The Sacristan’s Week

What the Church Asks of a Sacristan §

Before the 8 AM Mass on a Tuesday, someone has turned on the lights, set the chalice on the credence table and opened the Missal to the day. The Roman Missal’s instructions count that person among those who “exercise a liturgical function”: “the sacristan, who carefully arranges the liturgical books, the vestments, and other things necessary in the celebration of Mass” (General Instruction of the Roman Missal, 105, in the English on the Holy See’s site). The vestments are prepared in the sacristy (119), and silence there before the celebration is commended (45).

The Ceremonial of Bishops, the book for a bishop’s liturgy, gives the sacristan a paragraph of his own:

Una cum cæremoniarum magistro, ipsi tamen secundus, sacrista celebrationes Episcopi præparat. Sacrista libros ad verbum Dei proclamandum et orationes proferendas, paramenta et alia, quæ in celebratione sunt necessaria, diligenter disponat. In sonum campanarum pro sacris celebrationibus invigilet. Silentium et modestiam in sacristia et secretario observare curet.

Together with the master of ceremonies, though second to him, the sacristan prepares the Bishop’s celebrations. The sacristan is to arrange carefully the books for proclaiming the word of God and saying the prayers, the vestments, and the other things needed in the celebration. He is to see to the ringing of the bells for sacred celebrations, and take care that silence and decorum are kept in the sacristy and the vesting room.

Caeremoniale Episcoporum (1984), 37, read from a scan of the printed typical edition at the Internet Archive. Latin · Our translation.

The paragraph goes on to the care of old furnishings and the choice of new ones. Neither it nor the Missal’s paragraph mentions Mass intentions or offerings.

When the Sacristan Kept the Offerings §

The older Ceremonial asked more. In the edition of 1886, the sacristan of a cathedral or collegiate church was to be a priest, with clerics to help him, and the Mass offerings passed through his hands:

Ad ipsum spectabit eleemosynas, quæ pro Missis celebrandis dantur, custodire, et adnotare in libris sacristiæ, et inter illos, ad quos spectat, distribuere. Habeatur tabella, in qua descriptæ sint Missæ et anniversaria, infra annum statutis diebus celebranda, ut omni exacta diligentia benefactorum intentioni satisfiat.

It will be his part to keep the alms given for Masses to be celebrated, to note them in the books of the sacristy, and to distribute them among those concerned. Let there be a table listing the Masses and anniversaries to be celebrated on fixed days within the year, so that the intention of the benefactors may be fulfilled with all exact care.

Caeremoniale Episcoporum (1886), Book I, chapter VI, 4, read in ceremoniaire.net’s transcription, from a scan at the Internet Archive. Latin · Our translation.

The Catholic Encyclopedia of 1912, summarizing the sacristan’s duties in that Ceremonial, lists them from the sacristy and the Blessed Eucharist to the bells, and ends with “the distribution of Masses”.¹

The law in force puts the book elsewhere. The pastor, or the rector of a church where Mass offerings are customarily received, keeps it, recording the number of Masses, the intention, the offering and the celebration (canon 958). A list like the old table survives for Masses left to a parish by a bequest or gift, which the Code calls pious foundations: it asks that a list of the obligations of pious foundations be “displayed in an accessible place so that the obligations to be fulfilled are not forgotten” (canon 1307 §1, in the Holy See’s English). Neither canon names the sacristan, or the sacristy.

The Intention Before Each Mass §

The 8 AM Mass on that Tuesday is for [Name], who died in March. “It is open to a priest to apply the Mass for anyone at all, the living as well as the dead” (canon 901, our translation), and each offering accepted is owed a Mass of its own (canon 948). Fr. Edward McNamara, a professor of liturgy in Rome, puts the point plainly: “the Mass intention refers above all to the intention of the celebrating priest who took upon himself the commitment to celebrate for a specific intention when he accepted a stipend.”²

So the priest has to know it, and a visiting priest won’t. Three parish documents we found put the sacristan in between. One parish in Georgia tells its sacristans: “Check to see the Mass intention and let visiting priest know.”³ At a parish in Florida, the sacristan sets the binder with the Prayers of the Faithful on the ambo, and the guide adds: “Be sure the Mass Intention is highlighted for the Lector.”⁴ In a Dublin parish, one post is both parish secretary and sacristan, and its duties include “To type daily and weekend Mass intention schedule.”⁵

Whether the intention is read aloud at all is left to the priest and to any norms his diocese has given. “There is no requirement to mention the priest’s intention at the Mass,” McNamara writes; where the person who asked for it wants to be there, it “may best be done either after the greeting at the beginning of Mass or as an intention of the prayer of the faithful.”² Reading the name isn’t what applies the Mass; the priest does that. In 2025 the Holy See told bishops and pastors to make plain to everyone the difference between a Mass applied for an intention and a simple remembrance during the celebration (decree of 13 April 2025, Art. 4 §2, in Italian).

