ciborium

American  

[si-bawr-ee-uhm, -bohr-] / sɪˈbɔr i əm, -ˈboʊr- /

noun

ciboria plural

1. a permanent canopy placed over an altar; baldachin.

2. any container designed to hold the consecrated bread or sacred wafers for the Eucharist.

3. Archaic. a severy.

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ciborium British  

/ sɪˈbɔːrɪəm /

noun

1. a goblet-shaped lidded vessel used to hold consecrated wafers in Holy Communion

2. a freestanding canopy fixed over an altar and supported by four pillars

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• ciboria
  plural

Etymology

Origin of ciborium

1645–55; < Latin: drinking-cup < Greek kibṓrion literally, the seed vessel of the Egyptian lotus, which the cup apparently resembled

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

ciborium ciboria

At St. Alphonsa’s on Monday, the police said they believed the break-in was a burglary, and noted that a DVD player was taken with the two ceremonial vessels, a monstrance and a ciborium.

From New York Times ● Feb. 2, 2015

Its next choice, a ciborium given to “France or Germany” and assigned a date in the late 14th or early 15th century, was less inspired.

From New York Times ● Nov. 18, 2011

London Silversmith Gerald Benney, designer of the ciborium for Coventry's new cathedral, offers a squat, modern tea service for $1,080.

From Time Magazine Archive

In the first of the Schatzkammer's ten rooms stands a gaunt, Carolingian ciborium, or altar canopy, wrought in gold for King Arnulf of Carinthia about A.D.

From Time Magazine Archive

O I would build an Ark of words, A safe ciborium where to lay The secret soul of loveliness.

From A Pushcart at the Curb by Dos Passos, John

The last chapel contains two fine fifteenth century ciboria, and the tomb of Cardinal Antonio Pallavicini, 1507.

From Walks in Rome by Hare, Augustus J. C.

Medieval pyxes and ciboria are often beautiful examples of the goldsmith’s, enameller’s and metal-worker’s craft.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 3 "Chitral" to "Cincinnati" by Various

There were heaps on heaps of costly articles: robes, mantles, vestments, richly embroidered with gold and precious gems, gold and silver chalices, shrines, ciboria, pastoral staffs, and a host of valuables too numerous to remember.

From Told by the Death's Head A Romantic Tale by J?kai, M?r

It opened, and my candle reflected a blaze on gold and silver vessels, consecrated chalices; a dazzling monstra, and several richly-carved ciboria of solid gold, set with precious stones.

From The Shame of Motley: being the memoir of certain transactions in the life of Lazzaro Biancomonte, of Biancomonte, sometime fool of the court of Pesaro by Sabatini, Rafael

"It is certainly mystical, and far more appropriate than the vessels of every form, the ciboria of silver-gilt, of aluminum, of silver of these days."

From The Cathedral by Huysmans, J.-K. (Joris-Karl)