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Holy Catechism

Nikolaos Voulgaris, tr. Daniel, 1893

Of Priestly Raiment

9. Ex. Good: let us come to the sacred furniture, and first I ask you, is the priestly raiment ancient in the Church?

C. Most ancient: even from the holy Apostles themselves, let the enemies of the Church say what they will. One Priestly Vesture of the Evangelist John, Gregory Dialogus used to keep with him. So it is recorded by John the Deacon in the 3rd Book, ch. 59, of his life. One chasuble of S. Peter was found at Antioch, writes Surius under the 29th April. And many conjecture about the cloak which the Apostle Paul writes in 2 Tim. iv. 13, that he had left in Troas with Carpus, that it was the chasuble which is used in Church to this day. And undoubtedly if the Synagogue and the very Gentiles used in their sacrifices distinct raiment of a dignified sort, by how much more would the Apostles who celebrated the supernatural Mysteries of the Body and Blood of Christ?

10. Ex. Describe to us singly the actual Priestly vestments; and first the Sticharion.

C. The Sticharion (Alb) is so called from στείχω, which means, I walk in rank. For being long to the feet like the long linen garment of Aaron it compels the Priests to walk at the time of the Divine Initiation, not anyhow, but in rank and one after another; and it represents four things.

1. The glorious shape and resplendency of Christ’s Godhead, which He showed in His glorious Transformation, when He displayed His raiment, or His clothes white like the light. “The Alb being white signifies the brightness of Christ’s Godhead,”¹ said the blessed Germanus in the Mystical View.

2. It signifies the purity which Priests ought to observe. “The Alb represents the purity and spotlessness of the Priestly order,” so says Symeon of Thessalonica in the Temple.

3. It represents the white clothing in which Herod sent Jesus Christ mockingly to Pilate; “Herod having mocked Him, clothed Him in gorgeous apparel and sent Him back to Pilate.” S. Luke xxiii. 11.

4. It signifies the Angelic brightness with which like the angels the celebrants minister to God at this most holy altar. For these reasons the Alb ought to be always white, and specially the Deacons’ Albs. So in the Dream of the Anastasia the great Gregory says:

“So the servers stand in bright garments, images of Angelic splendour.”²

11. Ex. What does the Stole signify?

C. The Stole (Epitrachelion or Peritrachelion) is so called because it is thrown on or about the neck; and means

1. The light yoke of Christ, under which the Priest putting his neck evidently says, “The yoke of Christ is easy and the burden is light.”

2. It means, says S. Germanus in his Commentary on the Liturgy, the rope,³ with which after He had been bound by the High Priest, Christ was hurried on, dragged forward by His neck as He departed in His passion.

3. It symbolizes the Spirit’s grace descending from above. So says Symeon of Thessalonica in the Temple; and therefore in wearing it the Priest says, “Blessed be God that poureth grace on His priests, as ointment on the head, &c.”

4. It signifies too the rope with which at Pilate’s orders the soldiers flogged Jesus. “Then Pilate therefore took Jesus and scourged Him.” (S. John xix. 1.)

12. Ex. What does the Girdle mean?

C. The Girdle or Belt signifies—

1. According to S. Germanus “the goodliness with which Christ girt Himself when He took the kingdom,” as we know He appeared in the 1st chapter of the Apocalypse. “And in the midst of the seven lampstands says the Evangelist John, I saw one like unto a son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about at the breasts with a golden girdle.”

2. It signifies truth and righteousness, which are seen to be necessary in the Priest. Isa. xi. 5, “And He shall be girt with righteousness about His loins;” and Paul, Eph. vi. 14, “Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth.”

3. It signifies the power which Christ gives the Priest to cast down the lusts of the flesh, which are in the loins, and in the kidneys; according as God said about the devil in Job xl. 11 (16.) “Behold his strength is in his loins, and his power in the navel of his belly.” Therefore the Priest, when he girds himself, says, “Blessed be God Who girdeth me about with power, and He made my way blameless,” &c.

