Hagioscope

A partially blocked squint at Grendon church

A hagioscope (from Gr. άγιος, holy, and σκοπός, to see) or squint, in architecture, is an opening through the wall of a church in an oblique direction, to enable the worshippers in the transepts or other parts of the church, from which the altar was not visible, to see the elevation of the host.^[1]

Hagioscopes were also sometimes known as "leper windows" wherein a squint was made in an external wall so that lepers and other non-desirables could see the service without coming into contact with the rest of the populace.

Squint or Leper window at St. Martin's Church Liskeard, Cornwall, England.

In medieval architecture hagioscopes were often a low window in the chancel wall and were frequently protected by either a wooden shutter or iron bars. Hagioscopes are found on one or both sides of the chancel arch; in some cases a series of openings has been cut in the walls in an oblique line to enable a person standing in the porch (as in Bridgwater church, Somerset) to see the altar; in this case and in other instances such openings were sometimes provided for an attendant, who had to ring the Sanctus bell when the Host was elevated.^[1]

At St Bees Priory a purpose-built squint was included in the wall of the 14th-century chapel to give a view of the high altar. The window was low enough to allow a person to kneel whilst looking through the aperture. The hagioscope at St Mary the Virgin, Lytchett Matravers, is unusually large; although unknown in origin it provides a view to the communion table from the 16th-century north aisle. It is large enough that it is often used as a corridor for access to the chancel.

Though rarely encountered in continental Europe, they are occasionally found to serve such purposes as allowing a monk in one of the vestries to follow the service and to communicate with the bell-ringers.^[1] Sometimes squints were placed to enable nuns to observe the services without having to give up their isolation. The unusual design of the church of St Helen's in Bishopsgate, one of the largest surviving ancient churches of London, arose from its once having been two separate places of worship: a 13th-century parish church and the chapel of a Benedictine convent. On the convent side of the church a "squint" allowed the nuns to observe the parish masses; church records show that the squint in this case was not enough to satisfy the nuns, who were eventually admonished to "abstain from kissing secular persons," a habit to which it seems they had become "too prone".^[2]

Germany

The hagioscope of St. Clemens Bad Iburg

In Germany a number of hagioscopes still exist or were rediscovered in the 19th and 20th century. They are found mainly in Lower Saxony which had a small population in the Middle Ages and only a few bigger cities. In cities lepers lived together in housing estates which often had their own chapels. In Georgsmarienhütte the hagioscope of church St. Johann belonged to the former Benedictine convent Kloster Oesede, founded in the 12th century and reconstructed in the early 1980s. Nearby in Bad Iburg a hagioscope was rediscovered at St. Clemens, church of former Benedictine monastery in the castle and monastery complex Schloss Iburg. Other hagioscopes in Lower Saxony are found in Bokelesch, Westoverledingen, Dornum, Midlum, Kirchwahlingen (Gemeinde Böhme) and Hankensbüttel.

In Northrhine-Westphalia St. Antonius-Kapelle in Gescher-Tungerloh-Capellen has a hagioscope. St. Antonius is used as Autobahn chapel at Bundesautobahn 31. Another hagioscope is found in St. Ulricus in Börninghausen. In Rhineland-Palatinate the church of St. Eligius-Hospital in Neuerburg has a hagioscope. In Baden-Württemberg there is a hagioscope in St. Peter und Paul, the Old Cemetery Church of Nusplingen.

Sweden

In Sweden Bro church near Visby on Gotland has a cross-shaped hagioscope. Other hagioscopes are at the church of Vreta Abbey near Linköping, Granhult Kyrka in Uppvidinge and Husaby Kyrka in Götene. The wooden church in Granhult (Småland) has a hagioscope which can be closed.

Finland

Hagioscope in Olavinlinna castle in Eastern Finland

There is only one hagioscope in Finland, in Olavinlinna castle (St. Olaf's Castle), in the town of Savonlinna.

Netherlands

St. Vitus in Wetsens, and Jistrum, both in Friesland, have hagioscopes, as does the oldest church in the Netherlands, which stands in Oosterbeek.

France

Hagioscope, old church of Saint-Maurice, Freyming-Merlebach

In France the hagioscope of Notre Dame in Dives-sur-Mer, Normandy, has the inscription trou aux lépreux (leper window). Other hagioscopes are known at St. Laurent in Deauville, Normandy and at the old church of St. Maurice in Freyming-Merlebach, Lorraine.

England

St Bees Priory: Squint window in the wall of chapel built 1270–1300. Window is infilled, but outline is shown, and cross hatch shows wall and floor abutments.

Churches in England with hagioscopes include:

• St James' in Great Ormside, Cumbria^[3]
• St Bees Priory, St Bees, Cumbria (now infilled)
• St Marys Bridge Chapel, Derby
• St Mary's, Lytchett Matravers, Dorset^[4] – a particularly large example
• St Martin's Church in Wareham, Dorset
• St Mary and St Cuthbert, Chester-le-Street, Durham^[5]
• St Mary’s Church, Easington, County Durham^[6]
• St Nicholas' Church, Berden, Essex
• St. Laurence and All Saints Church, Eastwood, Essex^[7][8]
• St Andrew and St Bartholomew's Church, Ashleworth, Gloucestershire.^[9]
• St Nicholas Church, Westgate Street, Gloucester, Gloucestershire
• Church of the Holy Rood, Holybourne, Hampshire^[10]
• St. Cuthbert's Church, Aldingham, Lancashire^[11]
• St James' The Less, Sulgrave, Northamptonshire.^[12]
• St Mary's Church, Grendon, Northamptonshire – see above picture
• St Cuthbert’s Church, Beltingham, Northumberland^[13]
• St Aidan, Bamburgh, Northumberland
• St Oswald's Church, Sowerby, North Yorkshire^[14]
• St Peter's in Upton, Nottinghamshire^[15]
• St Nicholas' Church, Old Marston, Oxfordshire^[16]
• The Church of St. James, Shere, Surrey
• St Nicholas' Church, Kenilworth, Warwickshire^[17]
• St Nicholas Church, Walcot, Lincolnshire
• Holy Trinity Church in Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire
• St Egwin's, Norton and Lenchwick, Worcestershire (now infilled)

References