Bombay Archdiocese loans
"Golden Lily" chalice to Orvieto Cathedral for Corpus Christi
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| Orvieto Cathedral |
St. Pope Paul VI, who received the chalice as a gift from
Italy’s Orvieto Cathedral, donated it to the Archdiocese of Mumbai in 1964.
By Robin Gomes
Indian Cardinal Oswald Gracias, Archbishop of Bombay,
celebrated the solemnity of Corpus Christi in the Cathedral of Orvieto, Italy,
on Sunday, bringing along with him a precious chalice where it originated over
five decades ago.
For the occasion, a delegation from Bombay Archdiocese
brought the "Golden Lily" chalice which Pope St. Paul VI had gifted
the archdiocese when he visited the western Indian city in December 1964.
After celebrating the morning Mass with the “Golden Lily”,
Card. Gracias met the wife and son of Marcello Conticelli, the artist who
crafted the precious chalice. In the afternoon, he went to nearby
Bolsena, the town of the Eucharistic miracle, where he participated in a
Eucharistic procession.
Fr. Warner D'Souza, director of the Archdiocesan Heritage
Museum in Mumbai, explained that the "Golden Lily" was created by
Conticelli and Luciano Coppola based on a design by architect Alberto
Stramaccioni.
The chalice was gifted to Pope Paul VI on 11 August 1964, on
the occasion of his visit to Orvieto for the celebration of 700 years of the
feast of Corpus Christi.
In December of the same year, Pope Paul VI, on an official
visit to India on the occasion of the 38th International Eucharistic Congress,
gifted the chalice to the Archdiocese of Bombay, in what is Mumbai today.
In handing it to the Archbishop of Bombay, the late Cardinal
Valerian Gracias, the Pope said: "For the poorest Church in the world, the
most precious gift received during my pontificate".
The gold chalice in the shape of a lily honours Orvieto’s
Cathedral dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. With its façade
full of golden mosaics and artworks, the cathedral is regarded as the “Golden
Lily of the Cathedrals".
The chalice is kept at the Archdiocesan Heritage Museum of
Mumbai, the country's second-largest museum of Christian religious art which
houses artefacts dating back to the 16th century.
After being displayed at Orvieto’s Museo dell'opera
del Duomo (Museum of the Works of the Cathedral), June 17 to 22, it
will return to India.
The solemnity of Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ or
Corpus Christi was instituted by Pope Urban IV in 1264 following the
Eucharistic miracle in the town of Bolsena.
A Bohemian priest beset by doubts regarding the real
presence of Christ in the Eucharist was restored to faith when the consecrated
host began to bleed during Mass. The altar cloth from Bolsena (stained with the
miraculous blood) was brought to Orvieto and is the greatest treasure of its
cathedral. (Source: AsiaNews)
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