The New Testament episcopal vestments
“But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet” (Luke 15:22)
After Christ's incarnation, what was old is revealed in the Church. The bishop represents the Lord Jesus Christ no longer in a hidden way, as in Aaron's case, but openly. And by his vestments he imitates the Shepherd who bore the infirmities of His flock. And since the New Testament hidden in the Old is revealed in the Church of Christ, so in the vestments of the New Testament hierarch too the secret meaning of the vestments of the high priest Aaron is revealed. True, in the course of time these vestments underwent certain changes, but the basic form of the vestments has remained the same in content. These vestments are: the sticharion (tunic), orarion, epimanikia (cuffs), epitrachelion, belt, nabedrennik, epigonation, phelonion, sakkos, omophorion and mitre. Of these, the bishop's vestments are: the tunic, cuffs, epitrachelion, belt, epigonation, phelonion, sakkos, omophorion and mitre. The bishop puts on these vestments only during services. All these garments represent the incarnation of Christ.
The inner garment of the New Testament hierarch, as of the Old Testament one, is the tunic. It was all white and embroidered with scale-like rings [a patterned sticharion]. If the Old Testament high priest, according to Jewish tradition, took off his everyday clothes and was vested after washing, in the New Testament Church there is no such law; but the tunic we have mentioned hides the everyday, ordinary clothes. It is common to clergy of all degrees, with small differences — like Aaron's tunic. The bishop's tunic is sewn with narrow sleeves and has a slit at the wrist. A cord is sewn to one side, which is wound around the wrist, representing the bonds of Christ. Aaron's tunic represents first of all the garment of Christ the Saviour as the true High Priest. John the Theologian in his Revelation sees the Lord precisely in a tunic: “And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle” [John, Rev. 1:13]. In angelic garments the Lord appears as the Angel of “great counsel,” the servant of God, who says: “I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do” (John 17:4) — although His service surpasses every service. According to Symeon of Thessalonica, the tunic may be scarlet (red), which represents the Saviour's sufferings, His holy Blood which He shed for our sins, and by which He cleansed us. It also represents the purple robe that was put on Him in mockery before the crucifixion. [Purple signifies a royal garment.] In the Revelation John the Theologian sees Christ in a royal red garment, which well suits the high-priestly ministry of Jesus Christ. By the decree of the fathers the tunic should be white, as a sign of angelic purity and light. It also corresponds to the colour of the heavenly garments of the righteous, who have made their robes white in the blood of the Lamb. The tunic also represents the light of Tabor, the Saviour's white garments at the Transfiguration. The tunic is an image of the Saviour's earthly life and sufferings, and by its colour the garment of the “light” of divine glory. So, when the bishop is vested in the tunic, he spiritually puts on Christ, and accordingly the following prayer is read: “Thy soul shall rejoice in the Lord, for He hath clothed thee with the garment of salvation and covered thee with the robe of gladness; as a bridegroom He hath set a crown upon thee, and as a bride hath He adorned thee with comeliness.”
On the back of the tunic a cross is embroidered, signifying cross-bearing, the Saviour's carrying of the Cross. The bishop's tunic differs in having the so-called “springs” in the form of ribbons [hanging at the front], which represent the Blood that flowed from the Saviour's wounds, and also grace and the various gifts that come down from heaven and pass on to others.
Part of the bishop's vestments is the epitrachelion — mainly a priestly vestment; it arose from the orarion, which signified that the priest and the bishop are not only servers but also celebrants of the mystery. It is a double yoke; as Symeon of Thessalonica says, the epitrachelion symbolically represents the grace of God and the yoke, like a cross, that the priest bears, thereby imitating Christ. This item is mentioned in the most ancient descriptions of ordination. Crosses are depicted on it, and it is an indispensable vestment; when the bishop puts on the epitrachelion, the following prayer is said: “Blessed is God, who poureth out His grace upon His high priests, as the myrrh upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even upon Aaron's beard, that went down to the skirts of his clothing.
The bishop puts on the belt over the tunic and epitrachelion. It is a narrow band with ties at the ends. It has its origin in Aaron's girdle and represents firmness, strength and constant readiness for service. In Holy Scripture divine power is represented by the girdle: “Verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them” (Luke 12:37). Or again: “Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness” (Eph. 6:14). In the mind of the Church, from the most ancient times the belt has been a sign of the spiritual strength given by God to the clergyman for fighting sin, doing God's will, mortifying the passions and so on, which is reflected in the prayer said when it is put on: “Blessed is God, who girdeth thee with strength, and hath made thy way blameless; who maketh thy feet like harts' feet, and setteth thee upon high places.” From the mystagogical point of view it prepares the priest, as it were, not to turn aside from the way. In ancient times the belt was also an indispensable element in the dress of kings and nobles.
