OSTIARIAT
The lowest in dignity among the minor orders, but the first in the order of conferral, the office of ostiary confers upon the cleric the duty of doorkeeper (*ostiarius*) of the Church.
### I. History
The earliest testimony regarding the ostiary is found in a letter written in 251 by Pope St. Cornelius to Fabius of Antioch (Eusebius, *Hist. eccl.*, VI, 43, 11): the Pope enumerates the ostiaries among the members of the clergy, but in the last place. The *Liber Pontificalis* (I, p. 55) recalls a Romanus ostiary, a companion in martyrdom of St. Lawrence, and in the enumeration of the grades of the hierarchy made under Pope Caius (ibid., p. 161) replaces the ostiary with the *custos martyrum*, while in that drawn up under St. Sylvester it regularly mentions the ostiaries. The ostiary is mentioned by St. Augustine (*Confess.*, 6, 2: PL 32, 719), Pope St. Gelasius, incidentally in a letter of 494 (PL 59, 47), recalling that in Rome toward the end of the 5th century they were replaced by the *mansionarii* (v.), who were not part of the clergy; it is nevertheless believed that the ostiary remained in force as a simple hierarchical grade; an inscription from Trier recalls an Ursatius *ustiarius*. About a dozen ancient inscriptions contain the title of ostiary (cf. Leclercq and E. Diehl, *Inscript. lat. christ. veteres*, Berlin 1925-31, V. index, p. 374). The extensive correspondence of St. Cyprian is silent on this order. In Spain the ostiary is explicitly mentioned by the Council of Toledo of 592, canon 2.
In the East, the *Constitutiones Apostolicae* (bk. 2, ch. 23, 3; ch. 28, 5) and other documents (Council of Laodicea [a. 371], canon 24; Justinian, *Novell.*, 3, I [a. 535]; Council in Trullo [a. 692], canon 4) mention the ostiary (*πυλαρχός*, *θυρωρός*), though his office is generally considered non-hierarchical.
### II. Ordination
In the Roman Church up to the 9th century no formula of ordination for ostiaries appears. Some believe that the Pope designated in private form persons elevated to this office.
The *Statuta Ecclesiae antiqua* (5th century, from southern Gaul) present the first schema of ordination (PL 56, 879 ff.) which substantially passed into the Western liturgical books and into the *Epistola de septem gradibus* (PL 83, 895), falsely attributed to St. Isidore and inserted into the Decree of Gratian (1, D. 25).
According to the Roman Pontifical, the ordination of the ostiary is performed with a very simple rite, which includes the *admonitio*, the handing over of the instruments, the keys, and the blessing. The *parrectio instrumentorum* is accompanied by the formula: “Sic agite, quasi reddituri Deo rationem pro his rebus, quae his clavibus recluduntur,” which is already found in the *Statuta Ecclesiae antiqua*.
### III. Functions
The duties of the ostiary were explained “mystically” by Pseudo-Jerome (*De septem ordinibus Ecclesiae*, 2: PL 30, 152) and are currently designated in the bishop’s *admonitio*: “It is fitting for the ostiary to strike the cymbal and the bell, to open the church and the sacristy, and to open the book to him who preaches.” The first function was certainly that now mentioned in second place: to open and close the doors of the church and the sacristy. As custodians of the latter place, in antiquity the ostiaries were elderly and trustworthy men to whom the church’s treasure could be entrusted. When toward the 5th and 6th centuries the use of bells and other instruments was introduced, the ostiaries were charged with summoning the Christian community to divine offices. The function of opening the book for the preacher is first recorded in the Roman-German Pontifical of the 10th century.