The medieval Collegiate Church of Gozo

Abstract

In the Christian Church, a collegiate church is one where the daily office of worship is maintained by a college of canons, a secular, non-monastic community of clergy organized as a self-governing corporate body. Unlike a cathedral, it is not the seat of a bishop and has no diocesan responsibilities. Collegiate churches were often supported by extensive lands held by the church, or by tithe income from appropriated benefices. In Western Christianity, in the early medieval period, many new church foundations, before the development of the parish system, were staffed by groups of secular priests living a communal collegial life and serving an extensive territory. In the Byzantine Church one encounters similar structures but with certain differences.