Definition of "feretory" [fer•e•to•ry]

• A receptacle to hold the relics of saints; a reliquary. (noun)
• An area of a church in which reliquaries are kept. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The feretory no doubt had a reredos at this point, but what the type of this earlier arrangement may have been it is impossible exactly to tell."
• "It was placed just west of the feretory of S. Richard."
• "Rome, having succeeded in persuading Urban IV. that his merits and fame deserved an honour which should bring wealth and celebrity to the see in whose cathedral his body was laid; so in 1276 the remains of his body were removed from their tomb and placed at the back of the high altar in a shrine, or feretory, dedicated to him."