The Monstrance and Sun Worship

This article is from a PDF file on LutheranLibrary.org. It was published by The Converted Catholic Magazine which was edited by Leo Herbert Lehmann.

BELOW is a picture of the “Monstrance” used in Roman Catholic churches for the adoration of the consecrated wafer of bread which is believed to be the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ. The round wafer is placed in the center of this “monstrance,” which is a gold or gilt stand, often encrusted with precious stones, from which sun-rays pour out from the center. When exposed above the altar, the people are obliged to genuflect on both knees before it in full adoration.

There is no doubt that this had its origin in the Egyptian sun-worship of the goddess ‘Ceres’ (corn), whose son was thus adored as the Sun-divinity incarnate who was symbolized as the “bread of God.” In Egypt, the disk of the sun as likewise represented in the temples, and the king and his wife and children were represented as bowing down and adoring it. From Egypt it was brought to Rome where it was first copied by pagan, and later by papal, Rome.(cf. ‘The Two Babylons,’ by Alexander Hislop, pp. 161-163)

This is a copy of a representation of a sacrifice to the sun, where two priests are seen worshiping the sun’s image. It was discovered in Babain, in Upper Egypt. A like scene may be witnessed in Roman Catholic churches today where priests offer ‘sacrifice’ of bread and wine on an altar with the round wafer of bread set in the center of a gold disk from which shoot out on all sides the golden rays of the sun.