MINISTER OF THE PAPAL CHAPEL. - More properly called assistant minister at sacred functions (v. ANNO. Pont., 1951, p. 912). Besides the monsignor sacristan of His Holiness, the following are numbered among these ministers (const. Pro pastoralis officii of Alessandro VII, dated 10 Dec. 1655), with the specific title of sacred ministers at the Masses of the Papal Chapel: three canons of the patriarchal basilicas, namely that of S. Giovanni in Laterano, as assistant priest; that of S. Pietro, as deacon; and that of S. Maria Maggiore, as subdeacon.
Two of the papal singers, when they were also chaplains of the Pope and apostolic subdeacons, served as deacon and subdeacon at the Pope’s solemn Pontifical Mass and at the other Masses celebrated by cardinals and bishops in the Papal Chapel; this, however, occurred before the const. Nuper, certis ex causis of Alessandro VII (26 Oct. 1655), since by this constitution the Pope entrusted the functions of apostolic subdeacon to the auditors of
MINISTRO DELLA CAPPELLA PONTIFICIA - MINNEGESANG
Rota, already chaplains of the pope, and the functions of acolyte to the voting prelates of the Apostolic Signature (cf. const. Ad incrementum decoris, of Pius XI, 15 Aug. 1934: AAS, 26 [1934], p. 497 ff.).
The ordinary chaplains of His Holiness are also ministers of the pontifical chapel and attendants thereof, and there they perform the office of candle-bearing acolytes (v. FAMIGLIA PONTIFICIA).