The Baldacchino is a canopy-like structure which traditionally is erected over the altar or the tabernacle. Depicted on the underside of the baldacchino is often painted a pattern of stars, symbolizing the lights of heaven.
Since modern science can project how the stars would appear on any fixed date, their pattern can be determined for the sky on that first Easter morning (the first Sunday after the first full moon, following the Spring Equinox in 33AD – the traditional methodology to determine the date for Easter). It is this pattern that is depicted in the apse of the baldacchino in our Cathedral. The stars and the background are that of the early dawn sky, facing east from Jerusalem, what the apostles and disciples would likely have seen when they looked to the heavens following the news that Our Lord has risen from the dead, just as He had said.
Framing both the crucifix, which signifies the saving death of our Savior and the tabernacle,which reserves His risen Presence in the Eucharist, the baldacchino directs our focus to the Paschal Mystery of Our Lord in and through the gift of faith: the dying and rising of Christ we celebrate in the Eucharist and the new Life He there gives us to receive.
DonorAnonymous Donor |
Follow