]
Lamps and candelabra were presented to the sanctuary by the faithful
during the first ages of persecution; and in more tranquil times to
the basilicas by Constantine and others who erected or dedicated them.
They were lighted, as S. Jerome observes, in the day time "not to
drive away darkness, but as a sign of joy": and therefore the custom
of gradually extinguishing them at the office of Tenebrae we may
justly consider with Amalarius as a sign of mourning, or of the
sympathy of the church with her divine and suffering Spouse. The
precise number of lights is determined by that of the psalms, which
is the same as at ordinary matins of three nocturns.
The custom of concealing behind the altar during the last part of the
office the last and most elevated candle, and of bringing it forward
burning at the end of the service, is a manifest allusion to the death
and resurrection of Christ, whose light, as Micrologus observes, is
represented by our burning tapers. "I am the light of the world". John
VIII. 12[50]. In the same manner the other candles extinguished one
after another may represent the prophets successively put to death
before their divine Lord: and if we consider that the psalms of the
_old Testament_ are recited at the time, this explanation may appear
more satisfactory than others, which would refer them to the blessed
Virgin, the apostles and disciples of Christ[51].
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