temple priests
Sacred site ministers
Temple priests are clergy who serve at a temple, performing rituals, maintaining sacred spaces, and mediating between worshippers and the divine.
The term spans traditions—from ancient Egyptian and Greek priests to Hindu pujaris and Buddhist monks.
Temple priests typically conduct ceremonies, accept offerings, and preserve religious knowledge: The temple priests prepared for the morning sacrifice.
- officiantCeremony presider
- prayerAddress to deity
- robeLong loose outer garment
- altarSacred ritual table
- sacred fireReligiously significant perpetual blaze
sacrifice · burnt offering · caretaker · vestal · divination · ritual purity · sacerdotal · purification · sanctuary · inner sanctum · offering · votive candles · hierophant · mediator · divine favor · cleric · holy orders · Levite
temple priestslaypeople
Those outside a profession
laity · congregation · parishioners · lay members · devotees
temple priestscommon people
Non-elite members of society
merchants · materialists · ordinary citizens · bureaucrats · householders
temple priestsblasphemers
Those reviling the divine
desecrators · heretics · apostates · iconoclasts · unbelievers