Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
📖 A prayer book 🙏 A church helper
sacramentary

sacramentary

9.9
A book of prayers and rites a priest uses during Mass and other church services
  • noun
  • /ˌsækrəˈmɛnˌtɛri/
  • Specialized
translation icon : sacramentario
  • During the service, the sacramentary was essential for guiding the liturgy and prayers.

Examples

  • The most ancient sacramentaries and antiphonaries of the several Churches attest, by the prayers, the lessons, and the whole liturgy of these two weeks, that the Passion of our Lord is now the one sole thought of the Christian world.

    Blog text (34)

  • The priest read from the sacramentary as he prepared for the wedding ceremony.

  • Each Sunday, the sacramentary provides the prayers for the Mass celebrated by the congregation.

Synonyms

breviary
vssacramentary
1 9.9

A small book with prayers, hymns, and readings for daily use by priests or monks

is instead used for priestly ceremonial prayers and rites during sacraments
prayerbook
vssacramentary
1 5.2

A book with prayers people say during religious services

focuses instead on priestly rites rather than general prayer collections
service book
vssacramentary
6.7

A book that has the words and forms used in religious ceremonies

is for priest use containing prayers and rites for mass and sacraments

How Liturgical

sacramentary
  • Specialized
9.9
missal
  • Specialized
5 9.9
prayer book
7 2.6

Surface Forms

sacramentary singular
sacramentaries plural

Morphology

sacramentary = sacrament (semi-transparent) = sacrament + ary

Formed from 'sacrament' + '-ary'; the relation to sacraments is clear but the specific ecclesiastical senses (a liturgical book) are specialized vocabulary not obvious to general learners.

Etymology

The word sacramentary comes from sacrament ('sacred rite') and the ending -ary ('connected with'). So a sacramentary is a book 'connected with sacred rites', which is why it contains the prayers and rites a priest uses at Mass.