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A chapel (from , a diminutive of cappa, meaning "little cape") is a Christianity place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. First, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common type of these. Second, a chapel is a place of worship, sometimes interfaith, that is part of a building, complex, or vessel with some other main purpose, such as a school, college, hospital, palace or large aristocratic house, castle, barracks, prison, funeral home, cemetery, hotel, airport, or military or commercial ship. Third, chapels are small places of worship, built as satellite sites by a church or monastery, for example in remote areas; these are often called a chapel of ease. A feature of all these types is that often no clergy are permanently resident or specifically attached to the chapel.
For historical reasons, chapel is also often the term used by independent or nonconformist denominations for their places of worship in England and especially in Wales, even where they are large and in practice operate like a parish church.
The earliest Christian places of worship are now often referred to as chapels, as they were not dedicated buildings but rather a dedicated chamber within a building. Most larger churches had one or more secondary altars which, if they occupied a distinct space, would often be called a chapel. In Russian Orthodox tradition, the chapels were built underneath city gates, where most people could visit them; a famous example is the Iverskaya Chapel.
Although chapels frequently refer to Christian places of worship, they are also found in Jewish and do not necessarily denote a specific denomination. In England—where the Church of England is established by law—interdenominational or interfaith chapels in such institutions may be consecrated by the local Anglican bishop. Chapels that are not affiliated with a particular denomination are commonly encountered as part of a non-religious institution such as a hospital, airport, university or prison. Many military installations have chapels for the use of military personnel, normally under the leadership of a military chaplain.
The word chapel, like the associated word chaplain, is ultimately derived from Latin. More specifically, the word is derived from a relic of Saint Martin of Tours: traditional stories about Martin relate that while he was still a soldier, he cut his military cloak in half to give part to a beggar in need. The other half he wore over his shoulders as a "small cape" (). The beggar, the stories claim, was Christ in disguise, and Martin experienced a conversion of heart, becoming first a monk, then abbot, then bishop. This cape came into the possession of the Franks kings, and they kept the relic with them as they did battle. The tent which kept the cape was called the capella and the priests who said daily Mass in the tent were known as the capellani. From these words, via Old French, we get the names "chapel" and "chaplain".
The word also appears in the Irish language (Gaelic) in the Middle Ages, as Welsh people came with the Normans and Old English invaders to the island of Ireland. While the traditional Irish word for church was eaglais (derived from ), a new word, séipéal (from cappella), came into usage.
In British history, "chapel" or "meeting house" were formerly the standard designations for church buildings belonging to independent or Nonconformist religious societies and their members.OED "Chapel", 4 They were particularly associated with the pre-eminence of independent religious practice in rural parts of England and Wales, the northern industrial towns of the late 18th and 19th centuries, and centres of population close to but outside the City of London. As a result, "chapel" is sometimes used as an adjective in England and Wales to describe members of such churches: for example in the sentence, "I'm Chapel." The Extended Family: Why are There So Many Different Churches?, Start of Chapter 4, Michael John Hooton, 2016, Wipf and Stock Publisher, ISBN 9781498280860
"Chapel" is in particularly common usage in the United Kingdom, and especially in Wales, for Nonconformist places of worship;Also known, perhaps disparagingly, as Ebenezers – and in Scotland and Ireland for Catholic Church churches. In England and Wales, due to the rise in Nonconformist chapels during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, by the time of the 1851 census, more people attended the independent chapels than attended the state religion's Anglican churches.Mann 1854. (The Anglican Church does not function as the established church in Scotland.)
In Roman Catholic Church canon law, a chapel, technically called an "oratory", is a building or part thereof dedicated to the celebration of services, particularly the Mass, which is not a parish church. This may be a private chapel, for the use of one person or a select group (a bishop's private chapel, or the chapel of a convent, for instance); a semi-public oratory, which is partially available to the general public (a seminary chapel that welcomes visitors to services, for instance); or a public oratory (for instance, a hospital or university chapel).
Chapels that are built as part of a larger church are holy areas set aside for some specific use or purpose: for instance, many cathedrals and large churches have a "Lady chapel" in the apse, dedicated to the Virgin Mary; parish churches may have such a Lady chapel in a side aisle or a "chapel of Reservation" or "Blessed Sacrament chapel" where the consecrated bread of the Eucharist is kept in reserve between services, for the purpose of taking Holy Communion to the sick and housebound and, in some Christian traditions, for devotional purposes.
The first airport chapel was created in 1951 in Boston for airport workers but grew to include travelers. It was originally Catholic, but chapels today are often multifaith.
| Hanley, Staffordshire, England |
| The Wildwoods, New Jersey, United States |
| Church of Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence, Italy |
| It is also the chapel of Christ Church, a college of the University of Oxford. This dual role as cathedral and college chapel is unique in the Church of England. |
| Church of Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome, Italy |
| Church of San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome, Italy |
| Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, United States |
| Eton College, Eton, Berkshire, England |
| Paris, France |
| Greifensee ZH, Switzerland |
| University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Westminster Abbey, London, England |
| Turin, Italy |
| King's College in the University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England |
| King's College, London, England |
| Lancing College, Lancing, West Sussex, England |
| KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa |
| Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Florence, Italy |
| Church of San Lorenzo, Florence, Italy |
| Apostolic Palace, Vatican City |
| Ronchamp, France |
| Aachen Cathedral, Aachen, Germany |
| Palazzo dei Normanni, Palermo, Sicily, Italy |
| Apostolic Palace, Vatican City |
| Church of Santa Croce, Florence, Italy |
| Belvidere, Illinois, United States |
| St James's Palace, London, England |
| Karnak, Egypt |
| Vence, France |
| Puebla City, Puebla, Mexico |
| Roslin, Midlothian, Scotland |
| Houston, Texas, United States |
| Granada, Spain |
| Royal Palace of Madrid, Spain |
| Stockholm Palace, Sweden |
| Dreux, Eure-et-Loir, France |
| Mangalore, India |
| Windsor Castle, England |
| Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem |
| Livingston Island, Antarctica |
| Relocated to Marquette University, Milwaukee, United States |
| New York City, United States |
| Bradwell-on-Sea, Essex, England |
| St Andrews University, St Andrews, Scotland |
| Île de la Cité, Paris, France |
| Naples, Italy |
| Church of Santa Trinita, Florence, Italy |
| Padua, Italy |
| Wawel Cathedral, Kraków, Poland |
| Apostolic Palace, Vatican City |
| Kudowa, Silesia, Poland |
| Norfolk, England |
| McMurdo Station, Ross Island, Antarctica |
| Morriston, Swansea, Wales |
| Lyon, France |
| Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia, US |
| Palace of Versailles, France |
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