(κοιμαρίου, from κοιμάσθαι to "sleep";) a place set apart or consecrated for the burial of the dead.

Anciently none were buried in churches or churchyards; it was even unlawful to inter in cities, and the cemeteries were without the walls. Among the primitive Christians these were held in great veneration. It even appears from Eusebius and Tertullian, that, in the early ages, they assembled for divine worship in the cemeteries. Valerian seems to have confiscated the cemeteries and other places of divine worship, but they were restored again by Gallienus. As the martyrs were buried in these places, the Christians chose them for building churches on, when Constantine established their religion; and hence some derive the rule which still obtains in the church of Rome, never to consecrate an altar without putting under it the relics of some saint. The practice of consecrating cemeteries is of some antiquity. The bishop walked round it in procession, with the crozier or pastoral staff in his hand, the holy water-pot being carried before, out of which the aspersions were made.