Transforming Space, (Per)forming Community: Church Consecration in Carolingian Europe

Scholarly work on the Carolingian ecclesia, especially in relation to church consecration liturgies, has focused largely on ecclesia's spiritual and communal meanings rather than its architectural one. This article turns attention to the physical building in order to understand how the dedication ritual transformed the structure into a sacred space. A close reading of early medieval consecration ordines reveals their principal emphasis on church architecture, while further analysis of liturgical texts demonstrates how the prominence given to the physical and spatial allowed for the creation of the universal community of the faithful (that is, the spiritual ecclesia) within the church's walls. Lay presence is then considered to determine the nature of the laity's role in the rite. Ultimately, in reexamining the interplay between space and community, the article highlights the importance of placing the church building at the center of future considerations of the Carolingian polity.