A sacristan is an officer charged with care of the sacristy , the church , and their contents.
24-479: In ancient times, many duties of the sacrist were performed by the doorkeepers ( ostiarii ), and later by the treasurers and mansionarii. The Decretals of Gregory IX speak of the sacristan as if he had an honourable office attached to a certain benefice , and say that his duty was to care for the sacred vessels, vestments , lights, etc. Nowadays the sacristan is elected or appointed. The Cæremoniale Episcoporum prescribed that in cathedral and collegiate churches
48-544: A Latin word sometimes anglicized as ostiary but often literally translated as porter or doorman , originally was an enslaved person or guard posted at the entrance of a building, similarly to a gatekeeper . In the Roman Catholic Church , this "porter" became the lowest of the four minor orders prescribed by the Council of Trent . This was the first order a seminarian was admitted to after receiving
72-455: A certain amount of education), for without this prerequisite an applicant could, at the most, only fill the office of an ostiary. In Rome itself this office attained to no particular development, as a large part of these duties, namely the physical work necessary in the church building, what is now probably the duty of the sexton, was at Rome performed by the mansionarii. The clergy of the three lower grades (minor orders) were united at Rome into
96-478: A certain amount of labour for this purpose. Altar societies differ from tabernacle societies in that they work for the benefit of the church they are attached to while tabernacle societies work for the benefit of many different poor churches. In the Eastern Churches , the sacristan is known as the ecclesiarch , particularly in monasteries . In large monasteries he may be assigned an assistant known as
120-661: A preparatory job on the way to the major orders : subdiaconate (until its suppression, after the Second Vatican Council by Pope Paul VI ), diaconate and the priesthood . Like the other minor orders and the subdiaconate, it is retained in societies such as the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter . In the Roman period, an ostiarius was an enslaved person whose duty was to guard the entrance of an upper-class citizen's house, sometimes being chained to
144-537: A religious institution. Altar societies were once commonly organised within most Catholic parish churches. Member duties vary according to circumstances, and in some instances include tasks that ordinarily fall within the sacristan's province, such as the vestments and altar vessels, making ready for the priest's Mass. In general, they consist of the payment of yearly dues into a fund for maintenance and repair of accessories used in Church ceremonies, and usually also include
168-481: Is also mentioned in the Decretals . He was the assistant of the sacristan, was subject to the archdeacon and discharged duties very similar to those of the sacristan. By the early twentieth century, the office was hardly ever attached to a benefice and so usually a salaried position. The Council of Trent desired that according to the old canons, clerics should hold such offices; but in most churches, on account of
192-479: Is shown by the epitaph of one Ursatius, an ostiary of Trier . An ostiary of the church of Salona is also mentioned in an epitaph. Later, however, in the Latin Church the office of ostiary universally remained only one of the degrees of ordination and the actual work of the ostiary was transferred to the laity ( sacristans , sextons , etc.). In the ordination of ostiaries their duties are thus enumerated in
216-414: The Council of Laodicea (c. 343–381). Like the acolytes and exorcists, they were only appointed to serve the church, but received no actual ordination and were not regarded as belonging to the ecclesiastical hierarchy. According to the "Apostolic Constitutions" belonging to the end of the fourth century the guarding of the door of the church during the service was the duty of the deacons and subdeacons. Thus
240-611: The Schola cantorum (choir) and as such took part in the church ceremonies. There are no special prayers or ceremonies for the ordination of the lower clergy in the oldest liturgical books of the Roman Church. For the Gallican Rite , short statements concerning the ordination of the lower orders, among them that of the ostiaries, are found in the "Statuta ecclesiæ antiqua" a collection of canons which appeared at Arles about
264-480: The paraecclesiarch . An analogous office is that of the skeuophylax . In parishes, however, the sacristan is called sexton . In addition to the tasks and responsibilities mentioned above, if an individual has a message for the priest while serving in the sanctuary, it is given to the sexton to give to the priest or deacon. Many Christian-faith schools appoint sacristans as members of their prefect bodies, particularly in public schools and institutions founded on
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#1732772547780288-463: The tonsure . The porter had in ancient times the duty of opening and closing the church-door and of guarding the church, especially to ensure no unbaptised persons would enter during the Eucharist . Later on, the porter would also guard, open and close the doors of the sacristy , baptistry and elsewhere in the church. The porter was not a part of holy orders administering sacraments but simply
