Gradually the waving of the flabellum acquired a deeper symbolic meaning—it was held to signify the wafting of divine influence upon the ceremony, the movements to and fro symbolising the quivering of the wings of the Seraphim; hence we find representatives of the Seraphim playing an important part in its ornamentation. In the Book of Kells we have a representation of the four evangelists in which the Seraphic symbol of St. Matthew is figured by the crossed flabella, each having a pair of bells with triple hammers; the remaining three evangelists being represented by the usual symbols of the Lion in the centre, and the Bull and Eagle at the lower corners.
Germanus (Neale, Eastern Church, p. 396) goes even further, and holds that the vibration of the flabellum typifies the tremor and astonishment of the angels at our Lord’s Passion.
In a Byzantine fresco at Nekrési (Caucasus), of a date uncertain but somewhat late, an open sanctuary is represented with two angelic winged deacons waving seraphic flabella around the head of the second person of the Trinity.
COPTIC FLABELLUM.
(From Butler.) We have, then, in these flabella, two distinct types—the one composed of some yielding material such as vellum or peacocks’ feathers, the handles usually of ivory; the other rigid, and formed of metal, either silver or silver gilt, this latter being essentially a processional fan; both being used in ceremonial processions and celebrations of the mass.
Metal flabella also divide themselves into two classes—the large-handled processional fan, and the short hand-fan; an example of the latter is given from Butler, and consists of a circular disc of metal decorated with two rude figures of the Seraphim interspersed with Romanesque ornament.
Actual specimens of ancient flabella are almost non-existent, although a few have been preserved on the Continent; one of the most famous being that of the abbey church of Tournus, on the Saône, south of Chalon, at present in the Carrand collection, Museo Nazionale, Florence. This remarkable example, which may be taken as a characteristic type, is formed of a strip of vellum folded à la cocarde, painted on both sides with figures of St. Philibert and other saints divided by conventional trees. The outer borders consist of a continuous scroll of Romanesque ornament interspersed with figures of animals. Latin hexameters and pentameters are inscribed on the three concentric borders of the fan, as follows:—
✠ FLAMINIS HOC DONUM, REGNATOR SUMME POLORUM,
OBLATUM PURO PECTORE SUME LIBENS.
VIRGO PARENS XPI VOTO CELEBRARIS EODEM,