Eileton

JOHN A. MCGUCKIN

Greek term meaning “wrapped” or “folded.” In reference to ancient manu­scripts it can mean a folded papyrus or simple type of book made up from folded leaves. In common use among the Ortho­dox it signifies the plain cloth wrapping, linen or silk, that was kept under the gospel book on the holy table and solemnly unfolded in the divine liturgy after the dis­missal of the catechumens and during the Litany of the Faithful, so as to be ready to receive the chalice and diskos. The latter are placed upon it after the completion of the Great Entrance when the gifts are brought in procession to the holy table. To this extent it was the equivalent of the Western Church’s corporal. Later liturgical practice replaced the Eileton with an Antimension cloth which bore the printed symbols and images of the Passion (in its latest phase the icon of the deposition of Christ from the cross), but the Antimension itself increas­ingly came to be wrapped in a protective cloth (both cloths with a threefold horizon­tal fold and a threefold vertical fold), so that now the Eileton is fundamentally the outer covering of the Antimension, and both are unfolded at the same time, and folded up after the communion when they are replaced underneath the gospel.

SEE ALSO: Anaphora; Antimension; Divine Liturgy, Orthodox

REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS

Taft, R. (1978) The Great Entrance. Orientalia Christiana Analecta, vol. 200. Rome: Pontifical Institute of Oriental Studies.