Liturgical Color for feast of St. John the Apostle and Evangelist

[childofmary1143]

This really isn’t deserving of all the attention it’s getting. There are no “nagging” questions here.

Red is a color for martyrs, and EVERY evangelist…except John…died a martyr (according to tradition). Luke, Mark, Matthew…all martyrs. So the whole John red/white issue is solved with one fact: he didn’t die a martyr.

As for popes and red for funerals, that’s a different story altogether. Popes have associations with the apostles, obviously, who were all martyrs (except John) and in relatively recent years, a very old custom has been reborn…the idea that a pope “mourns in red”, and “is mourned in red”.

It’s from the old days of antiquity when almost every single pope died a martyr. It was later abandoned (Paul VI’s funeral was in purple, for instance). It was restored for the funeral of John Paul II. I don’t think it’s a custom that needed to be restored, but oh well.

Calm down Alex. You have to remember us commonfolk aren’t as knowledgeable as you are with your Doctorates.

 

[AJV]

I would imagine that there are special rubrics for Papal Masses?

:yup:

Traditionally the Pope never wore black in public. On occasions that called for it- All Souls, Requiems, Good Friday - he was vested in a red cope and purple stole. The colours red and white were in fact the Papal colours.

For example Durandus writes:

The Sovereign Pontiff is always seen to be clad with a red mantle outside, while he wears white garments inside. For within he must be white with yet another whiteness, that is, Innocency and Charity ; and without he must be red as in token of compassion, that is, that he may show himself ever ready to lay down his life for his sheep : for that he is Vicegerent of Him Who made red His garments for all this world’s sheep.

Of course, there are historical variations. Gregory X writes that the Pope may celebrate Mass on All Souls in black or violet, at his pleasure. Durandus (a bit contradictorily) seems to imply at one point that black is worn for Lenten fast. Later ceremonial works when the Pope moved to Avignon from Rome say that the Pope may wear black only on Good Friday- at other times including Ash Wednesday (then in black) and All Souls, he was to wear red and purple.

Purple was looked at more as an extension of the red. They even found a Bible verse to support the colour scheme “dilectus meus candidus et rubicundus”- my beloved is white and red. Got to hand it to them- they were creative!

But eventually black fell out of use for the Pope.

There were other mystical explanations attached to the combination of red cope and purple stole that usually followed more-or-less Durandus- purple- sorrows, red-blood, white-innocency.