Mystery vestments
WearyPilgrim
Shipmate Posts: 10
I was just on Facebook viewing a couple of posts from Anglican churches in London that featured photos of their Palm Sunday processions. Some of the clergy were in copes, while others were dressed in albs topped with rather elegant red vestments shaped somewhat like ponchos. They weren't chasubles, but I don't know what they were. Some of the wearers also wore birettas.
Can someone enlighten me? (I'm a Congregationalist.)
(ETA Fixed title, DT, Passing crew member)
Can someone enlighten me? (I'm a Congregationalist.)
(ETA Fixed title, DT, Passing crew member)
Comments
The dalmatic is more of a tunic, much like I would recall seeing in stereotypical dress of Chinese characters in the older movies.
On the other hand, the chasuble is more rounded like a poncho.
It covers the shoulders but doesn't extend very far down the front or back.
I'm wondering whether those wearing what @WearyPilgrim describes were deacons and wearing the Anglican equivalent of this particular piece of kit.
That is not a vestment. It is the "aer", the veil used to cover the chalice and diskos on the prothesis (preparation) table and on the Holy Table after the Great Entrance until the Creed.
The 'Roman' chasuble is narrow at the front and sides but has a wide form at the back of the chasuble. This became popular in the period after the Council of Trent and would have been seen wherever the Roman rite was used until the time of the Second Vatican Council. Since it was mainly the back of the chasuble which was seen by those attending Mass there were usually crosses or other religious designs embroidered upon the cloth.
Yes. That's what I was thinking of.
In which case there won't be an Anglican equivalent.
Nobody tells you anything in Orthodoxy.
I knew the deacon wears it during the procession but didn't realise it was the same thing used to cover the chalice etc.
I wouldn't bet against Anglicans somewhere adopting it just "because".
(Disclaimer - some of my best friends, etc.)
There is. It is simply called a "chalice veil" - see https://www.fadumont.co.uk/collections/chalice-veil-burses for an illustration.
Not forgetting episcopal gloves and buskins. And bougies.
Ok. But do they wear them around their shoulders in procession?
Bougies???!!!!! They have their uses in the operating theatre….
In Italian 'la bugia' is a candlestick,in particular the one which was used at pontifical Mass or in a completely different direction it is the word for a lie (untruth)
Another possibility is folded chasubles. Used instead of dalmatics and tunicles by the deacon and subdeacon, they were worn for services of a penitential nature including Palm Sunday. Originally the front of the chasuble was pinned up, though later specific vestments were made which somewhat resemble the Orthodox phelonion. The use of the folded chasuble was supressed in the RCC by Pius XII in 1955, so pre Vat II. Thus not even used by those trad Catholics using the 1962 missal, but who knows what the trad Anglicans might be up to.
The most common reason I come across for the use of the most recherché liturgical vestments and accoutrements is that they’re hanging in the vestry and deserve a day out every now and then
Here is a photo of one of said vestment, as worn by the celebrant in a service at St. Magnus the Martyr in London. It may be a chasuble, but I had never seen another like it. I've seen many of the "fiddleback" variety as well as others similarly shaped.
Dalmatics traditionally have sleeves that cover at least the upper arms, as well as two stripes that run from the shoulders to the bottom hem. (Note also that the stole that can be seen under the vestment is worn in the manner of a priest, not a deacon.) The difference in the chasuble and dalmatic in this style of vestment can be seen in this picture from St Magnus the Martyr.
The Western chasuble gradually lost its sides and eventually had both a back and a front panel with the 'fiddleback' shape.
By the time of the Council of Trent the back panel of the 'fiddleback' chasuble was widened out somewhat and also started to have religious designs on it. This became the fairly standard form of chasuble for priests of the Roman Rite until the time of the Second Vatican Council.