chalice
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chalice
[Lat.,=cup], ancient name for a drinking cup, retained for the eucharistic or communion cup. Its use commemorates the cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper. Celebrated examples are the Great Chalice of Antioch (Syriac), of embossed silver, excavated there in 1910 and attributed to the 1st cent., and an elaborately ornamented chalice found in 1868 at Ardagh, Ireland, and believed to be Celtic work of the 9th or 10th cent. See Grail, HolyGrail, Holy,a feature of medieval legend and literature. It appears variously as a chalice, a cup, or a dish and sometimes as a stone or a caldron into which a bleeding lance drips. It was identified by Christians as the chalice of the Last Supper brought to England by St.
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Chalice
(religion, spiritualism, and occult)Another name for the ritual goblet, or sacred cup, used by Witches in their rituals. It holds the consecrated wine and may symbolize the element of water.
The Witch Book: The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft, Wicca, and Neo-paganism © 2002 Visible Ink Press®. All rights reserved.
The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.
Chalice
a liturgical vessel for the consecration of wine and receiving of communion, shaped like a cup with a long stem. Known since the second century A.D., chalices have been made of gold, silver, bronze, and worked stone and decorated with gems, depictions of saints, and ornamental designs done by chasing, engraving, and casting.
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
chalice
cup holding wine at Eucharist. [Christian Tradition: N.T.: Mark 14:23]
See: Wine
Allusions—Cultural, Literary, Biblical, and Historical: A Thematic Dictionary. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
chalice
1. Christianity a gold or silver cup containing the wine at Mass
2. the calyx of a flower, esp a cup-shaped calyx
Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005