ORANS
269
ORATE
Orans (Orante). — Among the subjects depicted
in the art of the Roman catacombs one of those most
numerously represented is that of a female figure
with extended arms known as the Orans, or one who
prays. The custom of praying in antiquity with out-
stretched, raised arms was common to both Jews and
Gentiles; indeed the iconographic type of the Orans
was itself strongly influenced by classic representa-
tions (see Leclercq, "Manuel d'arch. chret.", I, 155).
But the meaning of the Orans of Christian art is quite
different from that of its prototypes. Numerous Bib-
lical figures, for instance, depicted in the catacombs —
Noah, Abraham, Isaac, the Three Children in the
Fiery Furnace, Daniel in the lions' den — are pictured
asking the Lord to deliver the soul of the person on
whose tombs they are depicted as He once delivered
the particular personage represented. But besides
these Bibhcal Orans figures there exist in the cata-
dating from the early fourth century, is interpreted by
Wilpert as the Blessed Virgin interceding for the
friends of the deceased. Directly in front of Mary is a
boy, not in the Orans attitude and supposed to be the
Divine Child, while to the right and left are mono-
grams of Christ.
LowRiE, Monuments of the Early Church (New York, 1901); KRAtTs. Gcschichte der christl. Kunst. (Freiburg, 1895); Wilpert, Ein Cyklus christologischer Gem&lde (Freiburg. 1891); North- cote AND Brownlow, Roma Sotterranea (London, 1S79).
Maurice M. Hassett.
Orate Fratres, the exhortation ("Pray brethren that my sacrifirc and yours be acceptable to God the Father alniiglity ") addressed by the celebrant to the people before the .Secrets in the Roman Mass. It is answered: "May the Lord receive the sacrifice from thy hands to the praise and glory of his name, and for our benefit also and for that of all his holy Church."
The Blessed Virgin as an Orante
Fourth Century fresco in tho Ccemeterium Ostrianum
combs many ideal figures (153 in all) in the ancient at-
titude of prayer, which, according to Wilpert, are to be
regarded as symbols of the deceased's soul in heaven,
praying for its friends on earth. This symbolic mean-
ing accounts for the fact that the great majority of the
figures of this order are female, even when depicted on
the tombs of men. One of the most convincing proofs
that the Orans was regarded as a symbol of the soul is
an ancient lead medal in the Vatican Mu.seum show-
ing the martyr, St. Lawrence, under torture, while his
soul, in the form of a female Orans, is just leaving the
body (see Kraus, "Gesch. der christl. Kunst", I, 126,
fig. 56). An arcosolium in the Ostrianum cemetery
represents an Orans with a petition for her interces-
sion : FidoritE FiVgini . . . Pete. . . . The Acts of St.
Cecilia speaks of souls leaving the body in the form of
virgins: "Vidit egredientes animas eorum de corpori-
bus, quasi virgines de thalamo", and so also the Acts
of Sts. Peter and Marcellinus.
Very probably the medieval representations of a diminutive body, figure of the soul, issuing from the mouths of the dying, to be received by angels or demons, were reminiscences of the Orans as a symbol of the soul. The earlier Orantes were de- picted in the simplest garb, and without any strik- ing individual traits, but in the fourth century the figures become richly adorned, and of marked individ- uality — an indication of the approach of historic art. One of the most remarkable figures of the Orans cycle,
The celebrant adds : ' ' Amen ' ' . The form is merely an
expansion of the usual Oremus before any prayer. It
is a medieval amplification. The Jacobite rite has
an almost identical form before the Anaphora (Bright-
man, "Eastern Liturgies", Oxford, 1896, 83); the
Nestorian celebrant says : " My brethren, pray for me "
(ib., 274). Such invitations, often made by the dea-
con, are common in the Eastern rites. The Galilean
rite had a similar one (Duchesne, " Christian Worship",
London, 1904, 109). The Mozarabic invitation at this
place is : " Help me brethren by your prayers and pray
to God forme" (P. L., LXXXV, 537). The medieval
derived rites had similar formute (e. g. "Missale
Sarum", Burntisland, 1861-3, 596). Many of the
old Roman Secrets (really Offertory prayers) contain
the same ideas. Durandus knows the Orate Fratres
in a slightly different form ("Rationale", IV, 32). A
proof that it is not an integral part of the old Roman
Mass is that it is always said, not sung, aloud (as also
are the prayers at the foot of the altar, the last Gospel
etc.). The celebrant after the "Suscipe Sancta Tri-
nitas" kisses the altar, turns to the people and says:
Orate fratres, extending and joining his hands. Turn-
ing back he finishes the sentence inaudibly. At high
Mass the deacon or subdeacon, at low Mass the server,
answers. The rubric of the Missal is: "The server or
people around answer,~if not the priest himself." In
this last case he naturally changes the word luis to
meis.
