Portable Altar of Countess Gertrude

Abstract

A portable altar is a wooden or stone tablet, or a cloth, on which Mass is celebrated. It is required in most of the older Christian traditions (the Catholic, Orthodox, and some of the Oriental Orthodox and other Eastern churches) when no permanent altar is available. The portable altar seems to have developed in the missionary world of the seventh century, to meet the Church's requirement that Mass be celebrated only on a consecrated altar—a requirement that strengthened the position of bishops, who alone could consecrate them.