Born in 1955 in Massachusetts, The Very Rev. Cassian Folsom, O.S.B. has been a monk since 1979 and a priest since 1984. He served as the pro-President of the Pontificio Istituto Liturgico at the Athenaeum of Sant' Anselmo from 1997 to 2000, and is the founding prior of the Monastery of San Benedetto, located in Norcia, Italy, the birthplace of St. Benedict. Father Cassian is also a member of the Society for Catholic Liturgy, and is the author of numerous studies on Roman Catholic liturgy. In 2010, Pope Benedict XVI named Father Cassian as a consulter to the Congregation on Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.
In this second section on the location of the tabernacle, liturgical norms of various levels of authority will be cited from liturgical books, canon law, papal documents and instructions from dicasteries of the Roman curia. In each case, the document will be cited with its date of publication and a brief commentary given.
For the purpose of trying to discern major shifts in the theory and practice of the reservation of the Blessed Sacrament, the history of the tabernacle can be divided into four sections: the patristic period until Carolingian times, the Carolingian period until the Council of Trent, the Council of Trent to Vatican II, and Vatican II to the present.