Description

On a purple cloth lies an opened golden pyx exposing the consecrated bread. The word pyx was formerly applied generally to all vessels used to contain the Blessed Sacrament. Recently, the term is limited to the smaller vessel of gold, or silver-gilt, in which the Eucharist is carried to the sick. Extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist, priests or deacons take pyxes to hospitals and nursing homes to give Holy Communion to those who cannot attend Mass. A pyx is often made flat like a watch or sometimes mounted on a little stand like a miniature ciborium.