Call that a sacristy?

Now this is a sacristy.........

What are the dimensions?......something like 40 feet by 20 feet...hmm....that's larger than the one at Blogfen.

Take a look at this....



How many chasubles could be stored here?
How many chalices and ciboria?

And will you look at this?

The opposite walls are adorned with religious art

I’ll bet you still couldn’t find a box of matches though.

Where is this place?....

It's in Lisbon, at Belem, the Monastery of Sao Geronimo (Jerome).

The Church is vast with an uncountable number of side altars.

Just imagine; two, maybe three hundred monks in residence; how many Masses would be celebrated each day during say, the 17th century?

Fifty?....more, more....Sixty....more even.....Seventy?....at least.

And that would entail roughly six Masses being celebrated simultaneously, for more than ten hours each day.

Of course, if we fast forward to modern times they could just have had one concelebrated Mass; and that really brings it home with a crunch.

What value would Almighty God place on those seventy Masses and what would He place on the one, concelebrated Mass?

Well, I will not even attempt to second guess my Lord and God but....it seems pretty obvious really.

If I recall my RE lessons correctly, I think that Spain and, possibly, Portugal, had to introduce laws in the 1600s, prohibiting men and women from joining religious orders because so great were the number of vocations, the economy was in peril of going under from the lack of human resources.

I have seen quite a few Cathedrals but the heavenly monastery at Belem beats them all hands down.

Better, by far than the Belem cakes that are sold locally. 

And they too are heavenly!

                              A grand entrance to the monastery of St Jerome, Lisbon