Home stoup

A home stoup is a small stoup with a small bowl and a decorated plaque that Christians in the Roman Catholic, Anglican and Lutheran traditions, hang inside homes, either at the house's entrance or, more commonly, on a bedroom wall at the head of the bed. Sometime a small blessed branch of buxus is placed behind the stoup, or they hang a rosary on the stoup.

The small bowl contains holy water so that the house's inhabitants could cross themselves in the morning and make the sign of the cross over their beds at night.

The use of these stoups began in the earliest centuries of the Christian Church. They were made of both expensive (gold, silver...) and cheap (faience, ceramic, wood) materials; dependent on the fortunes of their owners. They were handmade with a painting or relief of Jesus of Nazareth, the Cross, the Virgin Mary, an angel or other religious subjects.

Most of theses stoups were destroyed or disappeared during the French Revolution in 1789 and in following years, due to its policy of de-Christianisation.