Understanding the Immaculata Bells (9/9)
This is the ninth of a series explaining various aspects of the floor plan of a church. Holy Mother Church has deliberately filled her buildings with great symbolism; this series will introduce some of the many facets involved in designing and building this home for the Immaculata.
“The Bells”
by Fr. Stephen Reid
Jubilate Deo omnis terra!
The importance of bells in Roman Catholic church architecture cannot be overstated. When Pope Innocent III reunited the Maronites in Syria in the 13th century, besides the renunciation of the Monothelite heresy, they were also asked to take on the customs of the western church such as precious metals for the sacred vessels, and, specifically, the use of bells to call the faithful to divine services.
Images and renderings are still approximations of the final design. They are meant to give general perspective rather than a precise and final version of what will be built.
The earliest use of bells is often traced back to St. Paul of Nola around the year 400 who made use of them in his diocese in Campania, Italy. Thus, Campana is the late Latin word for bells, which is the root for such obscure terminology as campanology, or the study of bells. It would take many centuries before the bells as we understand them today would take their completed form. The pure sound and graceful shape we enjoy come from as precise an art form as is required by any stone sculpture or stain glassed window in a church building.
The Baptism of Bells
Five bells will be housed in the two towers on each side of the façade of the Immaculata. Each bell will serve a particular function, and will be named after a saint on the day of its “baptism”, a custom possibly stretching back as far as Spain in the 7th century. The elaborate beauty of this liturgy of baptism, or blessing of bells attests to the importance that Holy Mother the Church gives to this sacramental. Only a bishop gives the blessing, which includes a solemn procession, the chanting of many psalms, anointing of the bells with both oil of the sick and sacred chrism, and the chanting of a gospel as at a solemn Mass.
A Profession of Faith
The use of bells is not merely an additional ornamentation to a church building. It is an ancient and deeply historical sacramental that both calls the faithful to prayer (especially the Angelus), invites them to church, announces the consecration of the Eucharistic species, joyfully announces weddings, calls for prayers for departed souls, and drives away storms and the “demons of the air”. Bells give voice to the Catholic faith, not merely as a pleasant ambience or as marking time, but as an auditory profession of faith in the Incarnation and God’s charity for all souls of good will.
“Bells give voice to the Catholic faith.”
