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Visitees

A visitee is a parishioner who receives visits from your parish — for Communion, the sacrament of the sick, confession, or simply pastoral presence. The Visitees page is the directory of every visitee your parish ministers to, with the address, contacts, pastoral needs, and visit schedule each minister needs in order to make a visit go well.

The Visitees page​

Navigate to Admin Dashboard → Visitation → Visitees. The page opens to a table of active visitees, with filters at the top, an Add visitee button on the right, and bulk actions when you select rows. Click a visitee's name, or anywhere on their row, to open their profile.

What each row shows​

Each row gives you a quick read of the visitee at a glance:

  • Name — with a house icon for visitees at home or a building icon for those in a facility, and the address underneath.
  • Pastoral needs — icons for Needs Communion, Needs Anointing soon, or Confession requested. Hover over an icon to see what it means.
  • Phone.
  • Assigned minister — the priest or Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion who normally visits.
  • Visit frequency — for example, "Every week on Tuesday" or "First Sunday of each month". Not configured means no visit days have been chosen yet, so no visits will be scheduled.
  • Next visit — the date of the next planned visit.
  • Status — Active, Inactive, Deceased, or Moved.

Click the Name or Status column heading to sort by it.

Filtering the list​

Search and four filters narrow the table:

  • Search — by name, street, city, postal code, email, contact person, facility name, or phone number. Phone numbers match however you type them, for example 608 393 or (608) 393-5858.
  • Status — the list shows Active visitees by default. Choose All statuses or another status to see the rest.
  • Facility — show every visitee at one nursing home, or choose Homebound to see only the visitees who live at home.
  • Minister — see only the visitees assigned to one minister, or choose No minister assigned to find visitees who still need one.
  • Pastoral needs — show visitees flagged as Needs Communion, Needs Anointing, or Confession requested, so urgent pastoral needs surface quickly.

When a search or filter hides everyone, the page says so and offers Clear filters.

Adding a visitee​

  1. Click Add visitee in the upper right.
  2. On the Details tab, enter First name and Last name. These are required.
  3. Choose a Status and the visitee's Preferred language. Most new visitees start as Active.
  4. Under Where they live, choose the hospital, nursing home, or care center, or leave it set to At home (homebound). When you choose a facility, the address fills in automatically — and you can add a Room/Unit number.
  5. Fill in the Street address, City, State, and Postal code. The street field suggests addresses as you type; choosing a suggestion fills in the rest and records the location used for route planning. If you type an address by hand instead, Sacramentum looks up its location after you save.
  6. Add a Phone and Email if you have them.
  7. Toggle the Pastoral needs that apply: Needs Communion, Needs Anointing soon, Confession requested. Ministers see these flags before they arrive.
  8. Move through the remaining tabs to add Contact people, a Visit schedule, and a Minister assignment. All of these are optional at first and can be added later.
  9. Click Create.

The new visitee appears in the list immediately. Once they have both a visit schedule with at least one visit day and an assigned minister, their upcoming visits appear on the visitation calendar right away.

tip

You do not have to fill every tab when you first create a visitee. Many parishes start with just the Details tab — name, address, facility — and add contacts and a schedule as they learn more about the visitee.

The visitee profile​

Open a profile by clicking the visitee's name. The profile has four tabs.

Details​

A summary of the visitee's care:

  • Visits — the assigned minister and since when, the visit schedule, the next planned visit, and the last completed visit.
  • Notes for visitors — the special needs and access notes from the schedule, such as wheelchair access, gate codes, or "ring twice."
  • Contact information — where they live, address, phone, email, and general notes.
  • Sacramental history — the most recent Communion, Confession, and Anointing, recorded from the timeline.
  • Family and caregiver contacts.

If the visitee is not active, a notice explains that visits are paused, and shows the date they will return to Active if one is set.

From the profile you can also Change status or Edit the visitee. When you finish, you return to the profile.

Timeline​

A running record of visits, notes, and sacraments received. Adding a Communion, Confession, or Anointing entry updates the sacramental history on the Details tab. The date you choose for the entry is the date shown, and adding an older entry never replaces a more recent one.

Schedule​

How often and when visits should happen:

  • Frequency — weekly, every two weeks, or monthly (for example, the first Sunday of each month).
  • Visit days — which days of the week the visit can occur. Weekly and every-two-weeks schedules need at least one day.
  • Start date and an optional End date. Use Remove end date to let visits continue indefinitely.
  • Time preference — a specific time, a window (for example, between 10am and noon), or any time.
  • Visit duration — how long the visit usually takes, helpful for route planning.
  • Special needs and Access notes.

Saving updates the upcoming visits on the calendar straight away: visits on days that no longer match are removed and new ones are added. Visits you scheduled by hand and visits already completed, skipped, or cancelled are left alone.

If the visitee lives in a facility that already has a group-visit pattern (for example, Mass in the chapel every Wednesday at 10am), you can usually leave the schedule empty and rely on the facility's group visits.

Assignments​

The minister who normally visits, their role (priest or Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion), and when they started. Changing the minister moves the upcoming visits to the new minister. Previous ministers are listed underneath.

A minister can only be assigned while the visitee is Active.

Editing and bulk actions​

Every visitee row has an actions menu with View profile, Edit, Change status, and — for active visitees — Deactivate.

Saving the edit form only changes what you changed: editing a name or phone number does not touch the visit schedule or the minister assignment.

To act on more than one active visitee at a time, select rows using the checkboxes. The toolbar at the top of the table changes to show:

  • Reassign minister — pick a new minister and assign them to every selected visitee at once. Their upcoming visits move to the new minister. Useful when one minister is taking over for another, or when a deacon is added to cover a whole nursing home.
  • Clear selection — deselect everything.

Statuses and what they mean​

Visitee status controls whether visits are scheduled and whether a visitee shows up in the default list. Change it with Change status in the row menu or on the profile.

  • Active — included in the default list and on the calendar. Visits are scheduled automatically.
  • Inactive — paused. Use this when a visitee is temporarily unavailable — for example, traveling, in a short-term hospital stay where Communion is being brought by hospital chaplaincy, or "snowbirding." You can set an Auto-reactivate on date so the visitee returns to Active automatically on, say, March 1 when they come back from Florida.
  • Moved — the visitee has moved out of the parish or out of the area, but the record is preserved for history.
  • Deceased — the visitee has died. Their record and timeline are kept so the ministry remembers them.

When a visitee stops being Active, their upcoming visits are removed from the calendar, visits you had scheduled by hand are cancelled, and the minister assignment is paused. Setting them back to Active restores the assignment and schedules visits again.

Deactivating a visitee​

To pause visits for someone who is still part of the ministry:

  1. Click the actions menu on the row and choose Deactivate.
  2. Confirm in the dialog.

Deactivating sets the status to Inactive. Nothing is deleted: the profile, timeline, and history stay, and you can reactivate the visitee at any time by changing the status back to Active.

info

Deactivate is only offered for active visitees. For someone who has died or moved away, use Change status and choose Deceased or Moved instead — those statuses are never overwritten by deactivating.

What's next​