Antimension
JOHN A. MCGUCKIN
The word means “in place of the altar table” and denotes the cloth that is used in the
Divine Liturgy (similar to the western Corporal) on which the Chalice and Diskos will stand after the Great Entrance. It is kept on the holy table, folded, underneath the gospel book until the time of the Litany of the Faithful, at which point it is unfolded for the Anaphora. The cloth is normally about two square feet in dimension and bears a printed icon of the Body of the Savior taken down from the cross. It has relics of the saints sewn into it and bears the authorizing signature of the ruling diocesan bishop. If a new church is consecrated the bishop sanctifies the Antimension at the same time by wiping it over the sacred chrism that has been spread over the altar stone. Divine Liturgy cannot be celebrated without an Antimension, but in times of emergency the Antimension can substitute for the altar itself.
SEE ALSO: Anaphora; Divine Liturgy, Orthodox
REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS
Izzo, J. M. (1975) The Antimension in the Liturgical and Canonical Tradition of the Byzantine and Latin Churches: An Inter-Ritual and InterConfessional Study. Rome: Pontifical Athenaeum Antonianum.