Altar Boy Clothes/outfit

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Annunciata:
Well, JKirk,
One of my grandchildren who was just installed as an altar server is a lovely young lady of 12 and I can assure you that she wore modest flats… and had no ribbons in her hair…just a rubber band which pulled her hair back from her face…
I’m very proud of her.
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Annuciata: I was being a bit sarcastic. I must say, in the interests of justice, that all of the young ladies who serve at our altar are very reverent and take their duties seriously. I blame their lack of discernment when it comes to shoe wear on their parents-which I’m sure will also get me into trouble. At any rate, it was a joke for Mercygate.
 
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JKirkLVNV:
Annuciata: I was being a bit sarcastic. I must say, in the interests of justice, that all of the young ladies who serve at our altar are very reverent and take their duties seriously. I blame their lack of discernment when it comes to shoe wear on their parents-which I’m sure will also get me into trouble. At any rate, it was a joke for Mercygate.
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I knew that…:whistle: 😃 But I just couldn’t let it go that the girls…we’ve got 'em and we can’t hurt them…you know “shutting the barn door after the horse is loose thingy”
I’m not for allowing altar girls but when my granddaughter decided to help her younger brother what could I say… She is such a nice innocent young lady and just wants to do good for everyone…
Lately it seems that no matter where she turns she gets a slap…
see my thread
forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=54737
Thanks for caring to explain.
God Bless,
Annunciata:)
 
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mercygate:
The black thing is a cassock. **The white thing is a cotta which is a short version of the surplice. **

Conscientious altar servers wouldn’t be caught dead wearing anything but black slacks, socks, and black leather shoes when vested for Mass.

There’s a lot of contemporary blah blah blah about how this is inappropriate for any but clergy to wear (when was the last time YOU saw a priest in a cassock & surplice?) but in churches that use the cassock & cotta, you are likely to find a dozen altar BOYS serving a single Mass.

Do duh math.
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NO!

A cotta is an Anglican-variant of the surplice. Typucally it’s LONGER than the surplices we are (were) used to seeing being worn by altar boys. The neck is also different – round versus square. The cotta has wide application within many parts of Protestantism, including the chorus.

Male altar servers can wear surplices of any length they wish. The longer versions (called “cathedral length” by some vendors) typically look far more formal and elegant.

And again, while it’s not written anywhere, it would be an abomination for a female altar server to wear a cassock and surplice.

Finally, and this might bother some of you, the Roman collar can quite correctly be worn by male altar servers during the Mass, just as they do in many parts of Europe – including the Vatican City.
It’s the stole and not the collar that is the mark of a cleric. Unfortunately many poorly catechised Catholics might become even more confused…
 
I followed your link and I was a bit appalled. I’m a public school teacher. When I’m in the wrong, I apologize to my children. I should think that that lesson would be even more immediately important in a Catholic school…but then, we’ve evidence, don’t we, that some in Holy Mother Church are reluctant to apologize to children. I’ll say a prayer for your girl. Tell her to hold her head up.
 
Way down here in Texas our Altar Boys wear a floor-length white long sleeved robe with aa white rope cincure ( tied in a knot). All you see of them is the head and the hands. Its buttoned at the neck. I like them.
 
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mercygate:
In some places red used to designate choristers in training. It wasn’t (in my admittedly limited experience) for altar boys. Anybody else on this?
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When black chasables became less and less used after V2, some places adopted the red cassock for altar boys. This includes the Shrine in Hanceville Alabama for example. This is an unofficial, but harmless tradition.

I have a red cassock and a pretty formal/ornate surplice that I wear now and again, particularly at Masses for martyrs. One needs to be careful however. As an adult, one can look like they are trying to impersinate a cardinal…
 
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Exporter:
Way down here in Texas our Altar Boys wear a floor-length white long sleeved robe with aa white rope cincure ( tied in a knot). All you see of them is the head and the hands. Its buttoned at the neck. I like them.
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That’s an alb.
 
I think Pariah Pirana knows his ecclesiastical sartorial stuff. He knew that the Pope’s outfit was a simar, which I googled, but couldn’t find anything on. I finally located (weeks latter) an obscure text that made reference to it.
 
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mercygate:
In some places red used to designate choristers in training. It wasn’t (in my admittedly limited experience) for altar boys. Anybody else on this?
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In the Parish I grew up in we always wore red cassocks and now our current Parish (in the same city) my sons wear the same - red cassock with a white cotta.
 
Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi, the way we pray is the way we worship, and when we give God our best it helps us to get closer to Him, and in our Incarnational world that goes for our attire also. The altar boys in their cossocks and surplices look more reverent and thereby act more reverently. As an extension, their attire elicits more reverence from the congregation; the congregation acts and responds more reverently. It works on the natural level as well as the supernatural level. Supposed a bride came down the aisle barefoot and slovenly and the groom appeared with jeans and a short-sleeved shirt. Surely, such attire would would not bring forth a response from the invitees worthy of the occasion. It’s the same in the supernatural level which is the realm in which the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass takes place. But then again, if the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass has now become the Community gathering then why would we need to dress up, and why would we need altar boys and a celebrant. All we would need is the presider and the altar servers, and they can wear anything because we’re all coming together in love with no distinctions to celebrate and love ourselves.Indeed the move away from the cossock and surplice is part of the larger move away from the Sacrifice to the Community, from the eradication of the vertical (supernatural element) to the emphasis on the horizontal (communitarian element). Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi and the alb only on the altar servers rather than the cossock and surplice on the altar boys signals how far we’ve come. Is it progress? Well…by their fruits you shall know them.
 
