A set of thirteen spoons, usually silver, the handles of which are adorned with representations of Our Lord (the Master spoon) and the twelve Apostles. Anciently they were given by sponsors as baptismal gifts to their godchildren, the wealthy giving complete sets, others a smaller number, and a poor person a single spoon. The Apostles are distinguished one from the other by their respective emblems:

• St. Peter with a key, sometimes a fish;
• St. Andrew with a saltire cross;
• St. James Major with a pilgrim's staff and gourd;
• St. John with a chalice ;
• St. Philip with a long staff surmounted with a cross;
• St. James Minor with a fuller's bat;
• St. Thomas with a spear;
• St. Bartholomew with a butcher's knife;
• St. Matthew with a wallet, sometimes an axe;
• St. Matthias with a halbert;
• St. Thaddeus, or Jude, with a carpenter's square;
• St. Simon with a saw.

In some sets St. Paul takes the place of St. Matthias ; his emblem is a sword. It is doubtful if these spoons were much in use before 1500; the oldest one known is of the year 1593, and they first appeared as a bequest in the will of one Amy Brent who bequeathed in 1516 "XIII sylver spones of J' hu and the XII Apostells". They are alluded to by the dramatists, Shakespeare, Ben Johnson, Middleton, Beaumont, and Fletcher. In Henry VIII, Act 5, Scene 3, the King asks Cranmer to be sponsor for the infant Elizabeth; he demurs because he is a poor man, upon which Henry banters him in these words: "Come, come, my lord, you'd spare your spoons." While these apostle spoons were used on the Continent, especially in Germany and Holland, they were never as much in vogue there as in England.

Search the Catholic Encyclopedia:

---

The Catholic Encyclopedia is the most comprehensive resource on Catholic teaching, history, and information ever gathered in all of human history. This easy-to-search online version was originally printed in fifteen hardcopy volumes.

Designed to present its readers with the full body of Catholic teaching, the Encyclopedia contains not only precise statements of what the Church has defined, but also an impartial record of different views of acknowledged authority on all disputed questions, national, political or factional. In the determination of the truth the most recent and acknowledged scientific methods are employed, and the results of the latest research in theology, philosophy, history, apologetics, archaeology, and other sciences are given careful consideration.

No one who is interested in human history, past and present, can ignore the Catholic Church, either as an institution which has been the central figure in the civilized world for nearly two thousand years, decisively affecting its destinies, religious, literary, scientific, social and political, or as an existing power whose influence and activity extend to every part of the globe. In the past century the Church has grown both extensively and intensively among English-speaking peoples. Their living interests demand that they should have the means of informing themselves about this vast institution, which, whether they are Catholics or not, affects their fortunes and their destiny.

Copyright © Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company New York, NY. Volume 1: 1907; Volume 2: 1907; Volume 3: 1908; Volume 4: 1908; Volume 5: 1909; Volume 6: 1909; Volume 7: 1910; Volume 8: 1910; Volume 9: 1910; Volume 10: 1911; Volume 11: - 1911; Volume 12: - 1911; Volume 13: - 1912; Volume 14: 1912; Volume 15: 1912

Catholic Online Catholic Encyclopedia Digital version Compiled and Copyright © Catholic Online