Flabellum

Not the papal ones. The  Flabellum of Saint Philipert of Tournus. I remember being at Mass during the summertime a few years back, and I saw a fly land on the Host after the consecration. It really bothered me, not that you can stop a fly from doing what a fly does I suppose. Evidentally, that was the original use of Liturgical Flabella.

New Advent article: It was in use in the sacrifices of the heathens and in the Christian Church from very early days, for in the Apostolic Constitutions, a work of the fourth century, we read (VIII, 12): “Let two of the deacons, on each side of the altar, hold a fan, made up of thin membranes, or of the feathers of the peacock, or of fine cloth, and let them silently drive away the small animals that fly about, that they may not come near to the cups”….

When, in 1777, Martène wrote his “Voyage Littéraire”, the Abbey of Tournus, on the Saône in France, possessed an old flabellum, which had an ivory handle two feet long, and was beautifully carved; the two sides of the ivory circular disc were engraved with fourteen figures of saints. **I believe the one in the above pic is one in the same. **