Sluggard wakers used to be those people who would wake up the sleepers in church. While I can’t imagine much sleeping going on inside a Catholic Church (kneel, sit, stand, sit, stand, sing, kneel…), I have attended a number of services where I could of sworn I was experiencing an out of body experience. The voice at the front droned on, my eyes were glued open, but my brain was miles away. Thankfully, there was no one to clunk me on the head, even if I was drooling a bit.
KEPT THE PEOPLE AWAKE
No Quiet Dozes Permitted at Early Church Services
There are many odd, old fashioned church customs that nowadays would provoke a smile. In bygone days, for instance, when sermons were long and very often dull, the congregation was apt to become somnolescent [drowsy], and so it became necessary to take steps to remedy matters. To this end men, and sometimes women, were employed as “sluggard wakers,” that is, to rouse those who might be overcome by their surroundings; and occasionally parishioners would bequeath sums of money for the payment of such officials. In an interesting book called “Old Church Life” mention is made of one of these sluggard wakers, who is said to have carried a long, stout wand, with a fork at the end of it. At intervals he stepped stealthily up and down the nave and aisles of the church, and whenever he saw an individual whose senses were buried in oblivion he touched him with his wand so effectually that the spell was broken and in an instant the offender was recalled to all realities of life. In another church the beadle employed on the mission used a long staff having a fox’s brush at one end and a knob at the other. Should a lady fall asleep her face was tickled with the brush, but an unlucky man was roused by a sharp rap with the knob.
[Source (1904, June 17). Kept the people awake. The Rice Belt Journal, p. 3.]
