Narthex

NARTHEX. - From the Greek νάρθηξ, it denotes the inner space at the back of the basilica, delimited by railings or by doors called "speciosae"; it was occupied by the catechumens and by certain categories of penitents.

In Rome the narthex is found in St. Pudentiana, St. Sabina, St. Vitalis, and St. Stephen on the Via Latina; in St. Clement and in the cemetery basilicas of St. Petronilla, St. Lawrence and St. Agnes the separation was made by means of columns and movable railings. In St. Sabina and in St. Mary Major, Grisar identified in two facing columns of the central nave the deep holes, now partly closed up, in which the railings were fitted (P. Crostarosa, Le basiliche cristiane, Rome 1892). It is also found at Ravenna in St. Martin in caelo aureo (today St. Apollinaris New) and in St. Apollinaris in Classe.

At Constantinople and in Greece the narthex is never open as in Rome; at St. Sophia there is a double inner narthex, with five doors toward the outside and nine toward the inside; Sts. Sergius and Bacchus had six doors toward the inside and four toward the outside (Procopius, De aedificiis, V, 6). In Greece, in the basilicas of Eleusis and of the Theotokos of Pelion, in which the atrium is lacking, the narthex is double (G. A. Soteriou, Die altchristlichen Basiliken Griechenlands, in Atti del IV Congresso internaz. di archeol. crist., I, Vatican City 1940, pp. 376-80). In Romania, in the Byzantine basilica of Tropaeum, the narthex is tripartite (cf. D. Ciurea, La basilica cristiana in Romania, in ibid., I, p. 389 and pl. III). In Egypt the narthex is very widespread; it can be simple and rectangular, as in the church of Luxor, in the principal basilica of Saqqara and in the small one of Medinet Habu; on the other hand, in the White Monastery and in the church of Denderah the narthex is likewise rectangular, but ends at the extremities with an apse on each side; in that of Old Cairo the apse is on the left (U. Monneret de Villard, La basilica cristiana in Egitto, ibid., p. 302 and figs. 17, 14, 10, 7, 9, 21). In Tripolitania, at Sabratha, the narthex is narrow and stands outside the Justinianic Basilica (P. Romanelli, Le basiliche cristiane nell'Africa settentrionale, in ibid., pp. 254-255, fig. 7); likewise it is external, but deep and divided into three spaces, at el-Assab (id., ibid., p. 270); it is instead internal in the church of the old Forum at Leptis Magna (id., ibid., p. 264, fig. 13) and in the basilica of Ptolemais in Cyrenaica (id., ibid., pp. 282-83, figs. 28-29). The inner narthex appears in the group of basilicas of Asia Minor, as in the basilicas of the Virgin in Ephesus and in that of Rusafah; in Syria in the ancient basilica of St. Simeon Stylites at Qal'at Sim'an.
Enrico Josi

ART

The narthex of the church of Mount Athos has a particular arrangement: in the older type, which persists until the 16th century, it is preceded by a portico and flanked by two chapels; but in churches of the late 13th century and in most of those of the 16th it consists of a large rectangular hall divided into bays by columns.

The use of the narthex continues sporadically in the Romanesque age (St. Mark's in Venice); but it is increasingly frequently replaced by the portico. It is, however, characteristic of Burgundian Romanesque architecture: in the more important churches it is surmounted by two square towers (Autun, Paray-le-Monial, Vézelay), and it is often very large.

Mario Zocca

LITURGY

After the suppression of the catechumenate and the evolution of the penitential rites, the external narthex disappeared or was transformed, and the internal narthex remained, which was and is used for various liturgical purposes, at least in the Byzantine rite: the first part of the baptismal rites (the ancient rites of the catechumenate) was performed there, as always; the priest and clergy go there, at the end of vespers on the eve of Sunday and of the major feasts, to perform the liti or supplication; finally, in monasteries the narthex is provided with seats because generally the monks recite the minor hours of the divine office, that is, the mesonyktikon, the daytime hours and the apodeipnon (= compline).

Alfonso Raes