The Church has always been conscious of the respectful care of consecrated Eucharist and in providing for a place where the Eucharist can be kept at the conclusion of Mass. This place is now commonly known as the Tabernacle. The Latin word is tabernaculum, a hut or tent and conveys the idea of a structure at which or in which to dwell or to rest.

Rev. Francis J. Schaefer, writing in The Tabernacle: Its History, Structure and Custody, offers:

There is an opinion among some historians that in the early centuries of the Christian era, say from the first to the fourth, no provision was made to keep the Blessed Sacrament in the churches or in places where the Eucharistic services were held. There is some foundation for this belief. In those times the Holy Eucharist was taken to the private houses of the Christians If that was the case, there appears to be no reason for supposing that it was reserved in the churches or other places of worship. The opinion is strengthened by the consideration of the circumstances of the time. The condition of the Christians in the early centuries was very precarious. Without legal standing in the Roman Empire, they were open to persecution at any time for professing Christianity. If they kept the Holy Eucharist in their places of worship, they ran the risk of exposing it to the profanation of the Gentiles, since the guardians of the law could have entered these edifices at any moment and taken possession of them. Therefore, if the Holy Eucharist was not kept in the churches, there was no need for such a thing as a tabernacle in which to reserve the particles.

The “history” of the tabernacle is not a topic for which there is an extant document dedicated to it. But whatever the practice of reserving the Eucharist within formal church structures, it is clear that by the fourth century, it was the uniform practice of the Church to reserve the Eucharist within the structure of the Church.

What constituted a tabernacle and where was the proper place for it? Stay tuned.

Image credit: G. Corrigan, CANVA, CC-BY-NC