Chantry

Chantry is the English term for a fund established to pay for a priest to celebrate sung Masses for a specified purpose, generally for the soul of the deceased donor. Chantries were endowed with lands given by donors, the income from which maintained the chantry priest. A chantry chapel is a building on private land or a dedicated area within a greater church, set aside or built especially for and dedicated to the performance of the chantry duties by the priest. A chantry may have only an altar, rather than a chapel, within a larger church, generally dedicated to the donor's favourite saint. Many altars became richly endowed, often with gold furnishings and valuable vestments.