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The figure of the altar boy, so present in the literary and pictorial works of the 19th and 20th centuries, was in fact an invention of liturgists to overcome the lack of adults helpers in the liturgy of the Mass. It addressed both the need to dignify parochial offices, especially in country churches, and to cultivate religious practice among young boys. But the use of children to celebrate the cult involves a deep contradiction: their lack of education is therefore a challenge that the Church, through the liturgy, means to defeat just like school does. The use of adult lay helpers became in the 20th century an opportunity for active participation of the faithful, which largely explains the end of the altar boys.