§ 175. Sacred Things

Sacred things (πράγματα ἱερά) are called those things which pertain exclusively to divine worship and to the correct performance of that worship (§.155). Among these things a distinction is made between those which serve directly for the Holy Eucharist—namely, the sacred vessels (ἅγια σκεύη) and the antimins (ἀντιμίνσιον)—and those which are used in church services independently of the Holy Eucharist, namely the sacred books, vestments, bells, and so on. The former are called consecrated (χαϑιερωμένα) things, and no one may touch them except a sacred minister. By the 21st canon of the Council of Laodicea, not even subdeacons may touch these things, least of all the antimins, the chalice, and the diskos.[1] The latter are called blessed (ἡγιασμένα) things.

Except for the antimins, every presbyter may consecrate or bless all sacred things for church use. The antimins can be consecrated only by a bishop.[2] The basis of this episcopal right is the same as that for the episcopal right of consecrating a church (§§.60 and 174). Antimins, in which relics of saints are placed, were established especially for the sake of those churches which could not be consecrated in person by a bishop, and these antimins, consecrated by hierarchs, took the place of the very act of consecrating a church, and served as proof that in such a church, not consecrated by a bishop, the Eucharist was celebrated by the bishop’s permission.[3] When the iconoclasts introduced the consecration of churches without holy relics, it was established—in order to forestall forever the offering of the eucharistic sacrifice on a table where there are no holy relics—that even in churches consecrated by a bishop, and in which holy relics are accordingly placed in the holy table, there should always also be an antimins.[4]

The immunity attaching to sacred things is the same as that for sacred places. Everyone who presumes to touch and profane a sacred thing is punished, according to the canons, with excommunication, and whoever steals such a thing, if he is a sacred person, must be deposed.[5] Those concerned are also liable to punishment for the profanation or theft of sacred things under the civil laws.[6]