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| Sacristy of Stift Vorau, Austria |
What is a sacristy? For most Catholics, they tend to think of the sacristy (which is sometimes also called a vestry or, in some liturgical books, a diaconicum or secretarium) as something akin to a mere 'cloak room' or 'storage room' for priests. There is a certain element of truth to this insofar as the sacristy is indeed the place where sacred vestments are stored as well as other liturgical objects -- candlesticks, relics and reliquaries, monstrances, liturgical books and so on. Here too the clergy will likewise vest and prepare for the liturgical rites.
However, as you can tell from that description alone, a sacristy is certainly much more than a mere mundane workroom. In fact, as have noted before in our article on the topic of Reclaiming the Cloistral Hush of the Sacristy and Sacristy Ceremonial, it is a place (traditionally at least) of silent reverence, reflection, prayer, as well as the place in which the vesting prayers and ceremonies that are attached to the vesting rites of the clergy take place -- and especially so when it comes to the vesting of prelates in the traditional Latin liturgical rites.
This fact might help to explain why in older Catholic countries, such as those within Europe, sacristies are not only merely functional places, they are frequently also beautiful places. In many ways, they can be as ornate as the churches themselves, filled with artwork, sometimes frescoes, and frequently ornate woodwork and cabinetry. Larger churches may even have more than one sacristy; for example, there may be a designated sacristy (secretarium) for the bishop, another for the canons and so on, and still further separate rooms for the altar servers and so forth. Some might, I suppose, see this as a waste, but if we take seriously the import of the liturgical rites, then we should consider no less the importance of proper and inspired preparation for these rites, which all begins within the sanctuary as far as the clergy and servers are concerned.
In additional to the aforementioned elements, traditionally sacristies all contain crucifixes within them, which according to the traditional sacristy ceremonial, is bowed to by the clergy and servers on exiting and entering the sacristy before and after the Mass. Some of the larger churches, and certainly cathedrals, typically also have a "bishop's altar" within the sacristy -- which is used for laying out the prelates vestments, and it is here that the prelate traditionally prays the office Terce as well as the vesting prayers in preparation for the pontifical liturgy (cf. Cæremoniale. Episcoporum, I, 137; II, 74).
With that little bit of background aside then, I thought it might be of interest to our readers to take a short little 'tour' of just a few of the sacristies of the Europe to give you a sense of the sort of beauty and inspriation that can be found there. It is also a good reminder that when you are in countries such as these, if the sacristy is somewhere that visitors can go into, do make certain to not skip that part of the tour.
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| Bishops' Altar and Sacristy, Duomo of Viterbo, Italy |
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| Sacristy of the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine, Milan (Source) |
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| Sacristy of the Church of St. John of Nepomuk, Székesfehérvár, Hungary |
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| Sacristies and bishop's altar of the Basilica of San Martino, Alzano |
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| Sacristy of San Domenico Maggiore, Naples |
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| Sacristy of the Broumov Monastery, Czech Republic |
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| Sacristy of the Chiesa dell’Incoronata, Lodi |
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| Sacristy of the chapel of the Hospitál Kuks, Czech Republic |
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| Sacristy of the Chiesa del Gesu di Casa Professa, Palermo |
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| Sacristy of Real Monasterio de San Millán, Spain |
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| Sacristy of the Cathedral of Granada, Spain |
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| Sacristy of Santiago de Compostela, Spain |
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| Sacristy of the Catedral de Calhorra, Spain |
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| Sacristy of Real BasÃlica de San Francisco el Grande, Spain |
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| Sacristy of the Obermarchtal Monastery, Germany |
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| Sacristy of the Cistercian Abbey of Stift Heiligenkreuz, Austria |
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| Sacristy of the Benedictine Abbey of Tihany, Hungary |
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| Sacristy of the Church of St. Paul's Shipwreck, Malta |
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| Sacristy of Mosteiro de Tibães, Braga, Portugal |
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| Sacristy of Mosteiro de São Vicente de Fora, Portugal |
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| Sacristy of Catedral de Sé, Portugal |
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| Sacristy of the Catedral de Jaén, Spain |
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| Sacristy of the Carthusian Charterhouse of Granada, Spain |
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| Sacristy of Chiesa di Sant'Andrea al Quirinale, Rome. |
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| Sacristy of S. Maria sopra Minerva, Rome |
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| Sacristy of S. Maria Maddelena, Rome |
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