tintinnabulum
A tintinnabulum (roughly "little bell" in Medieval Latin) is a bell mounted on a pole, placed in a Roman Catholic basilica to signify the church's link with the Pope. It consists of a small gold bell within a golden frame crowned with the papal tiara and Keys of Heaven. If the Pope were to say Mass within the basilica, the tintinnabulum would be used to lead the very special procession down the shrine's aisle.
tintinnabulum
Eugenio Hansen, OFS · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Field
- altar bell and insignia.
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A tintinnabulum (roughly "little bell" in Medieval Latin) is a bell mounted on a pole, placed in a Roman Catholic basilica to signify the church's link with the Pope. It consists of a small gold bell within a golden frame crowned with the papal tiara and Keys of Heaven. If the Pope were to say Mass within the basilica, the tintinnabulum would be used to lead the very special procession down the shrine's aisle.
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wikidata · Q262991 · wikipedia · Tintinnabulum
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Background
However, these symbols are not stipulated in the 1989 Vatican directives.
The tintinnabulum is one of the three physical signs that indicate that a church is a lesser basilica. The other two signs are the umbraculum (conopaeum) and a display of the papal symbol. In the Middle Ages it served the practical function of alerting the people of Rome to the approach of the Pope during papal processions. The word is attested in the Appendix Probi as "tintinabulum", castigated by the author as an incorrect Vulgar Latin form of the Classical "tintinaculum".
Basílica de São Francisco das Chagas (Canindé)
Eugenio Hansen, OFS

Altaar, St. Bavo Kathedraal
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- Wikidata, structured authority record Q262991: tintinnabulum
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- “Tintinnabulum”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
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Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.CathEncy wstitle=Basilica author=Gietmann, G. author2=Thurston, Herbert name-list-style=amp
- 2.What Makes a Basilica.
- 3.Department of Linguistics - University of Pennsylvania. Appendix Probi. www.ling.upenn.edu.
Bibliography printed in the source article · 1
- Price, Percival. Bells and Man. Oxford University Press. 1983. 978-0-19-318103-8.
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