Pariah Pirana:
NO!

A cotta is an Anglican-variant of the surplice. Typucally it’s LONGER than the surplices we are (were) used to seeing being worn by altar boys. The neck is also different – round versus square. The cotta has wide application within many parts of Protestantism, including the chorus…
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Cotta: A surplice: see quots. 1848, 1865.

1848 J. H. NEWMAN Loss & Gain (1853) 47 Do you like the short cotta or the long? 1865 Ch. Times 25 Nov., The Cotta is the Surplice shortened, and with less ample sleeves. 1884 F. M. CRAWFORD Rom. Singer I. 23 Putting on his purple cassock and his white cotta.

From the Oxford English Dictionary. Note: after
Newman’s conversion.

From *Loss & Gain:
“And who will take her present place?”
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“A sacristan,” answered White: “a sacristan in a cotta. Do you like the short cotta or the long?” he continued, turning to the younger lady. {57}
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“I?” answered Miss Charlotte; “I always forget, but I think you told us the Roman was the short one; I’m for the short cotta.”
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“You know, Charlotte,” said Miss Bolton, “that there’s a great reform going on in England in ecclesiastical vestments.”
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Certainly in living memory, Catholic altar boys wore short cottas. In fact, I never saw the surplice-length version until I began receiving information from The Society of St. John.
*
 
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JKirkLVNV:
I followed your link and I was a bit appalled. I’m a public school teacher. When I’m in the wrong, I apologize to my children. I should think that that lesson would be even more immediately important in a Catholic school…but then, we’ve evidence, don’t we, that some in Holy Mother Church are reluctant to apologize to children. I’ll say a prayer for your girl. Tell her to hold her head up.
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Very poorly veiled attempted attack on the Church.

There are many, many adults who feel that it is beneath them to apologize to children, especially teachers. It has nothing to do with the Church, as the principal has apologized.
 
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mercygate:
Cotta: A surplice: see quots. 1848, 1865.

1848J. H. NEWMAN Loss & Gain (1853) 47 Do you like the short cotta or the long? 1865 Ch. Times 25 Nov., The Cotta is the Surplice shortened, and with less ample sleeves. 1884F. M. CRAWFORD Rom. Singer I. 23 Putting on his purple cassock and his white cotta.

From the Oxford English Dictionary. Note: after
Newman’s conversion.

From *Loss & Gain: *

Certainly in living memory, Catholic altar boys wore short cottas. In fact, I never saw the surplice-length version until I began receiving information from The Society of St. John.
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LOL! Are you serious? You need a better reference!
 
Pariah Pirana:
LOL! Are you serious? You need a better reference!
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Calm down, dear. I am not challenging you. I gave an English source, which likely supports your claim. I also cite my own personal experience that I never saw a Catholic altar boy in anything other than a short cotta (as you note, usually, though not always, with a square neck). Have we not passed the days when people are torn to shreds over the “popish rag” (i.e., the surplice).
 
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mercygate:
Calm down, dear. I am not challenging you. I gave an English source, which likely supports your claim. I also cite my own personal experience that I never saw a Catholic altar boy in anything other than a short cotta (as you note, usually, though not always, with a square neck). Have we not passed the days when people are torn to shreds over the “popish rag” (i.e., the surplice).

Webster’s: cotta n [ML, of Germanic orign; akin to OHG *kozza
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coarse mantle – COAT]: a waist-length surplice.
 
Pariah Pirana:
LOL! Are you serious? You need a better reference!
Click to expand...
Calm down, dear. I am not challenging you. I gave an English source, which likely supports your claim. I also cite my own personal experience that I never saw a Catholic altar boy in anything other than a short cotta (as you note, usually, though not always, with a square neck). Have we not passed the days when people are torn to shreds over the “popish rag” (i.e., the surplice).

Webster’s: cotta n [ML, of Germanic orign; akin to OHG *kozza coarse mantle – COAT]: a waist-length surplice.
 
Pariah Pirana:
LOL! Are you serious? You need a better reference!
Click to expand...
Calm down, dear. I am not challenging you. I gave an English source, which likely supports your claim. I also cite my own personal experience that I never saw a Catholic altar boy in anything other than a short cotta (as you note, usually, though not always, with a square neck). Have we not passed the days when people are torn to shreds over the “popish rag” (i.e., the surplice).

Webster’s: cotta n [ML, of Germanic orign; akin to OHG *kozza coarse mantle – COAT]: a waist-length surplice.
 
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