Narthex
Narthex
In early Christian architecture a portion of the church at the west end, separated from the nave by a low wall or screen and reserved for the catechumens, energumens, and penitents who were not admitted amongst the congregation. The narthex was of two kinds, exterior and interior: the former consisted of an open atrium arcade continued across the front of the church; in the latter, the aisle and gallery were returned across the nave. A survival of the exterior narthex may be found in the church of San Ambrogio at Milan; of the interior narthex, in Santa Agnese, at Rome. The outer narthex was sometimes used as a hall of judgment and for other secular purposes, and, after the sixth century, as a place of burial, while the inner narthex sometimes called the matroneum, was used, probably for certain persons of rank or distinction, rather than as a women’s gallery. After the abandonment of the atrium in the West, about 1000, the narthex developed by degrees into the great west porch which is so characteristic of the churches of southern France. Among the monastic orders it continued in use down to the beginning of the thirteenth century as, for example. in the abbeys of Cluny and Vézelay. With the full development of Gothic it disappeared, its place being taken by the three great western porches or doorways. Properly speaking, the name should have ceased with the function and the so-called narthex of medieval churches and abbeys should justly be called a porch. For the same reason there is no excuse for the recent revival of the word as a designation either of an exterior porch, or an interior vestibule.
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RALPH ADAMS CRAM Transcribed by Michael C. Tinkler
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XCopyright © 1911 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, October 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Narthex
(Gr. , signifying a plant with a long stalk but applied by the Greeks to any oblong figure) is the technical term used in ecclesiastical architecture to designate that part of the early Christian churches which formed an outer division, and may be properly termed an “ante-temple,” it being within the church, yet separate from the rest by a railing or screen, and being the part to which catechumens and peenitents were admitted. SEE CHURCH.
The term narthex is supposed to have been given to it on account of its oblong shape, in this respect resembling a rod or staff (ferula). It was the long and narrow part extending along the front of the church. Here were usually three entrances: one on the west side, another on the south, and another on the north. The chief entrance or great door was at the west, opposite the altar: it was called, after the corresponding gate in the Jewish Temple, the beautiful or royal gate. The gates and doors consisted of two folding leaves. The doors leading from this part into the nave were appropriated to the various classes of the members, and named accordingly, “the priests’ door,” “the men’s door,” etc. In the vestibule, , in the stricter sense, the catechumens and audientes had their station. Here also heretics and unbelievers stood. In the , or portico, funerals were performed; in large churches meetings for ecclesiastical purposes were held there, and in later times the water-font was also placed there, instead of being, as formerly, outside the walls of the church in the exedran, or buildings adjoining the church. In this fountain persons entering were accustomed to wash their hands and face. SEE FONT.
See Farrar, Eccles. Dict. s.v.; Martigny, Dict. des Antiquites, s.v.; Coleman, Christian Antiquities, pages 723-25; Bingham, Christian Antiquities, 2:286-290; Siegel, Christl. Alterthumer, 2:876; Riddle, Christian Antiquities; Walcott, Sacred Archaeol. s.v.; Neale, History of the Eastern Church (Introd.).