An Easter Sepulchre is a feature of Late Medieval British and Irish church interior architecture.

Description The Easter Sepulchre is an arched recess generally in the north wall of the chancel, in which from Good Friday to Easter day were deposited the crucifix and sacred elements in commemoration of Christ's entombment and resurrection. It was generally only a wooden structure, which was placed in a recess or on a tomb.

Distribution The Easter Sepulchre is only found in England Ireland and Wales, the practice having been peculiar to the Sarum Rite. However, there is a ruin presumed to be an Easter sepulchre at Kildrummy in north-east Scotland.

Use The Easter Sepulchre contained the Blessed Sacrament of the altar, the Host. Following the doctrine of the Real Presence, i.e. that Jesus is physically present within the Host, on Good Friday the Host was taken from the tabernacle where it had been placed following the Maundy Thursday celebration of the Last Supper and, wrapped in linen cloths, 'buried' in the Easter sepulchre which was found on the north wall of the sanctuary. Cut into the wall, it was sometimes ornately carved but within it was a wooden frame on which was hung a cloth pall often embroidered with scenes from the Passion. Candles were lit around the sepulchre, burial clothes adorned it, and parishioners stood guard until early Easter morning at the first Mass. The Host was brought out, in imitation of Jesus having arisen out of the tomb, and was placed again in the tabernacle in the centre of the Church. Like Roods or Crucifixes and their lofts, Easter Sepulchres were the object of iconoclastic fury by the Protestant Reformers, and few still survive.

Surviving examples There are throughout Great Britain and Ireland many fine examples in stone from the Late Medieval pre Reformation period, some of which are Decorated Gothic, such as:

Cumbria Warwick Bridge

Devon

Holcombe Burnell Bishops Nympton Heanton Punchardon Monkleigh St Mary's Church, Berry Pomeroy Throwleigh

Dorset Gillingham Tarrant Hinton

Glamorgan Coity

Herefordshire Ledbury

Lincolnshire Navenby Heckington (1370)

London St John the Divine, Kennington

Norfolk Fritton Kelling St Andrew's Church, Northwold

Northamptonshire Lutton St. Mary's Church, Grendon

Nottinghamshire Sibthorpe Hawton (1370) Arnold

Oxfordshire Bampton Piddington

Somerset Church of All Saints, Monksilver

Suffolk Cockfield East Harling Long Melford St Margaret South Elmham

Warwickshire Long Itchington Withybrook, Coventry

West Sussex St Catherine of Siena Church, Cocking

East Riding of Yorkshire Patrington

Gallery

See also Holy Sepulchre Tomb of Jesus

Notes

References Attribution