Tabernacle

Tabernacle (Lat. tabernaculum, 'tent'), the portable tent in which the Ark of the Covenant (q.v.) was conveyed, and as such the sanctuary of Israel. It seems (1 Sam. iii. 3) to have been superseded by a more permanent building at Shiloh before David's time. See TEMPLE.—In Roman Catholic churches the name is given to the receptacle in which the consecrated elements of the Eucharist are retained. It is commonly a small structure of marble, metal, or wood, placed over the high altar, and appropriated exclusively to the reservation of the Eucharist, no other object whatever being allowed to be kept in it. See PYX, and the illustration at ALTAR; and for the Feast of Tabernacles, see FESTIVALS.