Monstrances display the host, or consecrated wafer of bread that miraculously transforms into the body of Christ during the celebration of Mass. Carried in procession and placed on the altar, a monstrance allows the congregation to venerate the host.
The applied, enamelled bosses and sun-form of the monstrance window are characteristic of late-sixteenth and early seventeenth-century Hispanic and Hispano-American goldsmiths' work. The oval window for the display of the host in this example is unusual though not unique. The casket-like base of this monstrance does not have a parallel in other examples. The casket section was originally set with two panels of glass secured with five clips each (one panel is now missing). There is no evidence that the casket could be easily opened once the glass slid into place. It has been suggested that this container functioned as a reliquary, but in the Roman Catholic rite the consecrated host was not displayed in combination with a relic. In its present form, then, this monstrance probably represents a marriage of two sections from different, yet contemporary, silver objects.