(holy saturday) says Durandus “the acolythes of the Roman church make lambs of newly blessed wax, or of the wax of the paschal candle of the preceding year mixed with chrism:  on Saturday in Albis they are distributed by the Lord Pope to the people in the churches”.  Amalarius likewise mentions this custom.  It appears also from the two benedictions of Ennodius mentioned above, that the faithful used particles of the pascal candle as a preservative against storms:  the good effects hoped for in this and similar cases are attributed to the prayers of the church, which God in His goodness has promised to hear.  The paschal candle is painted according to an ancient custom.

  “Ast alii pictis accendant lumina ceris”.

S. Paulinus Nat.  VI.  S Felicis

Pierin del Vaga, whom Vasari considered as the most distinguished of Raffaello’s assistants, was originally nothing more than a candlepainter.  His creation of Eve at S. Marcello at Rome, and his frescoes in the Doria place at Genoa, are well-known; at the Vatican he assisted Giovanni d’Udine in his arabesques, Polidoro in his antique chiaroscuri, and executed some of the most beautiful historical paintings of the loggie di Raffaello.  Hence may we judge of the versatility of his talents.]

[Footnote 113:  Why does a deacon perform this ceremony? since other benedictions are reserved to bishops and priests.  Rupert assigns as a reason, that Christ’s body was wrapped in spices by his disciples, and not by the apostles whose successors are bishops and priests:  besides, the hymn sung by the deacon is the praeconium Paschale, or announcement of the Resurrection, which was first made by inferiors to their superiors, by the women to the apostles.  We may add that both the fire and the 5 grains of incense are previously blessed by the priest, and in the praeconium itself there is not any form of blessing, strictly speaking.  In the church of Ravenna however the bishop used to bless this candle (S.  Gregory ep. 28, lib. 9).  In the Roman church, according to cardinal Gaetani, the last of the Cardinal priests usually blessed the fire, and the last Card. deacon lighted the lumen Christi, or triple candle, and the Paschal candle.  The deacon used to bless the latter either at the steps of the presbytery, or from the ambo; and hence we find a marble column, intended to support it, fixed to the ambo in S. Clement’s S. Laurence’s, and S. Pancras’ churches at Rome.  See another marble column destined for the same use ap.  Ciampini, Vet. mon. cap. 2.]

[Footnote 114:  Martene (De antiquis Eccl. rit. lib. 4, c. 24) maintains that this hymn was composed by S. Augustine, and this opinion is adopted also by Baillet and Benedict XIV, and confirmed by a MS. pontifical of the church of Pavia of the 9th century, and other documents cited by Martene, ibid:  it was corrected by S. Jerome, if we may believe an ancient Pontifical of Poitiers (quoted ibid.) The chant