At what point in Church history did priests begin to wear special vestments?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Reepicheep
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
R

Reepicheep

Guest
A non-Catholic friend is asking me about this, and I hoped someone here could give me an answer.
At what point in the history of the Church did priests begin to have special garments/ vestments set aside for use when celebrating the Mass?
Is it possible to identify the time when they began to use specific colors of vestments for seasons of the year, or for Masses for particular purposes, such as black vestments for funeral Masses?
Was there a specific period when bishops or Cardinals began to wear brightly colored vestments, particularly gold, scarlet or purple?

I expect that at best any answer to these questions is going to be very approximate, but even a very approximate answer may be helpful.
 
Vestments started out as essentially a priest’s best set of every day clothes, which were Roman clothes. When clothing changed from the long, drapey clothing of the Roman empire into forms more recognizable–at least for men–today, that is when vestments began to “look different.” Vestments didn’t split from regular clothing. Regular clothing split from vestments.
 
Read the Old Testament, in one book (Leviticus I think, recall may be off) that details GOD’s instructions on what the Priest’s were to wear.
 
Julian0404 said:
Read the Old Testament, in one book (Leviticus I think, recall may be off) that details GOD’s instructions on what the Priest’s were to wear.
Click to expand...
I’d like to ask when some Protestant ministers began to wear business suits. Although some of them don’t even do that anymore.
 
Julian0404 said:
Read the Old Testament, in one book (Leviticus I think, recall may be off) that details GOD’s instructions on what the Priest’s were to wear.
Click to expand...
Some of the vestments do have associations, at least visually, with those of Jewish high priests, but generally they are quite distinct.
 
LegoGE1947 said:
I’d like to ask when some Protestant ministers began to wear business suits. Although some of them don’t even do that anymore.
Click to expand...
I once had a fundamentalist say pretty vociferously “why do priests where those collars…Jesus didn’t where those.” My prompt reply was “He didn’t wear a leisure suit either…”😃
 
I think the conversation about how Protestant/Evangelical groups started to move away from vestments is an interesting topic as well. While there was a bit of a break with the reformation, I think the 19th century is when the shift started to occur.
Like was previously stated, the vestment of today’s megachurch pastors are a plaid shirt and designer jeans…LOL.
 
White was the only liturgical color up until the 4th century.
 
Malleorum_Deus said:
Do you know what prompted the change? Do you have any sources?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Other colours were introduced soon afterwards. Innocent III (d. 1216) is among the first to emphasize a distinction. He mentions four principal colours, white, red, green, black (De Sac. Alt. Mys., I, lxv) as of general use, and one, viz. violet, as occasionally employed. This latter was regularly used from the thirteenth century. An “Ordo Romanus” of the fourteenth century enumerates five. Between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries blue and yellow were common but they may not be used without very special authorization (Cong. of Rites, Sept., 1837).

newadvent.org/cathen/04134a.htm
 
JamesCaruso said:
Other colours were introduced soon afterwards. Innocent III (d. 1216) is among the first to emphasize a distinction. He mentions four principal colours, white, red, green, black (De Sac. Alt. Mys., I, lxv) as of general use, and one, viz. violet, as occasionally employed. This latter was regularly used from the thirteenth century. An “Ordo Romanus” of the fourteenth century enumerates five. Between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries blue and yellow were common but they may not be used without very special authorization (Cong. of Rites, Sept., 1837).

newadvent.org/cathen/04134a.htm
Click to expand...
Byzantine rubrics still only specify light and dark vestments.
 
The vestments developed over time. I will talk about the vestments used today.

The alb originally developed from the Roman toga. The toga was the ordinary dress of all Roman males.

Deacons started to wear the stole in the East by the 4th century. In the West, by the 7th century, deacons started to wear it also. By the 9th century century, priests started to wear it as well.

The chasuble began to be worn by priests during the 6th century.

