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EntityQ198373· pop 34· linked from 500 articles

Also known as ampule the sick

liturgical container

~6 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Silver-gilt ciborium A ciborium (plural ciboria; Medieval Latin ciborium "drinking cup", from the Ancient Greek κιβώριον kibōrion, "drinking cup") is a vessel, normally in metal. It was originally a particular shape of drinking cup in ancient Greece and Rome, but the word later came to refer to a large covered cup designed to hold hosts for, and after, the Eucharist, thus the counterpart (for the bread) of the chalice (for the wine).

The word is also used for a large canopy over the altar of a church, which was a common feature of Early Medieval church architecture, now relatively rare.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “ciborium” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.