312-619: The English model. For instance, the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, an Episcopal university, hosts a student Sacristans Guild. Sacristans aid the school's chaplain in the day-to-day running of the chapel and promotion of a Christian ethos in the school. In terms of seniority, they are often regarded as second only to the school captains . Ostiarius An ostiarius ,
336-521: The Pontifical: "Percutere cymbalum et campanam, aperire ecclesiam et sacrarium, et librum ei aperire qui prædicat" (to ring the bell, to open the church and sacristy, to open the book for the preacher). The forms of prayer for the ordination are similar to those in the old Gallican Rite. In the East there were also doorkeepers in the service of the Church. They are enumerated as ecclesiastical persons by
360-499: The beginning of the sixth century. The "Sacramentarium Gelasianum" and the "Missale Francorum" contain the same rite with the prayers used on this occasion. According to these the ostiaries are first instructed in their duties by the archdeacon ; after this he brings them before the bishop who takes the keys of the church from the altar and hands them to the candidate for ordination with the words: "Fulfil thine office to show that thou knowest that thou wilt give account to God concerning
384-528: The church, and the distribution of Masses; finally it suggests that one or two canons be appointed each year to supervise the work of the sacrist and his assistants. In the Old Testament , the office and duties of the sacristan are assigned to the Levites . 1 Chronicles 23-26 describes how David assigned them duties such as temple doorkeepers, guardians, singers and musicians. The under-sacristan
408-404: The difficulty or impossibility of obtaining clerics, laymen perform many of the duties of the sacristan and under-sacristan. In some European medieval contexts, a custos was given the more important roles of keeping the safety of the church, its relics, its treasure, and its archives, but was also responsible for the perception of capitationes , symbolic head-taxes that associated freemen with
432-758: The doorkeepers exercised their office only when service was not being held. The minor order no longer exists officially in the Eastern Catholic Churches and was abolished in the Roman Catholic Church by Pope Paul VI in his apostolic letter, Ministeria quaedam of August 15, 1972. [REDACTED] This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). " Porter, doorkeeper ". Catholic Encyclopedia . New York: Robert Appleton Company. School Captain Head boy and head girl are student leadership roles in schools, representing
456-488: The doorway to prevent flight. A basilica originally served as a Roman court of law, and it was the duty of the ostiarius to regulate the approach of litigants to the judge. When, from the end of the second century, the Christian communities began to own houses for holding church services and for purposes of administration, church ostiaries are soon mentioned, at least for the larger cities. They are first referred to in
480-472: The letter of Pope Cornelius to Bishop Fabius of Antioch written in 251, where it is said that there were then at Rome 46 priests, 7 deacons, 7 subdeacons, 42 acolytes, and 52 exorcists, lectors, and ostiaries, or doorkeepers. According to the statement of the Liber Pontificalis , an ostiary named Romanus suffered martyrdom in 258 at the same time as St. Lawrence. In Western Europe the office of
504-552: The ostiary was the lowest grade of the minor clergy. In a law of 377 of the Codex Theodosianus intended for the Vicariate of Italy, the ostiaries are also mentioned among the clergy who have a right to personal immunity. In his letter of 11 March 494, to the bishops of southern Italy and Sicily, Pope Gelasius says that for admission into the clergy it was necessary that the candidate could read (must, therefore, have
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#1732772547780528-475: The sacristan should be a priest , and describes his duties in regard to the sacristy, the Blessed Eucharist , the baptismal font , the holy oils , the sacred relics , the decoration of the church for the different seasons and feasts, the preparation of what is necessary for the various ceremonies, the pregustation in pontifical Mass , the ringing of the church bells, the preservation of order in
552-514: The school's entire student body. They are normally the most senior prefects in the school. The terms are commonly used in the British education system as well as in schools throughout the Commonwealth . Some schools use alternative, gender-neutral titles such as school captain , head pupil/student . or head of school. Head boys and head girls are usually responsible for representing
576-502: The things that are locked away under these keys." Then follows a prayer for the candidate and a prayer for the occasion that the bishop pronounces over him. This ceremony was also at a later date adopted by the Roman Church in its liturgy. In Latin Western Europe, outside of Rome, in the late Roman era and the one following, the ostiaries were still actually employed as guardians of the church buildings and of their contents. This
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