WR Vestments

There follow some illustrations of Western Rite vestments. It should be noted that in presenting them, there is no claim that these are the only styles or cuts of vestments which are open to use by members of the RWRV. They are presented here as representing an older style of Western vestments.

Here is an illustration of old-style Western Rite bishop's vestments.



The bishop is wearing an older style Western mitre. In the back these have two lappets of cloth which hang behind. Around the bishop's neck is an appareled amice, which forms a sort of collar. Around the neck of the chasuble are embroidered seraphim. Over the chasuble hangs the pallium, which is similar to an omophor. Later, the pallium became restricted to archbishops. The bishop is wearing gloves, which were a standard part of pontifical vestments in the West from the 8th or 9th century onward. The bishop's crozier is of the prevalent pre-Schism style, the "Tau" crozier. The shepherd's crook style of crozier appears in the 11th century and is in use today. Early croziers often were surmounted by a cross, as shown here. The little cloth hanging from the crozier is called the panisellus. Under the bishop's chasuble may be seen the tunicle and dalmatic. Actually, only on great feasts were both of those worn together; usually just the dalmatic of sky blue or hyacinth was worn. The ends of the stole show beneath the other vestments near the bishop's feet. On the bishop's alb is sewn an apparel, a decorative square of ornamentation.

And here is an icon of St. Felix of Dunwich, apostle of East Anglia, in Western Rite bishop's vestments, wearing a mitre in the style of the 13th century.



To the left, on the hip of the saint, is what looks like an epigonation. This is actually the succinctory, which was pendant from the zona or belt (a bishop wears two, one on each side). Despite the fact that the saint lived in England, the diamond- or lozenge-shaped succinctory is here shown, known only to have been used in the Roman rite in Italy.

The following is a picture of the head of a bishop's crozier found in Iceland and dating to the late 11th century. It is of Urnes ornamentation, which was a style that flourished in the British Isles and Scandinavia from 1050 to 1170. This "Tau" style crozier was the prevalent form prior to the Schism of Rome in 1054, although there are a few examples of the shepherd's crook style predating 1054.



Comments are welcome.

Further, here are illustrations of older style Western Rite vestments for the lower clergy, servers, and priest.

Server (thurifer wears a dalmatic, and on double feasts other servers may as well):



above: The server puts on first the appareled amice, then the alb. On the sleeves are ornamentations called apparels. Usually these are squares of decorative material which do not completely encircle the wrist, but encircle it about 2/3. In later illustrations, it is hoped, this will be adjusted. Over the alb, girded up with a belt of rich cloth, is the dalmatic.

Subdeacon:



above: The subdeacon's vestments are similar but he wears a tunicle, not a dalmatic (although they are often difficult to tell from each other) and the maniple on his left wrist.

Deacon:



above: The deacon wears a dalmatic, the maniple, and also the stole, which in older English usage is worn over, not beneath, the dalmatic. In later times came two developments: the ends of the stole came to be joined under the right arm, on the side, and, by the late middle ages or earlier, the stole came to be worn beneath the dalmatic so that it was not very visible. While in the Eastern Rite we can see a combination of the two "hangs" of stole (hanging down straight from the left shoulder plus looped around under the right arm, in Western Rite so far as is known, the stole was always worn one way or the other.

Priest, in alb and amice:



above: This illustration shows how the belt (called in England the "zona") girds up the flowing folds of the alb. It should be noted that albs of silk were common, as well as albs which were red, blue, green, etc. Still, the most common colour for an alb, to this day, is white. The older Roman rite style of the priest's stole hanging straight down, is shown here. This was originally how the stole was worn in England, but by the high middle ages the Spanish custom of crossing the stole over the breast, in the fashion of an Eastern Rite subdeacon, had replaced this older method in England and throughout most if not all of Western Europe. The fashion of crossing the stole in front is fairly widespread in today's Western Rite, but has one unfortunate drawback: to the eyes of the Eastern Rite majority, it makes a Western Rite priest appear to rank lower than those in Holy Orders.

Priest, vested for the procession before Mass:



above: Over the amice and alb the priest is wearing the cope, secured at the neck with a brooch called a "morse."

Priest, vested for the Mass:



above: The priest in the chasuble. The orphreys or bands, as they are shown here, is a somewhat later style.

Here is an old illustration of a priest vested for Mass:



Comments are welcome on these vestment illustrations as well as the pontifical vestment illustrations.