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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadMcClintock Biblical Encyclopedia: Sacristan
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(1.) The monastic treasurer and church warden. He provided all the necessaries for divine service; was keeper of the church keys, relics, fabric, plate, furniture, and ornaments; secretary, and chancellor. He arranged the way of processions for the prsecentor, superintended the bell-ringers, and received the rents, oblations, and burial fees. At Canterbury he delivered the crosier to the new archbishop. At Ely he received the candle corn (one sheaf of corn in every acre), to supply the lights, and, as the bishop's vicar, exercised archidiaconal jurisdiction over the city chaplains. At Peterborough his fee were the horses of a knight buried in the minster, if under four marks in value, otherwise they accrued to the abbot; and at Worcester. the abbots of Gloucester, Tewkesbury, Pershore, and Evesham gave him a cope of profession at their benediction.
(2.) Vice-custos, the vicar of the treasurer, or sub-treasurer at York in 1230. He opened the doors of the sacristy in the morning, admitted the rectors of choir and sick members who desired to say the Hours privately. He warned canons of chapter, kept the doors shut during its session, rang the bells, and led the procession. Bishop Storey mentions the use of the word sacrist in an inferior sense as recent in the 15th century. Where there was no permanent sacristan in a cathedral, a canon was appointed, called praefect of sacristy. In the Decretals of Gregory IX and at Lyons (1269) the sacrist was the inferior of the sacristan. In the new foundations he furnished the sacred elements, administered sacraments, officiated at marriages and burials, was the curate of the chapter, like the foreign parochus, and had charge of the bells, church goods, furniture, and lights. At Girgenti there are four sacrists; at Mayence he was a vicar, and at Angers a cubicular, or chamberlain, who administered the sacraments to sick canons and the choir clergy.
(3.) The sacristan at mass has charge of the vessels, and attends in a surplice at the credence table, which is placed on the south side of the altar, and arranges on it the chalice, covered with the linen cloth called the purifier; and also the paten, which is covered with a stiff cloth and a rich veil of silk; the cruets for wine and water; the Gospel and Epistle books; the ewer, basin, and water for washing the celebrant's fingers; the corporal, or cloth on which the chalice and host are placed, and contained in a burse, or embroidered case; a crucifix, and two tapers.
(4.) A church servant, now called sexton.