The Blood at the Foot of the Altar: the Souls of the Martyrs Beneath It
Old Testament: Leviticus 4:7
And he shall put some of the same blood upon the horns of the altar of the sweet incense most acceptable to the Lord, which is in the tabernacle of the testimony. And he shall pour all the rest of the blood at the foot of the altar of holocaust in the entry of the tabernacle.
Old Testament, also: Leviticus 17:11
Because the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you, that you may make atonement with it upon the altar for your souls, and the blood may be for an expiation of the soul.
New Testament: Apocalypse 6:9-11
And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held. And they cried with a loud voice, saying: How long, O Lord (holy and true) dost thou not judge and revenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given to every one of them one; and it was said to them, that they should rest for a little time, till their fellow servants, and their brethren, who are to be slain, even as they, should be filled up.
The connection
When a sin offering was made, the priest touched the horns of the altar of incense with the blood, and the rest he poured out below: "he shall pour all the rest of the blood at the foot of the altar of holocaust" (Leviticus 4:7). The Law gives the reason the blood belongs there: "the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you, that you may make atonement with it upon the altar for your souls" (Leviticus 17:11). St John, who saw "a Lamb standing as it were slain" (Apocalypse 5:6), sees at the opening of the fifth seal what lies at the foot of the heavenly altar: "I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held" (Apocalypse 6:9). The lives of the martyrs, poured out for Christ, are kept where the Law poured the blood of its sacrifices. They cry, "How long, O Lord", and are given white robes and told to "rest for a little time" (6:10-11). St Victorinus of Pettau, himself a martyr, reads the altar so: "both heaven and earth are called God's altar, as saith the law, commanding in the symbolical form of the truth two altars to be made, a golden one within, and a brazen one without"; and "by the brazen altar is understood the earth", beneath which the souls of the slain wait in a "place of repose for the saints." St Ambrose, laying the relics of two martyrs beneath his new altar, said: "Let these triumphant victims be brought to the place where Christ is the victim. But He upon the altar, Who suffered for all; they beneath the altar, who were redeemed by His Passion." The Catechism counts the martyrs slain for the word of God among those who already share in the liturgy of heaven (CCC 1138).
Moral sense
St Paul, near his end, used the language of the altar for his own death: "I am even now ready to be sacrificed" (2 Timothy 4:6), and "if I be made a victim upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice" (Philippians 2:17). St Ignatius of Antioch, on the road to the beasts, asked the Romans for one favour only, "that I be sacrificed to God while the altar is still prepared." Few are asked for their blood. All are asked for their lives: "present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing unto God" (Romans 12:1). Whatever is given up for Christ, day by day, is not lost. It is poured out at the foot of the same altar, where He keeps it.
Anagogical sense
The souls beneath the altar are told to wait only "a little time", and the wait ends in the throne: "the souls of them that were beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God ... lived and reigned with Christ" (Apocalypse 20:4). The Church still keeps their place on earth, setting the relics of the martyrs beneath her altars, so that the Mass is offered where John saw them: Christ upon the altar, and His witnesses beneath it.
The Fathers
St Victorinus of Pettau, Commentary on the Apocalypse, on 6:9: "He relates that he saw under the altar of God, that is, under the earth, the souls of them that were slain. For both heaven and earth are called God's altar, as saith the law, commanding in the symbolical form of the truth two altars to be made, a golden one within, and a brazen one without." St Ambrose, Letter 22, to Marcellina: "Let these triumphant victims be brought to the place where Christ is the victim. But He upon the altar, Who suffered for all; they beneath the altar, who were redeemed by His Passion."
Warrant
Patristic. St Victorinus of Pettau, in his commentary on the Apocalypse, explains the altar of Apocalypse 6:9 from the two altars of the Law, the golden within and the brazen altar of holocaust without, and sets the souls of the slain beneath the brazen one; St Ambrose (Letter 22) lays martyrs' relics beneath the altar on the same reading. Checked in the Greek: the Septuagint of Leviticus 17:11 says the psyche, the soul, of all flesh is its blood, given upon the thysiasterion, the altar; John sees the psychas, the souls, beneath the thysiasterion, and esphagmenon, slain, is the word used of the Lamb at Apocalypse 5:6. St Paul's I am even now ready to be sacrificed is spendomai, poured out as a drink offering. The lead was Dunk's, from the Apocalypse's martyrs read beside the beheadings of John the Baptist and James.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1138.
The verses
Leviticus 4:7 · Leviticus 17:11 · Apocalypse 6:9 · Apocalypse 6:10 · Apocalypse 6:11
