SACRISTA (Praefectus Sacraril Apostolici). – He is a titular bishop (traditionally of Porfirione) who is responsible for the Apostolic Sacrarium, and for the custody of all the furnishings, appointments, utensils, vessels, and vestments of the papal chapel, as well as the precious ornaments of the Holy Father, including the mitres, the tiara, Golden Rose (v.), the blessed sword and the berrettone (v. BERRETTA). He is an assistant at the Pontifical Throne, an official prelate of the S. Congr. of Rites, and resides in the Vatican.
Until the fifteenth century this office was combined with others of the Apostolic Palace; the sacrista was also the pope’s confessor and penitentiary. In 1316, in fact, Giovanni XXII assigned the office of the pope’s confessor together with that of sacrista and librarian.
From 1352, by custom, though with some exceptions during the second half of the fifteenth century, the sacrista and the sub-sacrista (sub-praefectus sacraril apostolici), who assisted the former in exercising the prefecture of the papal sacristy, were almost always chosen from among the Hermits of S. Augustine, until Alessandro VI confirmed their exclusive privilege. The dignity of abbot of the church of S. Sebastiano fuori le mura was attached to the office of sacrista; by virtue of this dignity, at the pope’s coronation episcopos omnes praecedit.
When the popes used to have the S. Eucharist carried before them on their journeys, the key to the small chest containing it was entrusted to the custody of the sacrista, who followed on horseback, carrying the white staff in his hand as a sign of jurisdiction. This occurred during certain solemn cavalcades in Rome, especially those for the taking of possession (v.).
Clemente VIII raised the sacrista to the dignity of bishop, and Leone XII (1824) established that he should be parish priest of the Apostolic Palaces. Pio XI, by the constitution Ex Lateranensi pacto of 30 May 1929 (AAS, 21 [1920], p. 309), established that the sacrista should be his perpetual vicar in the State of Vatican City (where the only parish is S. Anna, entrusted to the Augustinians), with jurisdiction also extending to the Lateran Palace, the Cybo villa, and the Barberini villa at Castelgandolfo, while the basilica and chapter of S. Pietro and the Ethiopian College, situated in Vatican City, were exempt from II. The sacrista, being a secret participating chamberlain of His Holiness, belongs to the household (v.) Pontifical Chapel (v.); he therefore often accompanies the Holy Father at audiences and is present at papal functions. When he assists at the pope’s Mass, he tastes the Host and the wine beforehand, according to the pontifical rite; he supplies him with the candle and shows him everything that must be said.
As palatine parish priest, he brings Viaticum to the dying Holy Father and also administers Extreme Unction to him. During a vacancy of the see he enters the conclave (cf. no. 48 of Pio XII’s constitution Vacantia Apostolicae Sedis of 8 Dec. 1945: AAS 38 [1946] p. 65), where every morning, before the S. College, he recites the Hymn Veni Creator with the prayer to the Holy Spirit (cf. no. 65 of the cited constitution).
F. G. Cancellieri, De secretariis Basilicae Vaticanae, I, there 1788, pp. 333–550; Moroni, XVI, p. 115; LX, p. 173; T. Ortolan, Cour Romaine, in DTHC, III, col. 1960. Guglielmo Felici