We give the name of Temple or House of God to a building specially consecrated to God, or to a
separate part of a building so consecrated, where Christians assemble to offer
up to God their common prayers, and to receive from Him His grace through the
Holy Sacraments. Because the totality of Christians taken together forms the
Church, therefore the buildings in which they assemble for common prayer are
likewise called churches.
Every church is consecrated to God and sanctified in the name of the
Most Holy Trinity, and is therefore entitled “a temple or church of God.” But
apart from this general designation, each church has its own particular
appellation, such as: “Church of the Holy Trinity,” “of the Resurrection of
Christ,” “of the Holy Apostles, Peter and Paul,” “of the Dormition of the Most
Holy Mother of God,” “of St. Andrew the First-called,” “of St. Nicholas the
Wonderworker.” Special names are given to churches erected on some particularly
memorable occasion, because churches are frequently dedicated to the memory of
some event or other out of the life of the Saviour or of His Mother, or else of
some Saint who is especially honored in some given locality, or whose name was
borne by the chief founder of the church.*
When one town or city holds several churches, one of them receives
the title of “general” or “universal” (sobór), because, on solemn
feast days, not only the church’s own parishioners, but people from all
parishes assemble there for divine service. In large cities there frequently
are several general churches. That in which is situated the episcopal cathedra
or throne is called Cathedral.
Together with the organization on earth of the community of
believers in Christ, Christian churches made their appearance as gathering
places for these believers. The Apostles and the early Christians endured
persecution for their faith from the heathen, and for
that reason used to assemble for prayer in private houses; but even in such
houses they used to set apart for worship one room on which they looked with
reverence, as on a place where the Lord was present by His grace. When the
Christians increased in numbers and room was lacking in private houses for
their gatherings, while they were not permitted to build special temples for
their own worship, they began to meet together to offer their prayers to God in
woods, in mountain gorges and in caves, or, if they lived in cities or in the
neighborhood of cities, they assembled in the underground cemeteries known by
the name of catacombs. So long as they were persecuted for their faith they
could not decorate the places where they assembled, even though they wished to
do so. Still, impelled by their pious feelings, they used, in the place of
decorations, certain allegorical signs or symbols, intelligible to them alone.
Thus, on the walls of the catacombs, they represented the Cross of Christ by
the sign T; sometimes they drew a square block of stone and on that a door,
seeing in this a semblance of Christ, Who is the rock of salvation and the door
through which whosoever passeth shall be saved. Frequently again, Christ was
represented in the shape of a fish, because the Greek word for “fish,” ichthys,
is composed of the initials of the words: “Iesous Christos, Theou
Yios, Soter,” i.e., “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour.” Still
more frequently He is represented as a Lamb, or as a Shepherd carrying a sheep
upon His shoulders. The Resurrection was depicted as the whale ejecting a man
(the Prophet Jonah) out of its maw. At a later time they began to draw the
portraits of martyrs somewhere about their tombs in the Catacombs. At that time
they performed divine service in garments of the ordinary cut, only they wore
their best and most ornamented clothes, preferably white ones. When Christians
were allowed to publicly profess their faith, they began to build temples, or
rather churches. Sometimes they transformed existing buildings into churches,
adapting them to their requirements. But they mostly erected special buildings,
which differed from others both in external appearance and internal
arrangement. The first churches built by Christians differed from our modern
churches in that they had no screen (iconostás), but the
sanctuary was separated from the body of the church only by a curtain, or even
merely a railing. Besides which, large extensions were added to the ancient
churches for the use of catechumens, i.e., of persons who had not yet received
Holy Baptism, but were preparing to receive it and were undergoing elementary
instruction in the Christian faith.