{"id":6155,"date":"2024-12-01T14:23:04","date_gmt":"2024-12-01T13:23:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chapelle-sainte-rita.com\/church-versus-basilica-chapel-cathedral\/"},"modified":"2024-12-13T12:04:17","modified_gmt":"2024-12-13T11:04:17","slug":"church-versus-basilica-chapel-cathedral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chapelle-sainte-rita.com\/en\/church-versus-basilica-chapel-cathedral\/","title":{"rendered":"Church &#8211; Chapel &#8211; Sanctuary &#8211; Cathedral&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Have you ever wondered <strong>why this building that could have been called a church was actually a chapel?<\/strong> And why this immense edifice turns out to be a basilica and not a cathedral? Is it to do with the size, the period of construction, or the community that occupies it? A question of relics or saints? We take the mystery out of what makes the difference by sharing our <strong>answers<\/strong>.   <\/p>\n\n<p>The term &#8220;Church&#8221;, with a capital letter, refers to all the baptized who have faith in the risen Jesus Christ. Its spiritual leader is the Pope. It is organized into parishes and dioceses.<br\/>From the <sup>3rd<\/sup> century onwards, a church has also meant a building dedicated to Christian worship, where members of the Church gather to celebrate mass.<br\/>Cathedrals, basilicas, chapels, abbeys, priories and collegiate churches are all dedicated to the celebration of worship. Here are a few definitions of what makes them different.   <\/p>\n\n<p><strong>Cathedral<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p>This is the main church of a diocese, where the local bishop&#8217;s seat is located, symbolizing his authority and apostolic mission. It takes its name from the cathedra, the seat reserved for the bishop.<br\/>Chartres, Le Puy-en-Velay. <\/p>\n\n<p><strong>Abbey church<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p>It refers to the church of an abbey. The abbey church is always surrounded by a monastery, a cloister and various rooms such as a refectory, a library&#8230;<br\/>Le Mont Saint Michel. <\/p>\n\n<p><strong>Basilica<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p>The term Basilica dates back to Roman times, when Christians built their first churches on the model of the &#8220;basilica&#8221; public buildings of the Roman Empire.<br\/>A Basilica is a particular church that obtains its title by papal decision because it is built on the tomb of a Saint, contains relics, or because the site is the object of a pilgrimage. <strong>A cathedral can also be a basilica<\/strong>, provided it meets the conditions listed above.<br\/>Lisieux, Saint-Maximin et La Sainte-Baume, Lourdes, Ars-sur-Formans, Paray-le-Monial, Thierenbach, V\u00e9zelay, Rocamadour, Lalouvesc, La Salette, Alen\u00e7on, Le Puy-en-Velay, Chartres.<\/p>\n\n<p><strong>Chapel<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p>It can refer to a church that does not have the status of a parish church, or to a room reserved for worship in a private building such as a castle, a house or a seminary. Chapels are also located on the sides of a church. However, <strong>they always have an altar<\/strong>, and sometimes contain holy relics.<br\/>Alen\u00e7on, Nevers&#8230;  <\/p>\n\n<p><strong>Priory<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p><strong>Church under the authority of a Prioress<\/strong>. It is attached to a priory and was formerly reserved for monks.<br\/>Souvigny, Paray-le-Monial <\/p>\n\n<p><strong>Collegiate church<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p>It&#8217;s still called that, but this church, entrusted to a college or chapter &#8211; a group &#8211; of priests called canons, no longer necessarily receives the sung Divine Office, which was its original specificity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Have you ever wondered why this building that could have been called a church was actually a chapel? And why this immense edifice turns out to be a basilica and not a cathedral? Is it to do with the size, the period of construction, or the community that occupies it? A question of relics or [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6528,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chapelle-sainte-rita.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chapelle-sainte-rita.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chapelle-sainte-rita.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chapelle-sainte-rita.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chapelle-sainte-rita.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6155"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.chapelle-sainte-rita.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6541,"href":"https:\/\/www.chapelle-sainte-rita.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6155\/revisions\/6541"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chapelle-sainte-rita.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chapelle-sainte-rita.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chapelle-sainte-rita.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chapelle-sainte-rita.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}