sacristan

American  

[sak-ri-stuhn] / ˈsæk rɪ stən /

noun

• sacristans
  plural

1. Also called sacrist.  an official in charge of the sacred vessels, vestments, etc., of a church or a religious house.

2. a sexton.

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sacristan British  

/ ˈsækrɪstən, ˈseɪ- /

noun

1. a person who has charge of the contents of a church, esp the sacred vessels, vestments, etc

2. a less common word for sexton

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• undersacristan
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• sacristans
  plural

Etymology

Origin of sacristan

1325–75; Middle English < Medieval Latin sacristānus, equivalent to sacrist ( a ) custodian of sacred objects + -ānus -an

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sacristan sacristans

Originally from Venezuela, he’s lived in the neighborhood with his family for a decade and often serves as a sacristan and altar server.

From Washington Times ● Jul. 20, 2023

The Algeciras town hall said the sacristan was named Diego Valencia and identified the wounded priest as Antonio Rodríguez.

From Seattle Times ● Jan. 26, 2023

In 1995, Israel honoured the parish's wartime pastor, Father Antonio Dressino, and its lay sacristan, Pietro Lestini, as being Righteous Among the Nations for saving Jews.

From Reuters ● May 4, 2022

José Antonio Conde, a kind of church caretaker called a sacristan, was trying to find the key on a recent evening.

From New York Times ● Jan. 2, 2022

The sacristan held the lantern up where he could see John’s face.

From "The Door in the Wall" by Marguerite de Angeli

Surfers, sitting on the edge of the break, were like "Phrygian sacristans."

From Los Angeles Times ● May 15, 2018

Black people - the free and enslaved - worshipped alongside whites in Bethlehem and Nazareth, where they were sacristans or held other church duties and shared the Moravians’ regimented lifestyle.

From Washington Times ● May 23, 2015

The bishop-banker grants subsidies to needy dioceses and disburses the money for the salaries of Vatican employees, from cardinals on down to sacristans.

From Time Magazine Archive

Three priests among them were released, but the police held fast to several retired military officers, two Cathedral sacristans, some lay brothers.

From Time Magazine Archive

The other two bishops, their curas, and sacristans, receive the same stipends, and for the same reason.

From The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 28 of 55 1637-38 Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of the Catholic Missions, as Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Close of the Nineteenth Century by Emma Helen Blair