4. The Girdle holding the alb tied round about does not allow the Priest to stumble by treading on it; which means allegorically that the blameless conduct of the Priest by virtue of the Girdle tramples on the temptations of the flesh; since the Girdle is the symbol of watchfulness and temperance, as Christ said in S. Luke xii. 35, “Let your loins be girded about, and your lamps burning.”

13. Ex. What do the Maniples mean?

C. The Maniples (Hypomanica or Epimanica) are so called from the hand with under (hypo) or over (epi) added. And they mean the care which priests must exercise in order to watch according to Christ’s charge in S. Matt. xxiv. 42, “Watch therefore, for ye know not in what hour the Son of Man cometh;” avoiding sloth, which David speaks of in the 119th Psalm, 28, “My soul slumbered for sloth,” and saying with the bride in Canticles v. 2, “I sleep, but my heart waketh.”

2. They signify the celebration of the spotless Mysteries, which Christ performed with His own hands. “Having taken bread,” says the Lord’s Brother in his Holy Liturgy, “in His holy, and spotless, and stainless, and immortal hands.” On account of this Symeon of Thessalonica also taught that the Maniples represent “that by His own Hands Jesus enacted the sacrifice of His Body and Blood.”

3. The thong of His stainless hands. “And when they had bound Jesus, they led Him away and delivered Him to Pilate.” S. Mark xv. 1. And so the Maniples, says Balsamon in his 37th Answer to Mark of Alexandria, “are a figure of the Manacles which were wound round the hands of our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ, when He was hurried off to His voluntary passion.” And Symeon of Thessalonica in his Commentary on the Liturgy, says, “The bonds on the Saviour’s hands, with which He was bound when He was hurried to Pilate, some say are symbolized by the Maniples.”

4. They signify the universal power of God, Who with His own hands made the universe, for which cause the Priest says, as he puts them on, “Thy hands made me, and fashioned me; Thy right hand, O Lord, hath been glorified in strength, Thy right hand, O Lord, crushed the enemies:” and therefore the same Symeon used to say, “The Maniples also symbolize God’s activity.”

14. Ex. What does the Chasuble mean?

C. The Chasuble (Phælonion) as we commonly call it, is properly called Phænolion, because this alone of the priest’s vesture is entirely visible (φαίνεται ὅλον) covering the rest of the holy raiment. And it signifies—

1. The grace of Holy Baptism, with which the Church puts on the very Master Christ. “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ, put on Christ,” Gal. iii. 27.

2. It signifies the Grace of the Holy Spirit, which the Apostles and the faithful afterwards received, about which John says, i. 16, “and of His fulness we all received.” And this was the anointing on the head, which in Psalm cxxxiii. 2, David in spirit foresaw, “which cometh down to the beard, even Aaron’s beard, which cometh down to the hem of his clothing.”⁴

3. It signifies Love apart from which the Priest has become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal.” 1 Cor. xiii. 1. And as Love covers the multitude of sins, and embraces all the commandments of the Law,—“For Love is the fulfilment of the Law: and this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet, and if there be any other commandment, it is summed up in this word:” Rom. xiii. 10, 9: so the chasuble conceals and encloses all the Priest’s raiment, and therefore when the Priest puts it on, he says, “Thy priests, O Lord, shall be clothed with righteousness,” &c.

4. And finally the chasuble signifies the scarlet robe of false purple which the soldiers put on the Saviour Christ. “Having clothed Him, they put on Him a scarlet robe.” S. Matt. xxvii. 28. Therefore High Priests and Bishops wear their chasuble studded with crosses. And this clearly proves, writes Symeon of Thessalonica in the Temple, that “it is symbolic of the Saviour’s passion, and represents Him Who through sufferings and the Cross, fulfilled the true righteousness.”⁵

15. Ex. Are there other priestly garments?

C. There is the Horarion which belongs solely to the Deacon, and the Epigonation (Kerchief,) the Omophorion (Scarf) and Saccus (Dalmatic) peculiar to High Priests:⁶ since, as Zonaras shows on the 22nd canon of the Laodicean Council, “to each holy order is assigned also its proper dress and ministry.”

