28. SACRISTY
Of the structures annexed to the church, the sacristy is of particular importance. Brief instructions regarding it will now be given.
The sacristy, which by the ancients was sometimes called “camera” or “secretarium”, and that is the place in which the sacred furnishings were kept, must be constructed for every church, of any kind whatsoever. The size will be in proportion to the size of the cathedral, the collegiate and parish church, and in proportion to the number of ministers and the amount of sacred furnishings, and even a bit larger.
It is permissible to have two sacristies in the more important and frequently visited churches, one for the furnishings of the choir and the chapter, the other for the chaplains, for the other church ministers and for the remaining furnishings.
It will be sufficiently far from the main chapel or altar, to allow the priest about to celebrate Mass, together with those who will assist him, to move from there towards the altar in procession, as is the ancient custom, with a mystical significance.
In the other parish churches and the less important ones, for reasons of convenience, it can be permitted, as decided on by the Bishop, that the sacristy be closer to the main chapel or high altar. Care must however be taken that it is not too far from the priest’s residence.
Site of the sacristy and its windows
Every sacristy, as far as possible, will face east and south.
It will be built so as not to obstruct the sources of light of the main chapel. It will have two or more windows, where possible one across from the other, and preferably on the right and on the left, so that it will be possible to ventilate the place and it will not be humid and moldy. If there should be mold resulting from the damp it will be eliminated by opening the windows every so often.
The windows will be enclosed and furnished with double iron grates, or particularly solid and closely set single grates, or also of glass and iron wire net, as has been prescribed for church windows.
The sacristy will be covered with a vault, or at least coffered.
The sacristy floor
The floor will not be made of boards, but will be made as follows, that is it will have small vaults placed underneath so that because of the humidity the floor where possible will be raised above the level of the ground, so that the sacred vestments will not mold and be ruined because of the conditions of the site or place.
To make even surer of this, any earth accumulated outside next to the walls and sources of dripping which cause humidity will be removed. The ground outside will be covered with gravel and consolidated by rubble and lime.
Sacristy entrance
The entrance to the sacristy door will not be off the main chapel, unless, in the less important churches, the Bishop does not decide to the contrary. It will open onto a place to which the faithful also have access, that is the central part of the church.
It will have a door of very solid panels, a solid latch, and a very strong lock and key.
Other thinner panels will be in front of the entrance panels, either outside or inside. The lower part of these will be of worked wooden panels, and cloth will be placed in the upper part, so that one cannot enter or look into the sacristy. This second pair of doors will close by themselves with a latch and a counterweight, skillfully made. It is permitted to open a small window also with grating, and permanently closed on the outside, in the upper part of the door. It will be opened only from the inside when necessary so that an answer can be given from the sacristy to someone outside who is making a request.
Location of the holy image and the altar in the sacristy
In every sacristy, in the most conspicuous place, there will be a sacred icon and, if the sacristy is large enough, an altar or a table or a cabinet in the shape of an altar, furnished with a cross and candlesticks and covered with a cloth, where the priests preparing to celebrate may put on their sacred vestments.
The oratory or the altar in the sacristy
There will then be an oratory in some part of the sacristy, projecting either within or without, in a suitable location and like a small cubicle, where the priest preparing to celebrate Mass retires and, collecting his thoughts, meditates and prays a while. There will be a small altar, on which there will be a picture or a crucifix or some other pious image to which the prayers are piously addressed. There will also be a low bench on which to kneel during prayers.
If the sacristy is just too small and narrow for an oratory of this kind, at least a low bench or a “bradella” will be set at one of the sides, the most suitable for prayer. This area will be screened with a curtain or a cloth, and the priest can kneel and pray here. A sacred image will be hung on the wall, as above.
Prayer tablet
There will be a tablet with the preparatory prayers for the celebration of Mass in every oratory, of whatever kind.
Lavabo
There will also be a lavabo for washing hands. It will be in solid stone and there will be one or more spouts as needed. In the lower part there will be a concave basin in stone or solid marble to receive the water which flows into it. It will have a hole from which, through a conduit, the water will be sent to a small cistern underground or elsewhere, in the most convenient place to send it away from the walls of the sacristy.
Where the availability of funds is more modest, in place of the lavabo, prescribed in solid marble, a pail can be used, hung up and with a spigot in the form of a rooster welded on from which the water for the ablutions runs out slowly. Below it there will be, as described above, a basin.
The lavabo and the basin, well built and decorated, will be placed, entirely or in part, in a small apse-shaped recess in the wall. If they project outside, they must not obstruct the sacristy space.
A clean white towel will be hung on a roller near the lavabo.
The wardrobe for sacred vestments
There will be a large walnut wardrobe. in which the sacred vestments will be kept. It will be two cubits and five ounces above the level of the sacristy floor. It will have drawers that can be removed, well apportioned and long, into which the sacred vestments will be put, according to their color, spread out, apart from each other and in order.
Above it there will be small cabinets, or below to one side of the drawers, built separately, there will be small cupboards where the sacred chalices, patens, corporals, purificators, veils and other like things carefully cleaned will be kept in order and in easy reach. On the other side there will be cupboards in which those that must be washed will be put.
Both the ambry and the small closets will be closed with small well-made panels, each with separate locks and keys.
There will be as many ambries as are required by the number of sacred furnishings.
Racks for hanging the sacred vestments
In the sacristy there will also be racks, well made, connected to movable cords and pulleys. On them the sacred vestments will, as required, be hung and spread out.
The book cabinets
There will then be other cabinets, built in the same way as those prescribed above. One will be for the purpose of keeping the ecclesiastical books used for psalmody or other choir or church needs. Another one will be for law books and all the public and private documents concerning the church, and this when the church does not have a more suitable and safe archive. A third cabinet, if it is a parish church, will be used to keep determined parish registers, that is those registers of marriage, baptisms, confirmations, and others of the kind, as well as, in a separate place, the pontifical letters, episcopal edicts, Bishop’s pastoral letters that are promulgated from time to time, as well as other writings regarding the spiritual government of the church or of the souls, committed to parochial care.
These three cabinets will be carefully closed, each with a different key. A single cabinet can be built in their place, well divided inside into shelves for the various types of books and documents, there where the dearth of codices or documents, or the small size of the church, has no need of two or three, as above.
On the most important wardrobe
In the more important sacristies there can be a wardrobe for the more precious vestments.
It will be as long as allowed by the size of the sacristy, seven cubits high, two cubits deep. The lower part of the wardrobe, two cubits high, will have removable drawers or compartments. The upper part, somewhat narrower at the back and gradually widening on the front, will not be divided into compartments, but, without partitions, it will have on either side, in proportion to the depth of the wardrobe, thin straight laths, attached to movable hooks, to each of which, at the top, a pole will be solidly fixed, held up by a support attached below. The sacred vestments, well spread out, will be hung on these.
The wardrobe for the canons’ vestments
If the church is a cathedral or collegiate church, it will also have wardrobes in which to keep the surplices and the other vestments usually used in the choir by the canons and the other choir ministers. Or, in place of the wardrobes, there can be suitable storage chests, set all around the sacristy, which can also serve as benches for the chapter, when it is held in this place.