A priest's sacristy

For the non-Anglicans among you, a sacristy is the room where a church's liturgical "stuff" is kept, and where folks prepare for the liturgy. Sometimes the vestments are also kept there, often there is a sink to wash the chalices (cups) and patens (plates) in, sometimes there is a safe to lock the silver (and sometimes gold) in. I visited a church a couple weeks ago that not only had a sacristy, but also a priest's sacristy. (Sorry, all these photos are washed out with the flash! Argh, I hate flash.) Voilá:

Some of the folks who read this blog will recognize this sacristy. I love the church where it's located (it's beautiful!), and I love the priest there (she's amazing). I have a feeling she doesn't really use this sacristy, at least in the way it was built to be used.

It is medieval, sort of magical, and GORGEOUS. This was the place the priest would come to prepare himself (and back then, it was definitely HIMself) for Mass. There are beautiful closets that would've held the chasubles, stoles, maniples, and all else. He would've opened one of the closets...

(what are those in gold? a bee hive? an eagle -- for the gospel of John?)

...chosen vestments to match the liturgical season, and prayed as he put them on. He might then have knelt to pray or meditate in front of this painting of the Virgin Mary, flanked by a bishop, two monks, and... a dandy???

or this stained glass window, showing many things priests do:
(say evening prayer, celebrate the Eucharist -- note he faces East, away from the people -- and walking the streets with the poor, in his cassock and biretta)

or he might've just chatted with the acolytes and deacon for a while (let's allow him to be human!), But they would've dressed in the regular sacristy, which sadly, I have no pictures of (silly me!). So, he could've kept himself separate, if he wanted to.

Perhaps this was nice? As I prepare for church each week, there is not much space for prayer, meditation, or any kind of quiet! We liturgical ministers gather in the back hall: the choir is chatting and laughing, the chalice bearers are searching for albs that fit, the acolytes are also searching for albs that fit and asking if the candles were lit by the other acolyte yet?, the ushers have questions, I'm greeting people in the narthex, and I can't find my hymnal or a bulletin.

But, perhaps there is something in this holy chaos at St. Benedict's... I would feel strangely separate if I was in a private sacristy, saying prayers and adjusting my chasuble, alone. (Or, I might be tempted, depending on how I felt about my sermon that week, to escape up those twirly stairs!)


No priest's sacristy for me. But it is an interesting monument to a different time, a different attitude about clergy as a vocation set apart, and it is a beautiful room.