A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

SHRINE. The places where something sacred, or a relic, is deposited.

SHRIVE. To administer confession.

SHROVE TUESDAY. The day before Ash Wednesday, so called in the Church of England from the old Saxon word shrive, shrif, or shrove, which, in that language, signifies to confess; it being our duty to confess our sins to God on that day, in order to receive the blessed sacrament of the eucharist, and thereby qualify ourselves for a more religious observance of the holy time of Lent immediately ensuing.

SICK, COMMUNION OF. (See Communion of the Sick.)

SICK, VISITATION OF. By Canon 76, “When any person is dangerously sick in any parish, the minister or curate, having knowledge thereof, shall resort unto him or her, (if the disease be not known, or probably suspected, to be infectious,) to instruct and comfort them in their distress, according to the order of the communion book if he be no preacher, or if he be a preacher, then as he shall think most needful and convenient.” And by the rubric, before the office for the Visitation of the Sick, “When any person is sick, notice shall be given thereof to the minister of the parish, who shall go to the sick person’s house, and use the office there appointed. And the minister shall examine the sick person whether he repent him truly of his sins, and be in charity with all the world; exhorting him to forgive, from the bottom of his heart, all persons that have offended him; and if he hath offended any other, to ask them forgiveness; and where he hath done injury or wrong to any man, that he may make amends to the utmost of his power. And if he hath not before disposed of his goods, let him then be admonished to make his will, and to declare his debts what he oweth, and what is owing to him, for the better discharge of his conscience, and the quietness of his executors. But men should often be put in remembrance to take order for the settling of their temporal estates, while they are in health. And the minister should not omit earnestly to move such sick persons, as are of ability, to be liberal to the poor.” (See Absolution, Communion of Sick, Visitation of Sick.)

SIDESMAN. It was usual for bishops in their visitations, to summon some credible persons out of every parish, whom they examined on oath concerning the condition of the church, and other affairs relating to it. Afterwards these persons became standing officers in several places, especially in great cities; and when personal visitations were a little disused, and when it became a custom for the parishioners to repair the body of the church, which began about the fifteenth century, these officers were still more necessary, and then they were called Testes Synodales or Juratores Synodi; some called them synods-men, and now they are corruptly called sidesmen. They are chosen every year, according to the custom of the place, and their business is to assist the churchwardens in inquiring into things relating to the church, and making presentment of such matters as are punishable by the ecclesiastical laws. Hence they are also called Questmen; but now the whole office for the most part is devolved upon the churchwardens, though not universally. (See Churchwardens.)

SIGNIFICAVIT. The writ de excommunicato capiendo was called a significavit from the word at the beginning of the writ: Rex vicecomiti L. salutem. Significavit nobis venerabilis Pater, H. L. Episcopus, &c.

ST. SIMON AND ST. JUDE’S DAY. A holy-day appointed by the Church for the commemoration of these saints, observed in our Church on the 28th October.

The first is St. Simon, surnamed the Canaanite and Zelotes, which two names are, in fact, the same; for the Hebrew term, Canaan, signifies a zealot.

There was a sect of men called Zealots, about the time of Christ, in Judea, who, out of a pretended zeal for God’s honour, would commit the most grievous outrages: they would choose and ordain high priests out of the basest of the people, and murder men of the highest and most illustrious extraction. And it is highly probable that this Simon, before his conversion and call, was one of this hot-headed sect; or, at least, that there was some fire or fierceness conspicuous in his temper that occasioned his being distinguished by that warm name. He was one of the twelve apostles, and a relation of our blessed Lord; either his half-brother, being one of Joseph’s sons by another wife, or a cousin by his mother’s side.