sacristan

plural sacristans

1. The person who maintains the sacristy and the sacred objects it contains.

   The church was looked after by an old sacristan who lived in a cottage on the shore of the lake.

   1932, Maurice Baring, chapter 10, in Friday's Business

   3 more examples

   And hence the custom and law began That still at dawn the sacristan, Who duly pulls the heavy bell, Five and forty beads must tell Between each stroke

   1816, S[amuel] T[aylor] Coleridge, “(please specify the page)”, in Christabel: Kubla Khan, a Vision: The Pains of Sleep, London: […] John Murray, […], by William Bulmer and Co. […], →OCLC

   […] every evening as the temple was closed for the night the sacristan paused: "Pindar to supper with the god!" he cried.

   1879, F. D. Morice, Pindar, chapter 3, page 32

   "Usually," responded the priest, "they give some benefice, a simple one or a parish, or they make him a sacristan, with a very nice fixed income, in addition to other fees that bring in more income."

   Part 1 published in 1605, Part 2 in 1615, translated in 2003, Miguel de Cervantes and translated by Edith Grossman, Don Quixote, page 211

   Synonyms: sacrist