Donning and Doffing Oriental/Eastern Miters

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Hello everybody

This is my first post on CAF

I’m interested to know from the Oreintal/Eastern Catholic members whether there are any specific instructions on the "donning and doffing:: of the miter during Mass/DL? Reason being as a RC the “Ceremonial of Bishops” clearly outlines this.

In the Roman Tradition, the miter is removed whenever the Bishop is praying and never worn during the Eucharistic prayer, however I’ve attended many Oriental/Eastern Liturgies where the miter is worn whenever the Bishop is praying and only removed for the Gospel and before the Consecration up until the end of the Liturgy. This norm appears to be the same whenever Latin Bishops are con-celebrating Oriental/Eastern Liturgies.

I do understand that their may well be a variety of explanations for the multiple Oriental and Eastern Traditions.

Your responses are highly appreciated.

Thankyou
 
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Liturgist said:
I’m interested to know from the Oreintal/Eastern Catholic members whether there are any specific instructions on the "donning and doffing:: of the miter during Mass/DL?
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qualifying this with the issue that onlY the western church has “Mass” . . .

Yes, it is defined, although I couldn’t tell you off the cuff.

Also, there are “crowned priests” in byzantine usage who behave wear similar headgear bishops, and follow similar rules.

Deacons also have head coverings which come and go.
 
Thanks for the reply

Is it safe to assume then that the same prohibition against wearing a miter or crown whenever the Bishop is praying in an Eastern/Oriental Liturgy does not exist as in the Roman Church ?
 
I’m not familiar with that prohibition, so I don’t know.

I’ve certainly seen a crowned priest wear it while concelebrating with bishops.
 
I have only served Divine Liturgy with our Eparch once, and once with a Ruthenian Eparch.

Tons of additional stuff going on, can’t remember when the mitre was on and off. Bishops are also vested publicly by clergy so that is very interesting also.

You can certainly find YouTube videos of Hierarchical Divine Liturgies to watch. Bring popcorn, it’s a long but beautiful liturgy.

Fr. Deacon Christopher
 
I’ve only even seen one hierarchal Divine Liturgy, which was for the ordination of our pries–our bishops tend to celebrate the regular DL most of the time.

A few months ago, when traveling home, we timed the trip to hit the DL at the Phoenix cathedral on our way.

We were several minutes early, so plenty of time for my wife and daughters to use the restrooms downstairs.

Going in, I wondered what people were doing; must be some special day to have activity other than hours before the liturgy.

Gosh, they’re all going forwards like at Communion or an anointing.

Wow, must be really important with that many clergy.

Err, wait. They are receiving Communion.

Huh?

I hadn’t thought to confirm the time of liturgy; it had been the same for years as we visited.

It wasn’t almost time for the 10 AM. Rather, they’d dropped to a 9 AM instead of 8 and 10.

Two bishops (including the emeritus), three or more priests, two deacons . . . and we missed it.
 
Any responses for the other respective traditions?

Maronite
Syriac
Chaldean
Coptic
Syro Malankara
Syro Malabar
 
The East Syriac Tradition (Syro Malabar and Chaldean) traditionally did use crowns that were worns for the intorductory service (Puqdankon to Laku Mara),Gospel, and Hoothama (ending service)…we dont use them any more tho and now we usually put the miters on during the Hoothama (the final blessing part)…the West Syriac tradition (Syriac Catholic and Syro Malankara) remove the turban early on, but wear a “hood” which they put on and off and I dont know exactly when they put it on and off
 
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It is pretty easy for St. Stephen to have a couple bishops celebrate DL, considering how many are just nearby. Even more so with Bishop Olmsted as the Apostolic Administrator sede plena.

Several years ago, the Crosier Fathers and Brothers presented an expo called “The Mosaic of Catholic Faith” where every sui iuris Church in Phoenix (we have a lot!) had a display and a representative explaining what their Church is like.

At the end, a Hierarchical Divine Liturgy was celebrated with the current bishop and Bishop Olmsted, and it was remarkably about an hour long.

Sorry, I don’t remember what they did about the mitres.
 
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Anesti33 said:
It is pretty easy for St. Stephen to have a couple bishops celebrate DL, considering how many are just nearby.
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They don’t even need to reach nearby–both live on the premises!

And with only one Sunday liturgy now . . .
 
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