THE
P RTAL
October 2017
Page 6
Robes and layout
Fr Mark Woodruff considers the robes and the
arrangement of churches in east and west
W
hat do the different rites of the Byzantine Catholics, the Syriac Catholics
and the Maronites of Syria and Lebanon, the Syro-Malankara of India (the West Syriac family), the
Chaldeans of Iraq and the Syro-Malabar of India (the East Syriac family), together with all their non-Catholic
counterpart Churches, which we compared last month with the Latin rite in its Divine Worship form, feel
and look like?
In the East, no colour scheme is defined beyond
“light” and “dark” – usually white for Sundays and
feasts, or crimson for fasts and mourning. Among
the Byzantine Catholics and Orthodox, other colours
often substitute for white (e.g. gold, blue for Angels
and Virgins, or green at Pentecost), and purple and
black can replace red in Lent. But in the two Syriac
traditions, white and red prevail.
The Byzantine deacon wears what looks like a full-
length dalmatic, but it is really an ornamented alb,
usually in the same material as the priest’s phailonion.
Over this he wears a stole hanging before and behind
from the left shoulder, sometimes looped across to his
right waist.
He holds out the front end as he leads the litanies at
the head of the people facing the sanctuary. It is his
The priest’s vestment began the same as in the West role also to incense the Altar, the icons of the Lord
- the round “cloak” mentioned by St Paul in 2 Timothy and the saints around the Church, together with the
4.13 (phailones, in Latin pænula). We know it as the clergy and people, at the beginning, before the Gospel,
chasuble (casula, “a little house”, being so capacious). and at the Great Entrance with the Gifts, veiled in
Originally the practical outer-wear of soldiers, slaves, honour to prepare them for transfer to the Altar for
horse-riders and itinerant workers (Paul was a the Eucharistic sacrifice.
wandering tent-maker), it became the official every-
day robe of a Roman senator. Eventually it took
In the Byzantine Churches there are no musical
different forms, suiting different Churches’ customs.
instruments apart from the bells sometimes on the
censer. In the Armenian Church the organ has become
In the West it was shortened at the arms as the popular thanks to western influence. In the Indian
material became heavier, and as the elevation of the Churches, stringed, wind and keyboard instruments
Host and the Chalice for adoration during the Canon form part of the tradition, arguably pointing to roots
assumed high significance. In the Byzantine rite, this in ancient Temple worship.
was not a consideration. So, to ease the movement of
the hands and arms for censing and consecration, the
Perhaps the most striking feature of Eastern worship
phailonion is shortened at the waist. In the churches to Latin eyes is the veil, or the screen of icons, that
of the two Syriac traditions (where it is called payna usually marks off the Holy of Holies within the Temple.
or phayno), another solution evolved. The same Not a barrier, but a means of revelation, it is opened to
capacious vestment is slit down the front and resembles draw us into heaven’s worship, but closed at the most
a western cope.
solemn moments until, again, Christ God comes forth
in Holy Communion.
Eastern bishops serve the Liturgy with diverse
headdress: the mitre borrowed from the Latins
The Anglican patrimony of the Ordinariates is
(Armenians and Syriac Catholics), an unpointed simply another part of this diversity across time,
mitre with two rounded peaks (the Chaldean and place, Church and culture that is integrated in
Syro-Malabar), a hood in similar material to the Catholicism’s unity, and without which Catholicism
payna (Syro-Malankara and Syrian Orthodox), or the cannot be universal. On the last Saturday of October
privilege of wearing an imperial crown, granted by we can see a realisation of this universal Church,
the Byzantine emperors. Byzantine-rite bishops wear when the Eastern Catholic bishops serving Europe
the sakkos instead of the phailonion: it resembles the gather to serve the Divine Liturgy of St John
western dalmatic, but it is really the imperial robe Chrysostom at Westminster Cathedral, led by His
that privileges bishops when celebrating the Divine Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, Father and Head of
Liturgy.
the Ukrainian Catholic Church.