The Dictionary Game

[Marcus Bales]

vexillary - that which vexes, the cause of vexation, a thing so well-done in one's own field of endeavor that one must admit its excellence, however grudgingly, even while wishing one had thought of it oneself.

vexillary - A small ornate wooden box used by roman catholic priests for the recording of personal sins. The sin is written in blood on a kind of wooden nickel called a vecil, which is placed into the vexillary for safekeeping until the bishop receives the box on Lammas eve.

After being held in the bishop's garderobe and purified with burnt frankincense for seventeen nights, the vecils are incinerated, the vexillary is given back to the now sin-free priest, and the whole process starts again anew.

Father O'Brien's vexillary was full. So were the altarboys.