# Censer

Source: https://coptic-lore-forge.lovable.app/wiki/censer — Coptic Orthodox Wiki (updated 2026-10-02)

A censer is the vessel used to hold burning coals and incense in Coptic Orthodox worship. Priests use it during the Offering of Incense, the Eucharistic Liturgy, and church ceremonies. Its imagery connects worship with biblical sacrifice, the prayers of the saints, and the Virgin Mary in Coptic hymnody.

## Liturgical context

*Understanding the Liturgy* directs the acolyte to empty the censer at the end of Evening Incense, alongside extinguishing the altar candles and switching off the lights and sound system. These closing duties are not necessary in the morning service because the Liturgy follows the Offering of Incense.[^1]

### Handling during the Offering of Incense

Before the Offering of Incense begins, the acolyte puts coals in the censer and lights them.[^11] Towards the end of the Prayer of Thanksgiving, he fetches the censer and holds it near the incense box when the priest enters the sanctuary; the priest places five “hands” of incense in it, with the acolyte responding “Amen” to each.[^12] Whenever the acolyte gives the censer to the priest or receives it from him, he should kiss the priest’s hand.[^13]

After adding the incense, the priest says the Prayer of the Morning or Evening Incense inaudibly while the acolyte moves to the east side of the altar.[^44] The priest begins censing the altar facing east and saying the Prayer for Peace, while the acolyte stands across from him, raises the cross in his right hand, and gives the response for the peace of the Church.[^45] As the priest moves around the altar to face west, the acolyte exchanges places with him.[^46]

On Sunday mornings, the Prayers for the Sick and for the Oblations replace the Prayer for the Departed; after the Prayer for the Sick, the priest and acolyte enter the sanctuary, where the priest faces east for the Prayer for the Oblations.[^47] At the end of that prayer, the priest censes around the altar, the congregation, and the altar once more, while the acolyte places the cross on the altar and waits to receive the censer and hang it on its stand.[^48] On weekday mornings, the Prayer for the Travelers replaces the Prayer for the Oblations and is said outside the sanctuary.[^49]

After the Creed, while the priest chants “God have mercy upon us,” the acolyte brings the censer to the sanctuary entrance and, when the priest finishes, gives it to him with his left hand while receiving the cross and tapers with his right.[^14] At the conclusion of the Five Short Prayers, the acolyte takes the censer from the priest to empty it.[^15]

### Handling during the Eucharistic Liturgy

The senior acolyte designated as the “captain” is responsible for ensuring that the censer contains lit coals throughout the service and should preferably bring it to the priest whenever required.[^16] Following the Absolution of the Servants, the captain fetches the censer, and the priest adds incense before saying the Prayer of the Pauline Incense inaudibly and censing the altar.[^17]

At this point, too, the priest places five “hands” of incense in the censer, and the captain responds “Amen” after each.[^50] The captain, or an acolyte assigned by him, goes to the east side of the altar, raises the cross in his right hand, and circles the altar with the priest while saying the responses.[^51] After censing the altar, the priest circles the nave and then the altar again, offers incense before the sanctuary entrance, and hands the censer to the captain, who waits just inside the entrance on its south side and returns it to its stand.[^52]

After the Catholic Epistle, the captain brings the censer to the priest for the Prayer of the Praxis Incense and a repetition of the censing of the altar.[^18] During the Gospel reading, the priest offers incense to the Gospel after the Litany of the Catechumens and the Prayer of the Veil; when the reading ends, the captain receives the censer and hangs it on its stand.[^19]

During the Three Long Prayers, the captain brings the censer for the priest to add incense at the words “and their prayers on our behalf” in the Prayer for the Fathers, hands it to him after the opening petition of the Prayer for the Congregations, and returns it to its stand after the priest censes the congregation to the west.[^20] During the Anaphora, the captain brings the censer three times: after the words “Who, of the Holy Spirit and of the Holy Virgin Mary,” when incense is added; during the people’s response “According to Thy mercy, O Lord,” when the priest censes his hands three times before handling the gifts; and at the conclusion of the Commemoration of the Saints, when incense is added as the departed are mentioned.[^21] Emptying the censer after the Eucharistic service is among the duties performed by the acolytes under the captain’s supervision.[^22]

