Prie-dieu In that period in France, a small room or oratory was sometimes known by the same name. A similar form of chair in domestic furniture is called "prie-dieu" by analogy. Sometimes, a prie-dieu will consist only of the sloped shelf for books without the kneeler. Prie-dieu may be provided in church weddings for the bride and groom to kneel on during the service, or may be used by a cleric when he leads the worshippers in prayers such as litanies. In the Byzantine Rite, a prie-dieu is provided for the bishop when he kneels in the Holy Doors during the
Communion bench of the communicants at the chancel-rail. Later on, about the fifteenth century the practice was introduced of receiving Holy Communion kneeling, and so the altar-rail gradually came to assume a form better suited to that use, and like what it is at present (Bourassé, Dict. D'Arch. Paris, 1851). When large crowd approach the altar on special occasions so that the ordinary accommodation for receiving was not adequate, a row of prie-Dieu or benches provided with Communion cloths or cards, with a lighted candle at the end of each row, may be arranged around the chancel. (Cong. of Rites, Decr. 3086,