choirstall

Kathrin's choirstall, the altar, her movement between the two, the performance of the Mass, all these elements had significance not only in the context of her life, but also in the lives of her religious sisters.

Sensual Encounters: Monastic Women and Spirituality in Medieval Germany 2008

So the community carried her into the choir, arranging pillows in her choirstall so she could sit up.

Sensual Encounters: Monastic Women and Spirituality in Medieval Germany 2008

This can be seen in another instance when the St. Katharinenthal sister Luggi of Stein sat in her choirstall and sang the Mass for Saint John the Evangelist and the choir began the sequence Verbum dei.

Sensual Encounters: Monastic Women and Spirituality in Medieval Germany 2008

She was in the choir of the church in her choirstall and an archbishop came and wanted to sing Mass.

Sensual Encounters: Monastic Women and Spirituality in Medieval Germany 2008

For example, Saint John the Evangelist escorted the St. Katharinenthal nun Ite of Kloten from her choirstall to the altar for communion and then back again, while the Adelhausen nun Metzi of Walthershoven saw Christ leave the altar and wander through the choir. 57 Sometimes in these examples, the priest is mentioned, often when he raised the Eucharist or when he intoned a liturgical text that was meaningful to the nuns.

Sensual Encounters: Monastic Women and Spirituality in Medieval Germany 2008

Nuns are forever standing up, sitting down, approaching the altar, retreating from the altar, or walking around the altar. 59 In one instance, a group of nuns wander through the choir trying to decide whose choirstall smells like roses. 60 At other times they watch those who appeared in their visions walking around the choir and conversing with them,61 or they observe their sisters receiving special graces signifying their holiness. 62 And of course eight times a day the nuns processed in and out of the choir in an orderly fashion as called for by the Rule and constitutions.

Sensual Encounters: Monastic Women and Spirituality in Medieval Germany 2008