Excerpted from an excellent article at Orthodox Arts Journal, by Aidan Hart:
What is the tabernacle’s history, and what forms have they taken over the past two millennia?
During the first three centuries after Christ it was not safe for the sacraments to be reserved in churches on account of the persecutions. But it was customary in many cases for the faithful, after receiving communion at the Liturgy, to be given consecrated bread to take home for self communion during the week, or for the purpose of receiving before the time of death. St Basil the Great (c.329-379) writes: “In Alexandria too, and in Egypt, each one of the laity, for the most part, keeps the communion at home, and whenever he wishes partakes of it himself.”9
A deacon or other ordained person, perhaps even a church server, would take the gifts to the sick or those unable to attend. The martyrdom of St Tarsisius in the third century (recorded by Pope Damascus 366-384) occurred when he was on the road to take the holy gifts to imprisoned Christians. St Ambrose of Milan (339-397) mentions that Christian sailors and passengers in danger of death at sea “have with them the divine sacrament of the faithful.” In all such cases the sacraments were kept safely in some form of box, which was the earliest form of tabernacle or pyx.
But after persecution ceased under with the Edict of Milan (313 AD) this custom soon stopped. In its place the tradition developed of reserving the sacrament permanently in the churches, at first primarily to administer to the sick and later so that the faithful could be given communion at the Liturgy of the Presanctiifed during weekdays of Great Lent when the Holy Liturgy was not celebrated.
The means used to store the sacrament varied with time and place. The main options were: in a chamber in the sacristy, called in the West the secretarium; in a niche in the wall (ambry), which was the common Roman Catholic common practice until the Tridentine reforms (1545-1563); in a room separate from the nave or sanctuary, variously calleddiaconium, sacrarium, pastophorium, and vestiarium; in the altar, in the safe-like predella reliquaries described above. This last method is mentioned in “Admonitio synodalis” of the ninth century by Regino of Prum (d. 915). Wherever the gifts were kept, it was expected that their pyx container be of silver or gold. This was not just to honour the gifts, but had the practical reason of avoiding any contamination due to corrosion or wood worm.
From the time of Emperor Constantine a common form of tabernacle, both East and West, was a dove (called in the West columbae), which was hung over the altar from the ciborium canopy (55). It was high enough not to be stolen easily, and could be lowered with a pulley system. In some cases this rope was attached to the church bells so that people were alerted if someone tried to steal the columba. It was ideally of silver or gold, though in Romanesque times we see brass enamelled versions, since the Host itself was still contained within a pyx of silver or gold stored within the dove (56,57, 58,). See illustration 59 for a contemporary example.
The dove form of tabernacle may have stemmed from the early practice of storing the consecrated chrism in a dove suspended above the font. One of the charges brought against the Monophysite patriarch of Antioch Severus by the clergy of Antioch at the Council of Constantinople in 536 was that he removed and took for his own use the golden and silver doves that were suspended over the altars and the baptismal fonts. The association of the dove with the Eucharist is also natural on account of the epiclesis, when we call down the Holy Spirit “upon us and upon these Your gifts”.
In Rome and in some other parts of the West it was customary to contain the dove within a tower (called a turres). In the Liber Pontificalis we find from the fourth century onwards that mentions of gifts of doves are never without a parallel gift of a tower. We know that Emperor Constantine gave a tower and dove of gold to St Peters in Rome, and some Popes later did the same. It is debated where these towers were kept. Some scholars say they were kept in the sacristy, others claim they were placed on the altar from an early time. This latter is debatable in the light of early prohibitions against having anything on the mensa apart from the holy vessels and the Gospels.
The dove and tower practice continued in the West until around the sixteenth century, when it became the custom to have a tabernacle on the altar (the Orthodox current practice). In Britain the adoption of such fixed and lockable tabernacles seems to have been introduced because of increasing accounts of the desecration and theft of the gold and silver columbae, such as by King Henry II of England’s eldest son, Prince Henry.
It was not until the Counter Reformation (c. 1545-1648) and particularly the Council of Trent’s reforms that the reserved sacrament became a focus of devotion among western Christians, a reaction to the Protestant rejection of the real presence. Hitherto the sacrament had been reserved solely to give to the sick or for communion when there was no Liturgy, and not as a focus of devotion.
Some thoughts on contemporary Orthodox tabernacles
It would be good to explore the merits of reviving the dove tradition. It has the advantage of leaving the mensa more clear, which in turn restores the emphasis to the holy table’s primary role as altar for the Eucharistic sacrifice. The high visibility of the dove would also serve to underline the role of the Holy Spirit in the Liturgy.
A revival of dove artophoria would need to go hand in hand with the revival of the ciborium from which they are usually hung. A pulley system would be used to lower the dove, and the gifts themselves would be contained within a pyx inside the dove to permit ease of use.
NOTES:
[9] St Basil, Letter 93, translated by W.H. Freestone, The Sacrament Reserved (Alcuin Club Collections, Vol. XXI; London: A.R. Mowbray and Co, 1917), p. 41.
Canticum Salomonis 
The modern example is quite artfully done.
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Both the Byzantine Catholic church in Irving, TX and the Seminary in Pittsburgh both have Eucharistic doves.
Also the Motherhouse chapel of the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill, in Greensburg, PA has one, though this one looks like something from the “War of the World” movies.
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