God Bless. :highprayer:
 
Julian0404 said:
Read the Old Testament, in one book (Leviticus I think, recall may be off) that details GOD’s instructions on what the Priest’s were to wear.
Click to expand...
Julian, thank you, but I was speaking of the development of vestments within the Christian priesthood, not the Jewish priesthood. Do you have a source that shows the early Church copied the garments of the Levitical priests?
 
JamesCaruso said:
Other colours were introduced soon afterwards. Innocent III (d. 1216) is among the first to emphasize a distinction. He mentions four principal colours, white, red, green, black (De Sac. Alt. Mys., I, lxv) as of general use, and one, viz. violet, as occasionally employed. This latter was regularly used from the thirteenth century. An “Ordo Romanus” of the fourteenth century enumerates five. Between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries blue and yellow were common but they may not be used without very special authorization (Cong. of Rites, Sept., 1837).

newadvent.org/cathen/04134a.htm
Click to expand...
James, this sounds like what I’m looking for, and God bless you for replying: but I don’t recognize your abbreviated citations. Would you, please, cite the full names for each source, and if possible, give me direct links to them? My thanks to you.
 
Reepicheep said:
James, this sounds like what I’m looking for, and God bless you for replying: but I don’t recognize your abbreviated citations. Would you, please, cite the full names for each source, and if possible, give me direct links to them? My thanks to you.
Click to expand...
The text was quoted from the link provided, so you can go there for additional information.
 
Many of the vestments you see a priest wear have been adapted from different garments over time.

A short list, off the top of my head:
  • The alb was originally a simple white tunic. It still is. Not much change there, it just became a purely liturgical garment when Roman tunics went out of style.
  • The stole is based off of a magistrate’s scarf. He would wear the scarf when passing down verdicts. This is why we speak of the stole being a symbol of priestly authority.
  • The maniple was originally a towel tied to the arm, so the priest could wipe his forehead without dirtying his hands. It was dressed up over time.
  • The chasuble was originally an outer garment. This is most evident when you see the old-style conical chasubles.
  • The mitre is based of the description of the Hebrew High Priest’s headcovering, found in the Old Testament.
  • The zuchetto was always a skullcap, to replace the Jewish kippah. The stem was added to make it easy to take off (whenever the name of Christ was mentioned).
  • The biretta was/is an academic cap. It’s the predecessor to the mortarboard or tam you see people wearing at a graduation. That’s why it represents priestly learning.
 
ChurchSoldier said:
I once had a fundamentalist say pretty vociferously “why do priests where those collars…Jesus didn’t where those.” My prompt reply was “He didn’t wear a leisure suit either…”😃
Click to expand...
Or drive an $80,000 Benz either…😉
 
Protestants saw Catholic vestments at the time of the Reformation as symbols of a priesthood understood as having magical properties that lent itself toward creating superstition and misguided devotional practices. They criticized this severely. In contrast, a Protestant pastor/ minister/ teaching elder/ etc. is a man authorized to preach, teach, and administer the (two real) sacraments — baptism and The Lord’s Supper (Eucharist). It was standard practice for Protestant clergy to wear robes when leading worship, however this was an era when all professors, other academics, and even students wore robes, and it was academic apparel Protestant clergy wore rather than the apparel of the priesthood.

Currently, in the United States Protestant clergy generally choose one of three options. (1) Academic apparel usually in the form of a plain black V-neck robe although often with doctoral chevrons if they have been earned. Within this understanding, stoles are sometimes worn with this type of robe or even stitched into it as a general emblem of ordination. (2) Protestant clergy at more liturgical congregations often wear an alb and stole. A chasuble is quite rare. This use is determined by the specific congregation, so while almost all Anglican and Lutheran clergy wear an alb and stole, there are some low-low churches that adopt a broadly casual attire that includes the clergy. (3) A number of Protestant churches with reformed, revivalist, fundamentalist, or charismatic origins had clergy that wore suits. When the majority of their male attendees wore suits to worship this third group of clergy also wore suits, but now that suits are increasingly passé the wearing of suits, especially with ties, by these types of Protestant clergy continues to decline.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top