page_title: Ablution in Christianity
section_title: Western Christian
hierarchical_section_title: Ablution in Christianity / Eucharistic Ablutions / Western Christian
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Brunnenhaus (Lavatorium) im Kreuzgang von Stift Zwettl, Niederösterreich English: Lavatorium at the cloister of Zwettl Abbey, Lower Austria Español: Lavatorium en el claustro de la abadía de Zwettl, Baja Austria. Português: Lavabo no claustro da abadia de Zwettl, Baixa Áustria. Українська: Лаваторіум біля Цветтльського абатства, Нижня Австрія. Français&#160;: Lavatorium dans le cloître de l'abbaye de Zwettl, en Basse-Autriche &#160; This media shows the protected monument with the number 34133 in Austria. (Commons, de, Wikidata)
context_page_description: Ablution, in religion, is a prescribed washing of part or all of the body of possessions, such as clothing or ceremonial objects, with the intent of purification or dedication. In Christianity, both baptism and footwashing are forms of ablution. Prior to praying the canonical hours at seven fixed prayer times, Oriental Orthodox Christians wash their hands and face. In liturgical churches, ablution can refer to purifying fingers or vessels related to the Eucharist. In the New Testament, washing also occurs in reference to rites of Judaism part of the action of a healing by Jesus, the preparation of a body for burial, the washing of nets by fishermen, a person's personal washing of the face to appear in public, the cleansing of an injured person's wounds, Pontius Pilate's washing of his hands as a symbolic claim of innocence and foot washing, now partly a symbolic rite within the Church. According to the Gospel of Matthew, Pontius Pilate declared himself innocent of the blood of Jesus by washing his hands. This act of Pilate may not, however, have been borrowed from the custom of the Jews. The same practice was common among the Greeks and Romans.
context_section_description: In the Roman Rite, the celebrant washes his hands before vesting for Mass, but with another prayer (Da, Domine, virtutem). This is said privately in the vestry. He will then wash his hands again after the offertory—this is the ceremony that is known as the lavabo proper. This washing appears in both the Tridentine Mass, the 1962 edition of which is still an authorized extraordinary form of the Roman Rite), and in the post-Vatican II Mass. The reason for this "second" washing of hands probably developed from the long ceremony of receiving the loaves and vessels of wine from the people at the offertory that was used in Rome. In the Gallican Rite the offerings were prepared before Mass began, as in the Eastern Liturgy of Preparation, so there was no long version of the offertory nor place for a lavabo before the Eucharistic Prayer. In the Middle Ages, the Roman Rite actually had two washing of hands, one before and one after the offertory. This first one has since disappeared, and the one which remains is the second.
  In the Tridentine Mass and in the similar Anglo-Catholic Mass, the term "ablutions" refers to when the priest rinses his hands first in wine and then in water following the Communion. It is to be distinguished from the lavabo, when the celebrant washes his hands with water only, reciting the words of Psalm 26:6–12 (KJV—in the Septuagint it is Psalm 25) at the offertory.
  In the Mass of Paul VI and the Anglican Eucharist the priest does not normally use wine to wash his hands at the ablution, although this is permitted, but only water.
caption: Fountain in the lavatorium of the Zwettl Abbey.
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