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I’ve noticed from pictures and videos, that Syro Malabar priests seem to have like a standard of only wearing the red,gold,and white vestments.
The basic design of Syro Malabar vestments has always been the same, using a set of three colors. In the past the colors were very mismatched, sometimes very unappealing to the eye. In the late 1900’s, they made a standard color set for vestments, the red/maroon, gold, and white you mentioned, also like MorEphrem mentioned the pink/purple color instead of red/maroon. Chaldean Catholics have even borrowed our standard set in use for their Qurbanas.I’ve noticed from pictures and videos, that Syro Malabar priests seem to have like a standard of only wearing the red,gold,and white vestments.
This is interesting. What do they wear during fasting times, then? I’m surprised to find that there is a church of Syriac heritage that has such a defined color scheme, as that is not really the case in the OO churches (including the Syriac Orthodox). I thought this business of set liturgical colors was more a Roman and Byzantine fixation. In the COC (and as far as I know in the rest of the OO communion), the distinction is between light and dark, rather than specific set colors, though of course there are certain traditions (black vestments for priests during fasting periods in the COC, for instance, and dark blue badrasheel for deacons during those times), which stop short of being codified as the imperial church apparently saw some need to do.Any color can be used in the vestments of the Syro Malabar Church, except for black, black is seen in the Syro Malabar Church to represent darkness and sorrow.
In reality there is no “set standard” per say but a “popular standard” for vestments, Syro Malabar priests can wear any color or design of vestment approved by the Church. As you and I can see, in this particular age, the popular standard is the red/white/gold vestments as well as the pink/white/gold.This is interesting. What do they wear during fasting times, then? I’m surprised to find that there is a church of Syriac heritage that has such a defined color scheme, as that is not really the case in the OO churches (including the Syriac Orthodox). I thought this business of set liturgical colors was more a Roman and Byzantine fixation. In the COC (and as far as I know in the rest of the OO communion), the distinction is between light and dark, rather than specific set colors, though of course there are certain traditions (black vestments for priests during fasting periods in the COC, for instance, and dark blue badrasheel for deacons during those times), which stop short of being codified as the imperial church apparently saw some need to do.
Just as you said it, the bishops have the same vestments except for the miter. The Major Archbishops miter is red to distinguish him, the rest of the bishops have white and gold miters.Hey, thanks for the info Thomas. Do bishops of the Church also wear the same vestments, with the exception of the miter of course.