DEDICATION, the setting apart of anything for a special object; especially the consecration of altars, temples and churches; also the inscription prefixed to a book, etc., and ad dressed to some particular person, formerly designed to gain the patronage of the person addressed. In law, the setting apart by a private owner of a road to public use. (See HIGHWAY.) The Jewish Feast of Dedication was observed for eight days from the 25th of Kislev (i.e., about Dec. 12), to commemorate the purging (164 B.c.) of the temple after its desecration by Antiochus Epiphanes : See 1 Macc. i. 20-64, iv. 36-59 ; 2 Macc. i. 9, 18, ii. 16, v. 15-16, vi. 1-I 1; John x. 22; also Josephus, Antiq., vii. 6-7, xii. v. 4 (where it is called the Feast of Lights).
Like so much else in the worship and ritual of the Christian Church, this service is probably of Jewish origin. The hallowing of the tabernacle and its ornaments (Exod. xl.), the dedication of the temples of Solomon and Zerubbabel (I Ki. viii., Ezra vi.), the rededication of the latter by Judas Maccabaeus (see above), the dedication of Herod's temple (Josephus, Antiq. xv. xi. 6), and our Lord's recognition of the Feast of Dedication (John x. 22, 23 )—all support this hypothesis.
Eusebius (Hist. Eccles., X. 3-4) speaks of the dedication of churches rebuilt after the Diocletian persecution, including that of the church at Tyre in A.D. 314-315. The consecrations of the church of the Holy Sepulchre, built by Constantine at Jerusalem (A.D. 335), and of other churches after his time are described by Eusebius and other ecclesiastical historians. From them we gather that every consecration was accompanied by a celebration of the Holy Eucharist, a sermon, and special dedicatory prayers. St. Ambrose and other writers mention also the deposition of relics, and a vigil overnight, and there are occasional references to the tracing of the Greek and Latin alphabets on the pavement of the church.
The separate consecration of altars, by sacerdotal blessing and unction with chrism, is prescribed in canons of the councils of Agde (5o6) and Epaone (517). St. Columbanus (d. 615) is said to have also used holy water (Walafrid Strabo, Vita S. Galli, cap. 6). At an early date the right to consecrate churches was re served ,to bishops, as by the council of Braga in 563 and in the 8th century Irish collection of canons known as "Synodus Patritii." Accordingly, it is in the pontifical that we find the fully developed consecration service. This occurs in a form closely resembling that now used in ms. pontificals of the loth century, one of which, believed to be a copy of that of Egbert, archbishop of York (732-766), was printed in 1853 by the Surtees Society. Some idea of the general character of the service may be obtained from the following outline of it as performed in England before the Reformation, according to the use of Sarum (printed by W. Maskell, Monumenta ritualia ecclesiae Anglicanae, 2nd ed., vol. i. pp. 195-239, from an early I 5th cen tury pontifical).
There is a preliminary office for laying a foundation-stone (Maskell, pp. 191-94). On the day of consecration the bishop vests in a tent outside the church, proceeds thence to the church door, a single deacon being inside the church, and there blesses holy water, twelve lighted candles being placed outside and twelve inside the church. He sprinkles the walls all round outside, and knocks at the door ; these two actions are repeated twice and after the third knocking he enters the church with his attendant clerics, all laity being excluded. He then fixes a cross in the centre of the church and the litany is said, including a special petition for the consecration of church and altar. He next inscribes the Greek and Latin alphabets, in form of a St. Andrew's cross, on the pavement cindered for the purpose; blesses water, mingled with salt, ashes and wine, and sprinkles thrice the walls inside the church, then the centre of the church longwise and crosswise on the pavement, and then goes round the outside of the church sprinkling it thrice. Returning to the centre of the church he sprinkles holy water to the four points of the compass and toward the roof. Next he anoints with chrism the twelve internal and twelve external wall-crosses, afterwards perambulating the church thrice inside and outside, tensing it.
The Sarum rite described above is substantially identical with that of Rome; but the latter contains in addition one important feature, viz., the translation of relics, found also in the Gallican and other uses. After the sprinkling of the church, the bishop prepares cement at the altar. He then goes to the place (outside the church) where the relics have been placed overnight and carries them in solemn procession to the church door, where he addresses the people and the founder, and two decrees of the council of Trent are read, together with the deed of foundation. Then the bishop, anointing the door with chrism, enters the church with the relics and deposits them in the cavity on the altar, tenses and covers them, and anoints the cover. The altar is then censed and wiped, as in the Sarum order.
This use of relics goes back to the time of St. Ambrose (see above), but was not universal. The council of Cealchythe (Chelsea) in 816 ordered that part of the consecrated Host should be enclosed if relics were not obtainable. The tracing of the Greek and Latin alphabets on the church floor can be traced back certainly to the beginning of the loth century, and is doubt less earlier. Its origin and precise meaning are unknown, but various explanations have been suggested by Rossi and others. The annual commemoration of the dedication of a church is probably as old a custom as that of dedication itself. In the Roman Catholic Church it is observed as a double feast of the first class, with octave.
The dedication service of the Eastern Church is long and elaborate (see J. M. Neale, Hist. of the Holy Eastern Church, part ii., 185o, pp. . Relics are prepared and guarded overnight in a neighbouring sacred church. On the day, the bishop goes to the latter, vests and returns in procession with the relics to the new church, and goes round it. When he comes to the door the relics are laid on a table called the tetrapodion and the epistle and gospel are read. A second and third pro cession follow, after which the bishop is admitted into the church, the relics are placed in the reliquary and set on the altar, and the bishop is wrapped in a roll of linen over his vestments. He then washes the altar with warm water and with wine and makes crosses on it with chrism. The altar is vested and the service ends with the liturgy, which is repeated daily for seven days.
There is no authorized form for the dedication of a church in the reformed Church of England. A form was approved by the convocation of Canterbury in 1712, and an almost identical form was submitted in 1715, but neither form ever received royal sanction. Anglican bishops have, however, drawn up forms for use in their various dioceses. In the diocese of London, for in stance, the bishop, attended by clergy and churchwardens, re ceives outside the west door a petition for consecration ; the procession then moves round the whole church outside, while certain psalms are chanted. On again reaching the west door the bishop is admitted after knocking thrice and advances to the east end of the church. He there lays the keys on the table "which is to be hallowed." The Veni Creator is sung, followed by the litany with special suffrages. The bishop then blesses the font, chancel, lectern, pulpit, stalls and holy table. The deed of consecration is read and signed and Holy Communion is cele brated. The Church of Ireland and the episcopal Church of Scotland have no fully authorized form of dedication, but vari ous forms have been issued on episcopal authority.