Learn about: Sedilia
title image by Natalie Miller
What they are
Have you ever noticed richly decorated stone niches next to the altar in a medieval church and wondered what they are for? These niches are called ‘sedilia’ and they are not purely decorative. Sedilia are seats for the clergy and provide a space for the priest and his assistants to sit during mass. When there is only one singular seat, it is called a ‘sedile’, which simply means seat in Latin.
Their origins
Most examples of sedilia that you will spot in historic churches are made of stone and recessed into the chancel wall. This building tradition originated in the 12th Century and is particularly common in England. Earlier sedilia were freestanding stone benches, or sometimes even made from wood. Over time sedilia became more and more elaborately decorated with carved canopies and pinnacles. The ‘piscina’, a shallow basin used for washing the communion vessels during mass, was often located in a smaller niche next to the sedilia.
Unusual Examples
The most common number of sedilia is three. One for the priest, one for the deacon and one for the sub-deacon. In this case they are often located at different levels, with the easternmost seat being the highest and most important and reserved for the priest. However, there are also examples of a single more bench-like seat or of four or five instead of three seats. Modern adaptations often return to the type of freestanding furniture that pre-dated recessed sedilia.
Where to find them
You can find 13th-century sedilia, with intricate dog-tooth mouldings at Holy Trinity Church in Wensley. At St. Peter’s, Preston Park, a church that was richly painted in the middle ages but lost many of its wall paintings to fire in 1906, you can find sedilia animated with vibrant Edwardian stencilling. In St. Mary’s, Garthorpe, you can find a single drop-sill sedile with a 14th Century canopy, which might have originally been a niche for a tomb that was later re-appropriated.
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