"Pins" in popes pallium

[mwscott]

This link is to a photo of Benedict and the pallium he used at the beginning of his papacy. He has now since switched to the more traditional pallium. Regardless, in both palliums, and in pictures of other popes wearing Mass vestments you can clearly see little medal pin like medallians slipped through strings of fabric in the crosses of the pallium. Once I even saw the Master of Ceremonies put these “pins” in the pallium when the pope sat down. I believe they are specific to the popes pallium. Does anyone know what these are?

 

[bpbasilphx]

They are used in ALL western archepisopal/metropolitical pallia.

Their practical function is to hold the pallium in place.

Some see them as symbolizing the nails used at the Crucifixion.

 

[mwscott]

Isn’t the traditional pallium one connected piece? Do the pins go into the chasuble or have they become simply ornamental and symbolic?

 

[mwscott]

I seem to have found the answer to my second questions. Wikipedia says,

The pins, which at first served to keep the pallium in place, were retained as ornaments even after the pallium was sewn in the proper shape, although they no longer had any practical object. That the insertion of small leaden weights in the vertical ends of the pallium was usual as early as the thirteenth century is proved by the discovery in 1605 of the pallium enveloping the body of Boniface VIII, and by the fragments of the pallium found in the tomb of Clement IV.

So they are indeed simply ornamental now. Thanks bpbasilphx!

 

[fatherwannabe]

They are used in ALL western archepisopal/metropolitical pallia.

Their practical function is to hold the pallium in place.

Some see them as symbolizing the nails used at the Crucifixion.

Incorrect. Their function is not practical but symbolic of the metropolitan status of the bishop. They hold nothing in place - they themselves are held in place by the “strings”.