Copy of a very long instrument used by priests to dispense the sacraments and avoid personal contact with persons suffering from plague, original 16th century
This rather odd instrument was used to give out Holy Communion while keeping those with plague literally at arm’s length. It is just over a metre long. One prong at the end of the fork has a slit to take the communion wafer, and the other prong has five small holes from which wine can be drunk.
This copy was presented to the Wellcome Museum for the History of Medicine, now known as the Wellcome Trust, by the director of the Institut Pasteur in Paris in 1939.
Details
- Category:
- Classical & Medieval Medicine
- Collection:
- Sir Henry Wellcome's Museum Collection
- Object Number:
- A629402
- Materials:
- metal (silver-plated)
- Measurements:
-
overall: 22 mm x 1040 mm x 70 mm,
- type:
- sacrament dispenser
- credit:
- Institut Pasteur