Cornerstone, Church
CORNERSTONE, CHURCH
The first stone laid in the construction of a church. The custom of blessing the site of a new church is of ancient origin. The sixth-century Novellae of Justinian (Corpus iuris civilis, Novellae. 131.7) says that the bishop shall say a prayer and fix a cross at the site; it is not clear if this involved a cornerstone. The 12th-century Decretal of Gratian, which in this matter draws on a sixth-century Council of Orleans, says that the bishop shall place a cross and designate the location of the atrium (Corpus iuris caconici, c.9). In the 13th century, Durandus makes clear mention of a "first stone." The Roman Pontificals of the same century give a simple blessing for this stone. The Pontifical of 1572 gives the ceremony essentially as it is today. Historically, the ceremony that was given in the Pontifical and the Ritual assumed that the foundation walls of the church were already in place. At the site of the future altar, a wooden cross was set up and blessed; the cornerstone was blessed and then set in place in a principal wall; and the foundation of the church was blessed. The prayers of blessing contain numerous scriptural references to Christ as the cornerstone.
Bibliography: j. nabuco, Pontificalis Romani expositio juridico-practica (Paris 1962) 512.
[c. h. meinberg/eds.]