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Liturgical Incense

Fragrant smoke rising before the altar — prayer made visible

Liturgical incense is the burning of fragrant smoke in worship to honor the altar, Gospel, icons, gifts, and the faithful, symbolizing prayer rising to God. It appears in early sources such as Egeria's account around 380 and the liturgies of the fourth and fifth centuries. Traditions differ: it is standard in Orthodox, Oriental, Catholic, and high-Anglican worship, but abandoned in most Reformed and Free traditions; early Christians at first avoided it for its pagan-sacrifice associations.

How it traveled

  1. Revelation
    Patmos · 100
    explains

Key passages(5)

Revelation 8:4↗applies

Revelation · John the Apostle

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Very high
Revelation 8:3↗explains

Revelation · John the Apostle

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Very high
Treatise on the Sacraments (qq[60]-90) — Question. 83 - OF THE RITE OF THIS SACRAMENT (SIX ARTICLES) — part 9↗explains

Treatise on the Sacraments (qq[60]-90) · Thomas Aquinas

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High
Treatise on the Sacraments (qq[60]-90) — Question. 83 - OF THE RITE OF THIS SACRAMENT (SIX ARTICLES) — part 8↗applies

Treatise on the Sacraments (qq[60]-90) · Thomas Aquinas

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High
The Canons of the Councils of Ancyra, Gangra, Neocæsarea, Antioch and Laodicea, which Canons were Accepted and Received by the Ecumenical Synods — Synod of Laodicea. — The Canons of the Synod Held in the City of Laodicea, in Phrygia Pacatiana, in which Many Blessed Fathers from Divers Provinces of Asia Were Gathered Together. — part 7↗explains

The Canons of the Councils of Ancyra, Gangra, Neocæsarea, Antioch and Laodicea, which Canons were Accepted and Received by the Ecumenical Synods · The Ecumenical Councils

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Moderate