16. Ex. Tell us something too about these, and first about the Horarion.

C. The Horarion is so called because it signifies the hour and season of every Liturgical ordinance: forasmuch as catching hold of this with three fingers, the Deacon by it signifies what must be done in various circumstances. And therefore Balsamon in the Interpretation of the Canon, which we quoted, and Blastaris in the conspectus of Canons which he wrote, gives its etymology as being named Horarion, from ὁρῶ I see and observe. Although Symeon of Thessalonica derives the etymology from its adorning (ὡραΐζειν) the Deacon, and describes it as follows: “The Horarion, like wings, shows the immaterial and intellectual condition of the Angelic Order. Wherefore also imitating the Cherubim who wrap up their faces, he too (the Deacon, that is) covers himself when he is about to communicate, girding this round him; and on the Horarion itself he has the Holy, Holy, Holy written.” And thus the Deacons in the Divine Service of Initiation represent the ministry and service of the Angelic Orders.⁷

17. Ex. What does the Epigonation mean?

C. The Kerchief (Epigonation) is so called because it falls to the knee, and is properly peculiar to the High Priest; it is however worn also, by his consent, by all Priests of dignity. And it means

The sword of the Spirit with which the enemies of the Faith visible and invisible are slain, and in hanging it from the girdle the Ministers say, “Gird thy sword on thy thigh, O mighty one, for thy comeliness and thy beauty, and press forward, and prosper, and reign.” “In his girdle, according to the interpretation of the same Symeon in the Temple, the Celebrant sets as a pendant what is called the kerchief, which shows the conquest over death, and the incorruption of our nature, and the majesty of God’s might against the dominion of the Evil one—wherefore it has the shape of a sword, and hangs from the loins, where they say man’s power resides.”

Balsamon thinks the kerchief is also for a figure of the towel, “wherewith the Lord girded Himself, and washed the feet of the disciples.” S. John xiii. 5.

18. Ex. What is the meaning of the Scarf (Omophorion)?

C. The Scarf signifies the wandering sheep which Christ came forth to seek, and when He had found it, carried it with so great joy on His shoulders, and united it to the ninety and nine. “The scarf,” writes Germanus of Constantinople on the Mystic View, “which the Bishop wears, signifies the fleece of the sheep, which the Lord found as it strayed, and took up on His shoulders, and numbered with those which had not strayed.”⁸

It signifies also the Cross which our Saviour laid hold of as He came to the Passion; and the suffering or cross which every one must bear on his shoulder who wishes to follow Christ. “It has moreover crosses on it, the same saint explains about the scarf, because Christ carried His Cross upon His shoulder, so likewise they who would live after Christ, raise upon their shoulders His Cross, which is suffering hardship, for the cross is the symbol of suffering hardship.”

19. Ex. What does the Dalmatic (Saccus) signify?

C. The Saccus signifies Christ’s coat woven from the top, which the soldiers dared not tear, and it represents the heavenly doctrine which was woven by the Wisdom above, our Jesus Christ, when He gave it to His Holy Apostles. “All things whatsoever I heard from My Father, I made known to you.” S. John xv. 15.

And the Saccus is worn by the Chief of the High Priests, Metropolitans namely and Patriarchs, as successors of the Apostles, keeping the coat safe and unharmed to the shame and repulse of those who by heresies and apostasies are said to rend the Saviour’s coat, that is His Holy Doctrine. As we have heard that it was said to the blessed Peter of Alexandria about Areius by Christ the Master Himself, Whom the Saint saw in form of a new-born child, gleaming beyond the brightness of the Sun, clad in a coat torn from head to foot: as the Church proclaims.

Symeon of Thessalonica adds another meaning, writing thus about the Saccus. “Specially it represents the sackcloth which the Saviour had on when He was mocked; whence it has the shape of a sack; for this vestment has not what they call sleeves. And this is made more abundantly evident by what the Chief of the High Priests put on, that too being called a Saccus.”

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