### Other ministerial and ceremonial uses

Looking after the censer is also listed among the principal duties of the deacon serving at the altar.[^23] In the consecration of a church, clergy and deacons carry censers and censer-pots, together with jars, crosses, candles, and the Gospel-book, in a procession before the bishop as he sprinkles the church walls with water.[^24]

At the opening of the church-consecration service, the bishop offers incense and blesses the congregation after the thanksgiving prayer; later, before the consecration formula, he again offers incense and says the prayer of incense, followed by two petitions.[^53]

## Documented example and terminology

An illustration caption identifies a bronze censer and credits the Coptic Museum, Cairo.[^2] The index also directs readers from “Mumarah” to “Censer.”[^3]

The main index entry for “Censer” directs readers to pages 1469–1472, with additional references to pages 1470 and 1471.[^5]

An eighth-century bronze censer in the Louvre bears the motif of an eagle and serpent.[^25] Another documented Louvre censer is decorated in high relief with the four symbols of the evangelists.[^26] The collection inventory for the Fogg Art Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts, lists an open-work censer dome dated to the sixth–tenth centuries.[^27]

## Symbolic association

The index entry for the Theotokion identifies an analogy between the Virgin and the censer, referring readers to page 1470.[^4]

The Psalmodia index entry also points to the Virgin–censer analogy on page 1470.[^6]

*Understanding the Liturgy* identifies Tai Shori as the hymn sung by the congregation while the priest offers incense on the altar, noting that it is usually abbreviated and that its longer form is rarely used.[^28] Its text evokes a pure-gold censer bearing sweet incense in Aaron’s hands before the mercy seat, and speaks of Mary bringing forth Jesus Christ, the Son and Logos, and of the Holy Spirit purifying, sanctifying, and filling her with grace.[^29]

The hymn concludes by asking the Lord to grant forgiveness of sins through the Virgin’s intercessions.[^54]

At the ceremony for laying a church’s cornerstone, the deacons sing a litany identifying the golden censer with the Virgin and its sweet aroma with the Savior, who has saved the faithful and remitted their sins.[^30] The church-consecration service also includes a hymn to the Virgin beginning “The golden censer is the Virgin.”[^31]

In the cornerstone ceremony, the golden-censer litany follows the intercession for the sick and precedes the epistle reading from Hebrews 9:1–11.[^55] In the church-consecration service, the Marian hymn follows the twenty-one principal lections and precedes further readings, including Hebrews 7:26–28 and chapter 8, and Acts 7:44–56.[^56]

## Biblical and patristic references

The index lists the censer under “Old Testament,” referring readers to page 1470.[^7] It also identifies Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite in connection with censer use, referring readers to page 1472.[^8]

*Understanding the Liturgy* connects the morning and evening offerings of incense with Exodus 30:7–8, and interprets the priest’s entrance into the sanctuary to offer incense in light of Aaron’s bringing a censer of burning coals and incense within the veil on the Day of Atonement in Leviticus 16:12–13.[^32] It also appeals to Malachi 1:11–12 to explain the continuing offering of incense, associating the prophecy’s pure offering with the Eucharist.[^33]

The explanation draws on Hebrews 9:7 and 9:12 to contrast the high priest’s annual entrance into the Holy of Holies with sacrificial blood and Christ’s entrance by His own blood, obtaining eternal redemption.[^57] In the quoted Levitical ordinance, the cloud of incense must cover the mercy seat so that Aaron does not die.[^58] The author treats the older sacrifices as types of Christ’s perfect sacrifice and argues that, if incense accompanied the animal sacrifices, it is still more fitting to offer it over the memorial of Christ’s sacrifice on the altar.[^59]

The same work records an occasionally observed practice in which an acolyte brings the censer out during the Absolution and subsequently hands it to the priest to carry into the sanctuary, cautiously suggesting that this may imitate Aaron’s carrying the censer within the veil.[^60] Its appeal to patristic support for the Eucharistic interpretation of Malachi specifically names Justin Martyr’s *Discourse with Trypho*.[^61]

