is a name applied to certain characters; made by the pope at the dedication of churches. A pot of ashes is provided, which, in the course of the ceremony, is strewed in two lines, each about a span in breadth, in the form of a cross, transversely from angle to angle of the church. During the chanting of the Benedictus the pontiff scores with the point of his pastoral staff on one of these lines the Greek alphabet, and. on the other the Latin.