page_title: Royal Maundy
section_title: Royal Maundy today
hierarchical_section_title: Royal Maundy / Royal Maundy today
caption_attribution_description: English: Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip during a visit to Wakefield Cathedral for the Maundy money Ceremony.
context_page_description: Royal Maundy is a religious service in the Church of England held on Maundy Thursday, the day before Good Friday. At the service, the British monarch or a royal official ceremonially distributes small silver coins known as "Maundy money" as symbolic alms to elderly recipients. The coins are legal tender but do not circulate because of their silver content and numismatic value. A small sum of ordinary money is also given in lieu of gifts of clothing and food that the sovereign once bestowed on Maundy recipients.
  The name "Maundy" and the ceremony itself derive from an instruction, or mandatum, of Jesus Christ at the Last Supper that his followers should love one another. In the Middle Ages, English monarchs washed the feet of beggars in imitation of Jesus, and presented gifts and money to the poor. Over time, additional money was substituted for the clothing and other items that had once been distributed.
  Beginning in 1699 the monarch did not attend the service, sending an official in his place. The custom of washing the feet did not survive the 18th century.
context_section_description: Queen Elizabeth II views the service as an important part of her devotional life.  It is the only occasion on which the Queen visits others to make awards, as recipients of honours usually come to her.  According to Ronald Allison and Sarah Riddell in their Royal Encyclopedia, the service "has become the occasion of a royal pilgrimage to different parts of the country".  The Queen has directed that the service not be held in London more often than once in ten years.  Westminster Abbey was the site of the 2001 Royal Maundy, and again in 2011, the first ever televised.  On 20 March 2008, at the Church of Ireland St Patrick's Cathedral, Armagh, the Queen attended the first Royal Maundy service held outside England and Wales. With the 2017 service at Leicester Cathedral, every Anglican cathedral in England has hosted the Royal Maundy. The 2020 service was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic; it is uncertain when it last did not take place. The gifts to the chosen recipients were sent by post.
  Today the recipients are pensioners, chosen on an interdenominational basis from various Christian churches for their service to their churches and communities.  In most years, recipients are nominated by Christian clergy of various denominations in the diocese where the service is held.  In 2011, however, as well as recipients representing Westminster Abbey, forty recipients came from the Anglican Diocese of Gibraltar in Europe, which covers continental Europe, and forty from the Diocese of Sodor and Man, which consists of the Isle of Man.  Robert Patterson, Bishop of Sodor and Man, while at a conference of Anglican bishops, had invited the Queen to his cathedral for Maundy services; he received word that this would be too difficult, but that his diocese could nominate recipients. For 2012, in honour of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, recipients were selected from all 44 dioceses in the United Kingdom for the service at York Minster.
  The Yeomen of the Guard are present at the ceremony and serve as "Indoor Guard"; the  choir of the Chapel Royal is also present.  Six wandsmen, whose original function is uncertain, guide the recipients to their places and render any other help which is needed.  Present at the ceremony are four Maundy Children (formally "Children of the Royal Almonry"), two boys and two girls.  The original Maundy Children were four old men, charity recipients, whose sole duty was to attend at the Royal Maundy service wearing linen scarves.  As their fees for the service amounted to over twenty pounds per year, this was deemed an abuse of charity, and in 1808 the old men were pensioned off and replaced by actual children. The first children appointed from 1808 did not personally attend the service, but their parents received five guineas per year to aid in their education until the age of fourteen, and four other children from schools in the City of Westminster represented them at the service.  Today, the Maundy Children are chosen from religious and state schools, and receive a set of Maundy coins for their participation.  Officials in the Maundy service wear towels over their clothing, worn over the shoulder and tied at the waist.  The linen towels were once retained by their wearers, but since 1883, the same towels, laundered each year, have been used.
  In 1968, a Royal Warrant was granted to Barrow Hepburn and Gale to produce the traditional white and red leather purses, which continues to today. Until 1979, the Queen made two distributions of money in leather purses to each recipient.  The first distribution, given to women in green purses and to men in white, was of an allowance in lieu of the clothing formerly given.  The white purses used for the clothing allowance may be distinguished from the white purses which contained Maundy money, as the former was tied with a short green string; the latter bears a long red string.  The clothing allowance purses had been introduced in 1936; prior to that, the clothing allowance was distributed in a paper packet.  In the second distribution two purses were given by the monarch;
caption: Queen Elizabeth II (centre, in blue) and Prince Philip hold nosegays as they leave Wakefield Cathedral after the 2005 Royal Maundy.
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