The patristic discussion also invokes the Apocalypse’s image of the twenty-four elders holding harps and golden bowls of incense identified as the prayers of the saints, interpreting this as an indication of Christian worship involving incense and censers.[^62]

The *Didascalia* instructs the bishop to carry incense around the altar three times in glorification of the Holy Trinity and then hand the censer to the priest, who carries it around the whole congregation.[^34] Writings attributed to Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite describe the bishop beginning the censing at the divine altar after sacred prayer and proceeding around the entire sacred place.[^35] Hippolytus, describing the church’s plight in the latter days, envisaged churches lamenting because neither oblation nor incense nor acceptable service to God was attended to.[^36]

The patristic discussion also notes that Athenagoras, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, Arnobius, Lactantius, and Augustine minimized the importance of incense in worship, explaining their position as concern to remove apparently heathen customs associated with the cults from which they had converted.[^37] Clement taught that the righteous soul was the truly sacred altar and that its incense was holy prayer.[^38] Ephraem Syrus, by contrast, described the burning of incense as propitiation and urged that sweet-smelling smoke be offered in God’s house rather than spices used for his burial.[^39]

The discussion dates Hippolytus to approximately 170–236 and Ephraem Syrus to approximately 306–373.[^63]

## Depiction in pottery

A discussion of pottery describes a luster plate whose interior decoration depicts a priest with a censer, citing Lane (1958, plate 26-A).[^9] In the context of the cessation of Nubian Christian pottery imports by the middle of the eleventh century, the discussion interprets this plate as a specific commission rather than a spontaneous expression of the Egyptian potter.[^10]

## Censers and other artistic representations

Nativity scenes occur on censers often attributed to Syria, including two examples deriving from Egypt—one from Dayr Anba Shinudah, the White Monastery at Suhaj, and another from Dayr Anba Antuniyus—with the Nativity forming part of a Christological cycle around the bowl.[^40] A censer from Dayr Anba Antuniyus near the Red Sea depicts the Adoration of the Magi as three men in Phrygian caps approaching the Virgin, who sits on a high-backed chair with the Child on her lap.[^41] The Adoration also appears on so-called Syrian censers, possibly made in Syria.[^42]

The discussion of the Adoration places these examples in the context of the early Christian association between the Magi and the Nativity, noting that both subjects were rarely represented in Egypt.[^64]

In the east-wall apse of the Chapel of Takla Haymanot, the lower register depicts the twenty-four elders of the Apocalypse facing forward in sacerdotal dress, each haloed and holding a censer in his right hand and an unidentified object in his left.[^43]

Above the censer-bearing elders, the upper register shows the Virgin standing on a pedestal with Christ in her arms, flanked by remnants of two figures probably representing angels in adoration.[^65] A horizontal Coptic inscription of Psalm 121:1–2 separates the two registers.[^66]

## Frequently asked questions

**Who prepares and looks after the censer?**
The acolyte prepares and lights the coals before the Offering of Incense. During the Eucharistic Liturgy, the senior acolyte or captain ensures that the coals remain lit and brings the censer to the priest.

**What does the golden censer symbolize in Coptic hymns?**
The golden censer symbolizes the Virgin Mary. The cornerstone litany identifies its sweet aroma with the Savior, while Tai Shori describes Mary bringing forth Jesus Christ, the Son and Logos.

**Why is incense offered during the Eucharistic Liturgy?**
Understanding the Liturgy interprets the practice through Aaron’s incense offering and the Old Testament sacrifices as types of Christ’s perfect sacrifice, whose memorial is on the altar.

**When is the censer emptied?**
The rubrics direct the acolyte to empty it at the end of Evening Incense and include emptying it among the duties after the Eucharistic service. Morning closing duties are omitted because the Liturgy follows.

**What images appear on surviving censers?**
Documented examples bear an eagle and serpent, the four symbols of the evangelists, and Christological scenes including the Nativity and the Adoration of the Magi.

