Leper window facts for kids

Leper's window in Wales

A leper window was a window built low in the chancel wall of some medieval churches. It was usually iron barred and shuttered. Lepers stood outside and watched Mass through this window.

Broderick, R. C. The Catholic Concise Encyclopedia. 1952. Simon & Schuster. p. 222.

Images for kids

Squint in wall of north aisle chapel, St Nicholas's Church, Walcot, Lincolnshire, looking towards south-east, with a view of the high altar in the chancel beyond. To its right is a piscina supported by a carving of a man's head on the jamb of the wall.
The squint at the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Compton Pauncefoot, Somerset
Hagioscope at Olavinlinna in Eastern Finland
Hagioscope, old church of Saint-Maurice, Freyming-Merlebach, Moselle, France
The hagioscope of St. Clemens, Bad Iburg, Germany
St Bees Priory, Cumbria: 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.
A partially blocked squint at Grendon church, Northamptonshire