Minster (church)

Minster is an honorific title given to particular churches in England and Wales, most notably York Minster in Yorkshire and Westminster Abbey in London.

The term minster is first found in royal foundation charters of the 7th century, when it designated any settlement of clergy living a communal life and endowed by charter with the obligation of maintaining the daily office of prayer. Widespread in 10th-century England, minsters declined in importance with the systematic introduction of parishes and parish churches from the 11th century onwards. The term continued as a title of dignity in later medieval England, in instances where a cathedral, monastery, collegiate church or parish church had originated with an Anglo-Saxon foundation.

Eventually, the word minster came to be applied occasionally in a more general way to "any large or important church, especially a collegiate or cathedral church". In the 21st century, the Church of England has designated certain parish churches as minsters by bestowing both the status of the name and defined responsibilities. Almost half of the minsters are found in the Yorkshire and the Humber region, with Dorset and Devon as other areas with many historic minsters.

The term also exists in German as "Münster" and is used mainly for Protestant churches. The German term can be used for some Roman Catholic churches, such as the Strasbourg Cathedral. Other Roman Catholic examples are Freiburg im Breisgau Cathedral (Freiburger Münster), Breisach parish church (Breisacher Münster), Aachen Cathedral (Aachener Münster, increasingly called Aachener Dom since it became a bishop's seat in 1930), the ancient cathedral of Konstanz (Konstanzer Münster), Essen Cathedral (superseded by Essener Dom since 1957), the parish churches of Neuss (St. Quirinus), Schwäbisch Gmünd and Ingolstadt, and many more.