monstrance means an ornamental, often precious receptacle, either open or with a transparent cover, in which the sacramental bread (consecrated host) is placed for Eucharistic adoration. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 86 out of 100.
Why this word is great
MONSTRANCE — [Noun] An ornamental receptacle, often made of precious metal, in which the consecrated Eucharistic host is displayed for adoration. From Middle English mustraunce, from Old French mostrance, from Medieval Latin mōnstrantia, from Latin mōnstrāre (“to show”). Unlike a ciborium, which stores and conceals, or a tabernacle, which reserves and secures, the monstrance exists solely for glorious, unshielded exhibition. It is the sunburst of beaten gold holding a pale, perfect disc; the intricate cage of silver filigree framing its single, silent prisoner; the raised, radiant focus at the end of a vaulted nave, drawing every eye toward the infinitesimal and the infinite. Here, seeing is a form of prayer, and the vessel is but a bridge between the hunger of the gaze and the austerity of the thing gazed upon.
noun
- An ornamental, often precious receptacle, either open or with a transparent cover, in which the sacramental bread (consecrated host) is placed for Eucharistic adoration.“He loved to kneel down on the cold marble pavement and watch the priest, in his stiff flowered dalmatic, slowly and with white hands moving aside the veil of the tabernacle, or raising aloft the jewelled, lantern-shaped monstrance with that pallid wafer that at times, one would fain think, is indeed the "panis caelestis," the bread of angels, or, robed in the garments of the Passion of Christ, bre”