carving

This small late medieval ivory plaque is called a pax. Used as part of a Catholic Mass, it would be passed among the church congregation who would kiss it as a sign of peace. Pax is Latin for Peace. Until the thirteenth century, people would exchange actual kisses and embraces, but this came to be thought potentially immoral! Use of paxes was encouraged instead.

This pax is carved with an image of the Annunciation: the Angel Gabriel bringing the news to the Virgin Mary that she has been chosen to bear the Son of God. The Latin text in the banner is the first line of Gabriel's words, beginning Hail Mary Full of Grace. The Virgin Mary was especially revered in the pre-Reformation Christian church. Devotion to Mary, and the use of paxes, were forbidden in England after the Reformation in the sixteenth century.