Crossword clues for sacristan
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Sacristan \Sac"ris*tan\, n. [F. sacristain, LL. sacrista, fr. L. sacer. See Sacred, and cf. Sexton.] An officer of the church who has the care of the utensils or movables, and of the church in general; a sexton.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Wiktionary
n. The person who maintains the sacristy and the sacred objects it contains.
WordNet
n. an officer of the church who is in charge of sacred objects [syn: sexton]
Wikipedia
A sacristan is an officer charged with care of the sacristy, the church, and their contents.
In ancient times, many duties of the sacristan 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 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 the church, and the distribution of Masses; and finally it suggests that one or two canons be appointed each year to supervise the work of the sacristan and his assistants.
Usage examples of "sacristan".
Women do not do everything in Ansbach, however, the sacristans being men, as the Marches found when they went to complete their impression of the courtly past of the city by visiting the funeral chapel of the margraves in the crypt of St.
The sacristan said that the chapel was never used for anything but funeral services, and he led the way out into the cemetery, where he wished to display the sepultural devices.
The temple sacristans showed it to Apion the grammarian, who reports the fact, but is very sceptical in the matter.
Four blue sacristans carried the canopied chair of honor, the divine tourist smiling out as if delighted with everything she saw.
The chaplain commander and two sacristans were waiting, visibly worried, and he followed them into the chapel.
Two sacristans in blue, carrying yellow-flaring lamps that reeked with pungent incense.
The two blue sacristans stationed themselves at the ends of the altar, swinging their flaring lamps in yellow clouds of incense.
The yellow lamps still flared where the sacristans had dropped them, spilled oil frying on the marble, their incense mixed with the reek of seared flesh.
The young sacristans, the sable nuns, vanished successively through the open door.
The sacristan, a very intelligent person, with a shaven crown and his hair cut straight across his forehead, who showed us the church, gave us much useful information about bones, teeth, and the remains of the garments that the virgins wore.
After them came all the other officers, sub-prior, sacristan, hospitaller, almoner, infirmarer, the custodian of the altar of St.
Brother Benedict the sacristan, Brother Anselm the precentor, Brother Matthew the cellarer, Brother Dennis the hospitaller, Brother Edmund the infirmarer, Brother Oswald the almoner, Brother Jerome, the prior’s clerk, and Brother Paul, master of the novices, followed by the commonalty of the convent, and a very flourishing number they made.
Neither the curate, nor the barber, nor the bachelor, nor even the sacristan, can believe that thou art a governor, and they say the whole thing is a delusion or an enchantment affair, like everything belonging to thy master Don Quixote.
The pythonesses and their domestic staff—the secretary, the bursar, the chamberlain, the librarian, the sacristan, and a decad of holders of ancient offices which had dwindled to purely ceremonial functions or nothing more than empty titles—raised up on a platform at one end of the refectory.