## Sources
[^1]: Understanding the Liturgy, Father Athanasius Iskander (p. 114)
[^2]: The Coptic Encyclopedia — Censer, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 1)
[^3]: The Coptic Encyclopedia — Index, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 315)
[^4]: The Coptic Encyclopedia — Index, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 437)
[^5]: The Coptic Encyclopedia — Index, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 83)
[^6]: The Coptic Encyclopedia — Index, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 374)
[^7]: The Coptic Encyclopedia — Index, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 335)
[^8]: The Coptic Encyclopedia — Index, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 153)
[^9]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 2, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 469)
[^10]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 2, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 469)
[^11]: Understanding the Liturgy, Father Athanasius Iskander (p. 110)
[^12]: Understanding the Liturgy, Father Athanasius Iskander (p. 110)
[^13]: Understanding the Liturgy, Father Athanasius Iskander (p. 112)
[^14]: Understanding the Liturgy, Father Athanasius Iskander (p. 113)
[^15]: Understanding the Liturgy, Father Athanasius Iskander (p. 113)
[^16]: Understanding the Liturgy, Father Athanasius Iskander (p. 115)
[^17]: Understanding the Liturgy, Father Athanasius Iskander (p. 117)
[^18]: Understanding the Liturgy, Father Athanasius Iskander (p. 118)
[^19]: Understanding the Liturgy, Father Athanasius Iskander (p. 118)
[^20]: Understanding the Liturgy, Father Athanasius Iskander (p. 119)
[^21]: Understanding the Liturgy, Father Athanasius Iskander (p. 120)
[^22]: Understanding the Liturgy, Father Athanasius Iskander (p. 123)
[^23]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 3, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 527)
[^24]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 2, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 563)
[^25]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 7, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 346)
[^26]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 1, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 664)
[^27]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 6, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 65)
[^28]: Understanding the Liturgy, Father Athanasius Iskander (p. 16)
[^29]: Understanding the Liturgy, Father Athanasius Iskander (p. 16)
[^30]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 2, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 564)
[^31]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 2, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 562)
[^32]: Understanding the Liturgy, Father Athanasius Iskander (p. 15)
[^33]: Understanding the Liturgy, Father Athanasius Iskander (p. 16)
[^34]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 5, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 300)
[^35]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 5, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 300)
[^36]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 5, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 300)
[^37]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 5, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 300)
[^38]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 5, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 300)
[^39]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 5, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 300)
[^40]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 2, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 535)
[^41]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 2, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 516)
[^42]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 2, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 516)
[^43]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 2, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 586)
[^44]: Understanding the Liturgy, Father Athanasius Iskander (p. 110)
[^45]: Understanding the Liturgy, Father Athanasius Iskander (p. 110)
[^46]: Understanding the Liturgy, Father Athanasius Iskander (p. 110)
[^47]: Understanding the Liturgy, Father Athanasius Iskander (p. 112)
[^48]: Understanding the Liturgy, Father Athanasius Iskander (p. 112)
[^49]: Understanding the Liturgy, Father Athanasius Iskander (p. 112)
[^50]: Understanding the Liturgy, Father Athanasius Iskander (p. 117)
[^51]: Understanding the Liturgy, Father Athanasius Iskander (p. 117)
[^52]: Understanding the Liturgy, Father Athanasius Iskander (p. 118)
[^53]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 2, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 562)
[^53]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 2, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 563)
[^54]: Understanding the Liturgy, Father Athanasius Iskander (p. 16)
[^55]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 2, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 564)
[^56]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 2, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 562)
[^57]: Understanding the Liturgy, Father Athanasius Iskander (p. 15)
[^58]: Understanding the Liturgy, Father Athanasius Iskander (p. 15)
[^59]: Understanding the Liturgy, Father Athanasius Iskander (p. 15)
[^60]: Understanding the Liturgy, Father Athanasius Iskander (p. 16)
[^61]: Understanding the Liturgy, Father Athanasius Iskander (p. 16)
[^62]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 5, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 300)
[^63]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 5, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 300)
[^64]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 2, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 516)
[^65]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 2, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 586)
[^66]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 2, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 586)