Some 600 years ago some unknown but clearly skilled craftsman took on the difficult task of carving this sacrament house from a single block of fine-grained oak, creating stacked niches framed by Gothic-style arches. The structure is designed to hold liturgical instruments such as patens for communion bread and chalices for communion wine. You can look through the archways now, but the interior spaces would originally have been semi-obscured with glass or tracery. At each corner, two rungs of small angel figures occupy niches set atop simple columnar supports. But … all eight angels have had their heads and hands carved (chopped) off by Reformation iconoclasts as part of the mid-16th century effort to eliminate what was thought to be some form of idolatry in church decoration.
