Past and current uses

Although the lavabo at the sacristy is equipped with the special drainage system and that the kettle was inscribed with a reference to the washing of hands, it was only used to wash the purificator and other altar linens after the Holy Mass. Moreover, the verse "lavabo in innocentia manus meas" is also said by the priest while his hands are being washed on the south side of the altar during the offertory (while the bread and the wine were being prepared at the altar immediately before they were consecrated). Thus, the text on the kettle is associated with a ritual action that could not be carried at the sacristy, despite that is where the kettle is being kept. It is possible that the washing of the priest’s hands during the Mass, took place at another piscina that is located on the right of the altar (see picture on the left).

According to local accounts, from 1969 onwards, both the lavabo in the sacristy and the piscina in the choir were no longer used, perhaps as a result of the liturgical changes set forth following the Second Vatican Council. In addition, the altar was repositioned and placed nearer to the centre of the church, and it became inconvenient to wash hands at the piscina. Today, a small pit in the floor behind the altar in the Basilica serves the function of the sacrarium. The priest at the O.L.V Basiliek now celebrates mass facing the people, and washes his hands with a bowl and a small cruet at the altar, with his head and body facing the direction of the congregation.