BENEDICTION (from the Lat. benedicere, to speak well), signifies a solemn invocation of the Divine blessing upon men or timings. The ceremony in Is simplest form may be considered almost coeval with the earliest expressions of religious feeling. We know from Holy Writ that the .Jewish patriarchs before they died invoked the blessing of God upon their children, and at a later period the priests were commanded to implore the Divine blessing upon the people. Christ sanctioned the custom, which was eonse cmently carried forward into time primitive church, where it gradually developed itself ditlerent forms. In the eastern as Well as the western church, it is considered an essential preliminary to almost all important acts. One of the most superb spectacles that a stranger at Rome can witne:s, occurs on Easter Sunday, when the. pope, attended by hls cardinals, pronounces after mass a solemn 13. urbi et orbi (on the city and the world). The 11_, however, is not confined to a form of prayer. but is accompanied with sprinkling of holy water, use of incense, making the sign of the cross, etc. The chief
eases in which a B. is bestowed are—the coronation of kings and queens, the confirma tion of all church dignitaries, and the consecration of church vessels, bells. and sacred robes; the nuptial ceremony, the absolution, and the last sacrament. The most solemn form of B. in the Roman church is that " with the most holy sacrament," which is ad ministered by the bishop or priest with the monstrance or ostensory containing time consecrated elements. Besides these, lands, houses, cattle, etc., often receive a 13. from the priest. In the English chureh-service, there are two benedictions; in time Scotch, only one. In the Greek church, when the B. is being pronounced. the priest disposes his fingers in such a manner as to convey symbolically to time faithful who me close enough to observe the arrangement, the doctrine of the Trinity, and the twofold nature of Christ.