Cuffs were not used in the Church at first. Instead, two narrow bands with a cross in the middle ran round the wrists of the tunic. Cuffs were part of the imperial vestments; in the 11th–12th centuries the Byzantine emperor granted the patriarchs of Constantinople the sakkos (also called byssus) and cuffs — and so they appeared in the Church. Later they were granted to priests too, and from the 15th century cuffs appear as an award among archdeacons. The bishop's cuffs differed from those of the lower clergy, on which only a cross was depicted: on the bishop's cuffs an image of the Lord was embroidered.
The cuffs are put on over the tunic and tied on the inner side with a cord; the cord is wound round the wrist, which represents the power, firmness and wisdom of God given to the clergyman for performing the divine mysteries. The cuffs also represent the bonds in which the Saviour was brought before Pilate. According to Balsamon, they are equal in honour to the epigonation. They also have a purely practical purpose, making the clergyman's movements (actions) during the service easier.
From the 11th–12th centuries the sakkos-byssus appears in the Church of Constantinople (a Hebrew word meaning chlamys or tunic, a garment of mourning and repentance), which, as already noted, was originally the vestment of emperors and patriarchs. Sakk means a tunic, a chlamys. It has its origin in the Old Testament vestments, namely the ephod. In the opinion of Ferrari [a 19th-century historian] it is wrong to regard it as an imperial vestment; and, according to Theodoret, Constantine the Great supposedly granted this garment to Macarius of Jerusalem — for the reference here is not to the sakkos but to a sacred vestment; finally he adds that it would be more correct to think that the emperors, who had been given the title of head of Christ's Church, also took over the vestment of the high priest, that is, the ephod. Balsamon, in a letter to Patriarch Macarius of Alexandria, notes that “the sakkos is the vestment of patriarchs alone.” His contemporary Demetrios Chomatenos (13th-century archbishop of Bulgaria) is more precise, saying that the sakkos was worn three times a year: at Pascha, Nativity and Pentecost. In the time of Symeon of Thessalonica it became an episcopal vestment. The sakkos was a garment shaped like a sticharion, but with short sleeves. It is open along its whole length and fastened at the sides by means of bells, which, like those of the ephod, were sewn to it. At first it was sleeveless. In the 1st century in Rome there was a garment similar to the sakkos, the so-called dalmatic. It was sewn of costly red cloth, richly decorated, with short sleeves. The dalmatic was part of the imperial vestments; according to tradition, it was in just such a chlamys that the Saviour was clothed. In memory of this the Byzantine emperors wore the chlamys (sakkos) on fast days, while they also had a solemn, festive dalmatic. Because of the similarity in form of these two garments, the royal festive dalmatic came to be regarded as the sakkos, which by its meaning signified repentance, reconciliation and remembrance of the Saviour's chlamys. The patriarchs' sakkoi were adorned on the breast with precious stones, recalling Aaron's breastplate.
Alongside it let us consider the phelonion, which has the same meaning. Both bishop and priest are vested in it. It is an ancient vestment; formerly it was a cloak sewn from a long rectangular cloth with an opening for the head in the middle. It was thrown over both shoulders or over one shoulder; it covered the body from head to foot. The Jews decorated the ends of the phelonion with lace and sewed a blue cord with tassels along the edge, as a sign of keeping the Lord's commandments and laws: “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue: And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the Lord, and do them; and that ye seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, which lead you astray: That ye may remember, and do all my commandments, and be holy unto the Lord” (Num. 15:37–40).
(Blue — to remind them of heaven — Blessed Theodoret)
A similar garment exists in the Jewish tradition today; it is called “tzitzit” (because of the four knots at the edge), and it is always worn on the shoulders under the clothes. The Lord Jesus Christ and the apostles wore the phelonion. At first it was white, as a sign of being clothed with divine light. We learn from Blessed Symeon that as late as the 14th–15th centuries the phelonion covered the clergy from neck to foot. It was bell-shaped, sleeveless, with an opening in the middle. (In ancient times both priests and the higher clergy wore this garment.) On a metropolitan's phelonion crosses were depicted, and so it was called the polystaurion, that is, “many-crossed.” In the 12th century the patriarchs began to wear the sakkos instead of the phelonion. From the 15th century the polystaurion became the vestment of all bishops.