The sacristy is also where a priest is sometimes handed an envelope just before a Mass that already has an intention. The Diocese of Oakland’s Mass stipend workshop says he has several options, “and accepting the offering and applying it to that Mass is not one of them”: he hands the offering to the office for a Mass on a later day, or asks the person to take it to the office.⁶

A Weekday Mass for Someone Who Has Died §

When her Mass falls on a weekday in Ordinary Time, her intention can change what the sacristan lays out. The Missal allows the “daily” Masses for the Dead on weekdays in Ordinary Time when an optional memorial occurs or the Office is of the weekday, “provided such Masses are actually applied for the dead” (General Instruction, 381). The choice of Mass is the priest’s, and the Missal asks him to use Masses for the Dead in moderation (General Instruction, 355). If he takes a Mass for the Dead, violet may be worn, and in the dioceses of the United States white or black as well (346).

So an intention marked as being for someone who has died tells the sacristan something worth asking about before the vestments go out. Our suggestion is simply to ask the priest which Mass and which color he wants, as the Georgia parish’s guide asks a visiting priest to set the Missal himself.³

Sunday and the Mass for the People §

On Sunday one Mass is different. The pastor must apply a Mass for the people entrusted to him on every Sunday and holy day of obligation (canon 534). It is owed to the people, so it takes no offering and isn’t open to a request (the Mass for the people). The canon doesn’t say which Mass it is, so the priest who says it, and whoever prepares for him, needs to be told. Wherever your parish writes the intentions down for the sacristy, that Mass belongs there too, under its own name.

When a Funeral Comes Into the Week §

A death rearranges the week. A funeral Mass may be celebrated on any day except solemnities that are holy days of obligation, Holy Thursday, the Easter Triduum and the Sundays of Advent, Lent and Easter (General Instruction, 380), so it can come on a weekday morning that already had a Mass with an intention.

That earlier intention is still owed its Mass (canon 948). One Minnesota parish that serves four churches writes its answer into its policy: “Daily Mass Intentions that are cancelled due to a funeral or other unforeseen event, will be moved to the next available date and an attempt to contact the person who requested the Mass intention will be made.”⁷

In the sacristy, the Florida parish’s guide tells the sacristan after the weekday Mass to “check calendar for any funerals that day,” and keeps a funeral slip in a sacristy drawer, from which the sacristan learns the celebrant (to set out his chalice) and the readings chosen. It treats a memorial Mass differently: where no remains are present the Paschal candle is not put out, and “Incense is not used at Memorial Masses.”⁴ That is one parish’s practice (funeral and memorial Masses). McNamara adds that a pastor may decide to give the sacristan “the practical dealings with external agents such as funeral directors.”⁸

Friends at the wake may ask for Masses too, and those Masses reach the sacristy later as intentions like any other (what a Mass card promises).

Anniversaries §

A year on, someone may ask for a Mass on the anniversary. The Missal singles out three moments for a Mass for the Dead, the news of the death, the burial and the first anniversary, and allows it then even on days within the Octave of Christmas, on obligatory memorials and on weekdays, except Ash Wednesday and the weekdays of Holy Week (General Instruction, 381). The “daily” Mass for the Dead isn’t allowed on an obligatory memorial (381), but a Mass for the Dead on a first anniversary is. Any Mass may still be applied for the dead (canon 901); the day changes only which Mass the priest says.

McNamara also writes that a name “should not normally be mentioned during the Eucharistic prayer. This naming is best left for funeral Masses, Masses at the notification of death, and significant anniversaries.”² Again the priest decides; the sacristy only needs to know the day is an anniversary (the month’s mind and the anniversary).

What the Sources Leave Open §

None of the Church documents we opened says who writes the intentions down for the sacristy, how far ahead, or whether it’s a book, a sheet or the bulletin. Your pastor can say whether your diocese has norms of its own. Gathered from the documents and parish guides above (our list, not a rule), these are worth keeping in view in the sacristy:

• the intention of each Mass, and whether it’s for someone living or someone who has died;
• the Mass for the People, marked as such, on Sundays and holy days;
• funerals on the calendar for the coming days, with their celebrant;
• a word to a visiting priest about the intention before Mass;
• envelopes handed in at the sacristy, sent to the office rather than added to a Mass.