3-028-303 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Blessing the Paschal Lambs in the church of St. Agnes, Rome, 1870. 'The two Paschal lambs to be killed at Easter for the Pope's table are blessed on St. Agnes' Day, Jan. 21, in the Basilica or church of St. Agnes, outside the city walls of Rome...Our Illustration shows the performance of this ceremony by Cardinal Barilli [sic] in the present year. The animals, having been bandaged with red ribbon and placed on cushions, were thus brought into the church and laid upon the altar. After the celebration of high mass, they were sprinkled with holy water, and a formal sentence of benediction was pronounced over them. It is usual for the Pope at Easter to make a present of one of them to some Royal personage; the other is partly eaten for his dinner and that of his household on Easter Sunday, partly given to the poor...The Basilica of St. Agnes, founded by the Emperor Constantine, in A.D. 324, is dedicated to that virgin and martyr, who was put to death twenty years before the date mentioned...The above church has lately been repaired, and decorated with mosaics and frescoes'. From "Illustrated London News", 1870.