Triple candlestick
A triple candlestick was prescribed until 1955 in the Roman Rite Easter Vigil service, held on Holy Saturday morning.
In the associated ceremony, the deacon or priest lights each of its three candles in succession, chanting each time in ascending tones, "Lumen Christi", to which the choir answers "Deo gratias". From one of the candles on the triple candlestick, the Paschal Candle is afterwards lit during the chanting of the Exsultet.
In 1955 the triple candlestick was abolished in the liturgical reforms of Pope Pius XII. Since then, even with the promulgation of new editions of the Roman Missal from 1962 onward, the Paschal Candle is lit directly from the Paschal fire at the beginning of the Easter Vigil Mass.
