Galilee

Galilee, the name applied to a porch or chapel attached to a church, in which penitents stood, processions were formed, and corpses deposited for a time previous to interment. In some religious houses the galilee was the only part of the church accessible to women; the monks came to the galilee to see their female relatives—the women being told in the words of Scripture, ‘He goeth before you into Galilee; there shall you see him’ (Matt. xxviii. 7). A portion of the nave was sometimes marked off by a step, or, as at Durham, by a line of blue marble, to mark the boundary to which women were limited. There are galilees in the cathedrals of Lincoln (on west side of south transept), Ely (at west end of nave), and Durham (west end of nave).