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Ripidium

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

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Ripley, Ezra

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(Gr. ῥιπίδιον , a bellows) was a fan made of parchment, peacocks' feathers, or linen, and was used in the ancient churches to drive away all such insects as might drop into the cups or infest the altar. The author of the Fasti Siculi or Chronicum Alexandrinum (p. 892), calls them τιμία ῥιπίδια, and reckons them among the holy utensils of the altar which were laid up among the rest in the scenophylacium, or vestry of the church. Suicer thinks that in most of the writings the word ripidia signifies one of their holy vessels, a basket or the like, in which they used to carry the sacred elements to and from the altar. In the liturgies of Chrysostom and Basil it is taken in the common sense of Greek authors, and it is used in the Constitutions for a fan to blow with: for in Chrysostom's liturgy the deacon is to ventilate, or blow over, the elements with a fan; or, if there be no fan, then to do it with the covering of the cup. See Bingham, Christ. Antiq. 8, 6, 21; 15, 3, 6.