A cloth formerly used in churches to cover the Eucharist or sacred items to protect them during religious ceremonies.
From Middle English care (attention, protection) + cloth. This is an ecclesiastical term from medieval Christianity, when priests used special cloths to carefully protect sacred objects during Mass.
Carecloths reveal how medieval people thought about holiness—they believed that sacred objects could literally contaminate or be contaminated, so they created elaborate physical barriers to maintain spiritual purity.
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