baptistery forms a room leading out of the sanctuary or nave.
PLAN OF THE PATRIARCHAL CHURCH AT ḲUDSHANIS.
A, Sanctuary; B, Baptistry; C, Place for baking the holy bread; D, Entrance (by ladder); E, Room where Rabban Yuḥanân (Yonan) lived.
It is often also used as a vestry, and generally has a stove for baking the bread to be consecrated.[1] Nestorian churches are called after our Lady (Mârt Maryam), the apostles or other saints, very often after a martyr of the Persian persecutions or their own hermits or bishops. Everyone takes off his shoes in church, but the turban or ṭarbūsh only during services. The clergy in ordinary life do not wear a special dress; in the mountains they often have a black turban. Bishops generally wear a long robe, like a cassock, and the usual turban. The tonsure, though prescribed by the canons, at least for monks, is not now worn; but all the clergy have a beard. To shave the beard is a sign of degradation and a punishment inflicted by the Patriarch for certain offences.[2]
The universal liturgical vestment is the tunic, called kuthinâ (χιτών) corresponding to the στοιχάριον or alb. It is girdled by a
- ↑ See plan of the Patriarchal church (Mâr Shalīṭâ) at Ḳudshanis above. Plans of other churches in Maclean and Browne: op. cit. pp. 296, 301. The inside of a large church at Mosul in Badger: op. cit. ii. pp. 20–21.
- ↑ Maclean and Browne, pp. 97, 204.
