Cornerstone
**Historical Significance of Cornerstones**:
– The cornerstone ceremony involved offerings of grain, wine, and oil.
– Ancient customs included sacrifices and effigy substitutions for strength and stability.
– Some cultures practiced burying living beings under foundation stones for protection.
– Japanese legends mention burying maidens alive near constructions for safety.
– The cornerstone symbolized the beginning of a masonry foundation.
**Freemasonry and Cornerstones**:
– Freemasons historically performed public cornerstone laying ceremonies.
– Specific rituals were followed during the cornerstone laying ceremony.
– The Deputy Provincial Grand Master played a significant role in the ceremony.
– The initiate in Freemasonry is placed in the north-east corner of the Lodge.
– Symbolism associated with the placement of the initiate in Freemasonry.
**Contemporary Usage of Cornerstones**:
– VIPs or local celebrities often conduct the ceremony of laying the foundation stone.
– Specially manufactured trowels and hammers were traditionally used in ceremonies.
– Time capsules with artifacts from the construction period are placed in the foundation stone.
– Ceremonies involve recording the name and official position of the person laying the stone.
– The foundation stone often has inscriptions of names and dates.
**Ecclesiastical Cornerstones**:
– Cornerstones in churches are symbolic of Christ and the Chief Cornerstone.
– Relics of saints, especially martyrs, are sometimes placed in the foundation stone.
– The cornerstone is referred to as a foundation-stone in some church traditions.
– Pre-Vatican II Roman Catholic Church rites involve blessing the foundation stone.
– The cornerstone keeps two walls together and prevents the building from falling apart.
**Symbolism and Rituals Surrounding Cornerstones in Church Construction**:
– Bishop’s blessing required before church construction.
– Different rites for wood or stone churches.
– Relics optional but commonly placed in the cornerstone.
– Consecration and placement of the cornerstone with specific rituals.
– Inscriptions and symbols on the cornerstone, including cross-shaped spaces for relics.
A cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure.
Over time a cornerstone became a ceremonial masonry stone, or replica, set in a prominent location on the outside of a building, with an inscription on the stone indicating the construction dates of the building and the names of architect, builder, and other significant individuals. The rite of laying a cornerstone is an important cultural component of eastern architecture and metaphorically in sacred architecture generally.
Some cornerstones include time capsules from, or engravings commemorating, the time a particular building was built.