Easter Sepulchre

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An Easter Sepulchre is, in church architecture, an arched recess generally in the north wall of the chancel, in which from Good Friday to Easter day were deposited the crucifix and sacred elements in commemoration of Christ's entombment and resurrection. It was generally only a wooden erection, which was placed in a recess or on a tomb. There are throughout England many fine examples in stone, some of which belong to the Decorated period, such as at Navenby and Heckington (1370) in Lincolnshire, Sibthorpe and Hawton (1370) in Nottinghamshire, Patrington in the East Riding of Yorkshire, Bampton in Oxfordshire, Holcombe Burnell in Devon, and Long Itchington and other churches in Warwickshire. The Easter Sepulchre is only found in England, the practice having been peculiar to the Sarum Rite.

The Easter Sepulchre contained the Blessed Sacrament of the altar, the Host. In a very real way, believing that Jesus is indeed in the Host, the Lord was taken from the tabernacle of the Church on Good Friday evening and placed in a coffin-like box. Candles were lit around the sepulchre, burial clothes adorned it, and parishioners stood guard until early Easter morning at the first mass. The Host was brought out, as Jesus came out of the tomb, and placed in the tabernacle in the center of the Church. Source: "The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England 1400-1580" by Eamon Duffy, Yale University Press, 1992.

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.