten on the Altar the Diskos to avoid confusion.  Of course the Orthodox diskos tends to have a stand, for easier holding, whereas Roman priests set the Paten with one host on it atop the chalice in a complex ceremony.

Yeah, they have the same name. "Paten" just means a shallow dish. There are versions of the altar boy paten that looks a lot less like a putty knife. I've never actually researched if there's another name for it in Latin; I'm not sure if it is legislated in the rubrics the way the altar paten is.

 

[MalpanaGiwargis]

I just found that the altar boy version is referred to in the 1962 Missal as patina pro fidelium communione (paten for the communion of the faithful). Its use is required in the 1962 rubrics, and the houseling cloth is no longer mentioned in the rubrics. As recently as the late 1800s, though, this handled paten was considered a novelty and there was debate over whether it could be used in lieu of the cloth.

I got this from this interesting blog post by Msgr. Charles Pope of the RC Archdiocese of Washington.

 

[Alpha60]

I just found that the altar boy version is referred to in the 1962 Missal as patina pro fidelium communione (paten for the communion of the faithful). Its use is required in the 1962 rubrics, and the houseling cloth is no longer mentioned in the rubrics. As recently as the late 1800s, though, this handled paten was considered a novelty and there was debate over whether it could be used in lieu of the cloth.

I got this from this interesting blog post by Msgr. Charles Pope of the RC Archdiocese of Washington.

Interesting.  So hypothetically, before the current rubrics concerning the Patina were adopted, one might see a Houseling Cloth in use, and in parishes without an altar rail, this perhaps might even look something like the Orthodox Platok?

 

[isxodnik]

A "platok" is "headscarf" or "handkerchief". I'm sorry, Alpha, but if you say "platok" instead of "plat" somewhere, people will be surprised: "You're from OC.net, why didn't isxodnik teach you?", and I'll be ashamed ))

 

[Alpha60]

A "platok" is "headscarf" or "handkerchief". I'm sorry, Alpha, but if you say "platok" instead of "plat" somewhere, people will be surprised: "You're from OC.net, why didn't isxodnik teach you?", and I'll be ashamed ))

I was of course using the Ukrainian term provided by Liza (Platok or Playtochok).  I should actually like to know the Greek word, because in general Greek terms tend to be understood throughout the Eastern Orthodox community (for example, not everyone knows what a Sluzhbenik is, but the meaning of the word Liturgikon is self-evident).

 

[isxodnik]

https://dm-jurevch-67.livejournal.com/334378.html

- Father Justin, can you tell me how they call plat for Communion in Ukraine?

- That's what they call it. Plat. I don't know any other terms.

 

[Dominika]

It depends on the local tradition and language.
In Polish it's ilition. In Arabic mandeel.