ostiarius
Sign in to savethumb|Mosaic depicting a man in a tunic watching a street scene from the Villa del Cicerone in Pompeii, 1st century CE An ostiarius, a Latin word sometimes anglicized as ostiary but often literally translated as porter or doorman, originally was a slave or guard posted at the entrance of a building, similarly to a gatekeeper.
In the Vinony graph
Vinony's link graph records 390 inbound references to ostiarius, and connects out to Latin, Catholic Church and International Standard Book Number.
It is catalogued under topics including Ecclesiastical titles and Minor orders.
Vinony links it to 16 Wikipedia language editions.
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Encyclopedic overview
3 sectionsContents
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thumb|Mosaic depicting a man in a tunic watching a street scene from the Villa del Cicerone in Pompeii, 1st century CE An ostiarius, a Latin word sometimes anglicized as ostiary but often literally translated as porter or doorman, originally was a slave or guard posted at the entrance of a building, similarly to a gatekeeper.
In the Roman Catholic Church, this "porter" became the lowest of the four minor orders prescribed by the Council of Trent. This was the first order a seminarian was admitted to after receiving the tonsure. The porter had in ancient times the duty of opening and closing the church-door and of guarding the church, especially to ensure no unbaptised persons would enter during the Eucharist. Later on, the porter would also guard, open and close the doors of the sacristy, baptistry and elsewhere in the church.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “ostiarius” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.