220 ANDREW J. SHIPMAN MEMORIAL 



among the Armenians, whether Catholic or Gregorian, and it 

 is celebrated with a form and ceremonial which partakes in a 

 measure both of the Roman and Byzantine rites. As we have 

 said, the curtains are used instead of the altar-rail or iconos- 

 tasis of those rites, and the vestments are also peculiar. The 

 Armenians, like the Latins, use unleavened bread, in the form 

 of a wafer or small thin round cake, for consecration ; but like 

 the Greeks they prepare many wafers, and those not used for 

 consecration in the Mass are given afterwards to the people as 

 the antidoron. The wine used must be solely the fermented 

 juice of the best grapes obtainable. In the Gregorian churches 

 Communion is given to the people under both species, the Host 

 being dipped in the chalice before delivering it to the com- 

 municant, but in the Catholic churches Communion is now 

 given only in one species, that of the Body, although there is 

 no express prohibition against the older form. On Christmas 

 Eve and Easter Eve the Armenians celebrate Mass in the 

 evening; the Mass then begins with the curtains drawn whilst 

 the introductory psalms and prophecies are sung, but, at the 

 moment the great feast is announced in the Introit, the cur- 

 tains are withdrawn and the altar appears with full illumina- 

 tion. During Lent the altar remains entirely hidden by the 

 great curtains, and during all the Sundays in Lent, except 

 Palm Sunday, Mass is celebrated behind the drawn curtains. 

 A relic of this practice still remains in the Roman Rite, as 

 shown by the veiling of the images and pictures from Pas- 

 sion Sunday till Easter Eve. The Armenian vestments for 

 Mass are peculiar and splendid. The priest wears a crown, 

 exactly in the form of a Greek bishop's mitre, which is called 

 the Saghavard or helmet. This is also worn by the deacons 

 attending on a bishop at pontifical Mass. The Armenian bish- 

 ops wear a mitre almost identical in shape with the Latin 

 mitre, and said to have been introduced at the time of their 

 union with Rome in the twelfth century, when they relinquished 

 the Greek form of mitre for the priests to wear in the Mass. 

 The celebrant is first vested with the shapik or alb, which is 

 usually narrower than the Latin form, and usually of linen 

 (sometimes of silk). He then puts on each of his arms the 

 baspans or cuffs, which replace the Latin maniple; then the 

 ourar or stole, which is in one piece; then the goti or girdle, 

 then the varkas or amice, which is a large embroidered stiff 



