In the days of the catacombs, Mass was celebrated over the tombs of the martyrs. This photo is of the tomb of St. Antiochus, (r.i.p. C. 127 A.D.) in Sardenia, over which Mass was celebrated. As you can see, celebrating “versus populum” would have been impossible.
The following script is my loose translation of some pertinent facts debunking the myth that the early Church celebrated Mass “versus populum”.
From the blog “Messainlatino“:
The Mass facing the people was first espoused by some members of the liturgical movement, such as the monk Lambert Beauduin, who, however knowledgeable in liturgical history, never said that Versus Populum was the ancient position as some modernists claim.
Versus Populum was introduced to give the liturgy a certain note of community with “warmth and familiarity”. But in doing so Beauduin and his friends did not realize that the liturgy was being further clericalized in a nauseating and unacceptable manner.
“A celebration of ‘people-facing’ never existed.”
Mass facing the people, is therefore the daughter of clericalism that sees the priest as the center of all liturgical action that is then defined according to the priest’s place and his orientation.
It is therefore an aberrant expression that arises from an objectionable concept of liturgy.
