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Thurible

Also Known As Censer
Liturgical Vessels

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Origin 300 to 400 CE

A metal bowl on chains in which incense is burned over charcoal and swung during worship. The censing of the altar, the gospel book, the clergy, the congregation and the dead is an act of honour, and the rising smoke is read as prayer going up. The person who swings it is a thurifer; the boat-shaped container of unburnt incense carried alongside is a boat.

Orthodox censers usually carry twelve bells on the chains, one for each apostle. Roman thuribles usually do not. The Botafumeiro at Santiago de Compostela is the extreme case, a censer of about eighty kilograms hauled by eight men across the transept.

Facts
Use
Who May Handle It
Trained or authorised specialists only 1
Consecration
Not consecrated; an instrument, not a consecrated object 1
Attributions
Tradition
Christianity, principally Catholic and Orthodox 1
Origins
Origin Period
300 to 400 CE 1
Physical Form
Material
Brass, bronze, silver 1
Learn More
The Smoke That Carries the Prayer

The thurible is a metal bowl on chains in which incense is burned over charcoal and swung during worship, and its use turns a fragrance into an enacted prayer.

What the censing means

Incense is burned and the thurible swung to cense the altar, the book of the gospels, the clergy and the people, and the offerings, and the act carries a scriptural sense drawn from the psalm that likens prayer rising to God to the rising of incense. The censing therefore honours what is censed and figures the ascent of prayer at once, so the same gesture directed at the altar, at a person, or at the congregation both reverences it and lifts up the prayer of the assembly. The rising smoke makes an invisible offering visible.

East and West

The thurible is used in the Catholic, Orthodox and some Anglican and Lutheran traditions, and its handling differs: the Eastern censer commonly carries small bells on its chains that sound as it is swung, while the Western form is silent. The number of swings and the objects censed are governed by rule and vary with the solemnity of the occasion. The object is ancient, the offering of incense being older than Christianity and shared with many traditions, and the church took it up as a sign at once of honour, of purification, and of prayer ascending.

What Goes Inside It, and Who Is Allowed to Swing It

A thurible is a working vessel rather than a purely symbolic one, built to hold a lit coal at several hundred degrees while being swung on chains without spilling it, and its construction follows from that requirement.

Construction and fuel

Most thuribles are brass or silver, a bowl with a pierced, hinged lid suspended by three or four chains from a disc that lets one hand manage the chains and the lid together. A charcoal briquette, lit in advance, sits inside, and incense grains, commonly frankincense, myrrh or benzoin, are added a spoonful at a time from a small boat shaped container called a navette. Orthodox censers add small bells to the chains, so the censer rings softly as it swings, a feature Western thuribles generally lack.

Who handles it

The thurible itself is carried and swung by a server called a thurifer, a role that can be a layperson, but the incense is imposed into it, meaning placed on the coal, by the priest or deacon presiding, usually with a blessing spoken over it first. This division, server carries and swings, clergy loads and blesses, is fairly consistent across Catholic and Orthodox practice. A thurible is a utensil rather than a consecrated vessel in the same sense as a chalice, so a worn out one is simply retired and replaced rather than requiring formal disposal, though the ash is emptied respectfully rather than tipped out with household rubbish.

Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

Santiago de Compostela, Sacred Sites

The Botafumeiro at Santiago de Compostela is the extreme case of a thurible, an eighty kilogram censer hauled by eight men across the transept.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)

Belongs to Tradition

Christianity, Religions

The thurible is the Christian form of a censing practice older than the church and shared across the ancient Mediterranean.

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

Element Of

Eastern Orthodoxy, Denominations

Censing is continuous in the Byzantine rite, at vespers, at matins and repeatedly through the divine liturgy.

Source The Byzantine Rite: A Short HistoryRobert F. Taft
Roman Catholicism, Denominations

Incense is used at Mass, at the gospel, at the offerings and at the altar, and at funerals over the body.

Source General Instruction of the Roman Missal, third typical editionCongregation for Divine Worshipthe holders' own account
Sources
1. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised edition
F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.), Oxford University Press, 2005on the thurible and the use of incenseView the Source
Encyclopedia of Religion
Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Macmillan Reference, 2005View the Source
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