In the course of time the phelonion changed its shape: its front was cut away in a semicircle to make it more convenient. The back took on a trapezoid shape and was considerably stiffened and raised; on it a cross is depicted, and below it an eight-pointed star, representing the establishment of the heavenly Kingdom on the new earth and heaven. These symbols are meant to signify the Nativity and Crucifixion of the Saviour. The star of Bethlehem contains within it the age to come, for by the Lord's incarnation mankind drew near to the Kingdom. At the same time it is meant to signify the union of the Old and New Testament Churches (meaning divine service).
The chief element of the episcopal vestments is the omophorion, which only a bishop wears. It is a long, broad band, one end of which comes down from the right shoulder onto the breast and then goes up over the left shoulder onto the back; the other end of the omophorion is likewise wound from the opposite side.
According to Patriarch Germanus, the omophorion must have arisen from Aaron's ephod together with the breastplate (instead of stones we find crosses here). Blessed Symeon compares the omophorion to the lost sheep that the Saviour carries on His shoulders; and in the prayer too we read: “Christ, having taken upon Thy shoulders the nature that had gone astray, Thou didst ascend and bring it to God the Father, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.” If the breastplate represented Israel, whom the Lord chose and for whose sins Aaron offered sacrifice, the omophorion represents the new, true Israel — all those who have received Christ the Saviour.
Thus the omophorion may to some extent be regarded as the New Testament Church's interpretation of the breastplate. According to N. Chopikashvili, “the omophorion has been the distinguishing mark of the bishop's vestments since the most ancient times; the name is given to a cloak which, fitting close to the neck, covered the shoulders; such cloaks were worn by the apostles, the Mother of God and other holy women. The episcopal omophorion is great or small. The bishop wears the great one from the beginning of the Liturgy until the reading of the Epistle. During the reading of the Gospel the bishop stands without the omophorion until it ends (as a sign that the true High Priest is present there). Then he puts on the small omophorion, which is the same but considerably shorter than the great one. Both ends of the small omophorion, hung round the neck, come down onto the breast, as a sign of service to Christ. The omophorion is adorned with crosses.
According to tradition, the evangelist Mark wore the omophorion during services. And the apostle Peter, when he sent the evangelist Mark to Alexandria, handed him the omophorion, thereby ordaining him and giving him the right to wear the omophorion.
Among the vestments that Aaron wore and that were later used in the Christian Church too is the headdress, or mitre; it represents the crown of thorns or the Saviour's holy shroud — or else the Gospel. Symeon of Thessalonica writes: “When we received ordination and the grace of the Holy Spirit came down upon the apostles, it was then that they received the right to wear the kidaris; in putting it on, according to the interpretation of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, we put on not a mitre but the Gospel” (21 answers to the metropolitan of Pentapolis). John Chrysostom explains likewise: “At the consecration of a bishop,” he says, “the holy Gospel is laid on his head in the church, to impress on the newly ordained that he is receiving the true mitre of the Gospel, and that, although he becomes head, he too is subject to the law.”) Over his head the Gospel is opened, which signifies Christ and His Church; therefore the Saviour, the Mother of God and the Evangelists are depicted (as on the Gospel book). Let us note here that on Aaron's kidaris there was a gold plate bearing the name of God (that is, the tetragrammaton); perhaps it is in its place that the image of Jesus Christ appears. According to Symeon of Thessalonica, the mitre was first given to Sylvester I (Pope of Rome) by Constantine the Great, as a surviving charter confirms.
The epigonation (Greek: “knee-piece”). It is an indispensable part of the episcopal vestments. The word for it means “stick” — a rod (Acts 16:22; 1 Cor. 4:21). It is diamond-shaped and hangs by one corner. According to Theodore Balsamon (12th century), it represents the towel with which the Saviour dried the apostles' feet at the Supper. At the same time it represents victory over death; it is the sword of the spirit.
The encolpion — panagia, also called the pectoral icon or panagia, “all-holy.” The panagia is a round icon with images of the Saviour and the Mother of God. It reminds the bishop to carry constantly in his heart love for the Lord and the Most Holy Mother of God. It was made in imitation of the panagia, that is, a small folding casket that stood on the holy table before the icon of the Mother of God, in which was placed the triangular particle taken from the prosphora in honour of the Mother of God. This casket was adorned on one side with an icon of the Mother of God and on the other with one of the Saviour. Sometimes holy relics were placed in it. According to tradition, in Russia there was once this custom: after the Liturgy, at the meal, the abbot would hang this casket on his breast; probably in imitation of them, a little later patriarchs and bishops began to wear icons of saints on their breasts. In Greece such icons were called encolpia, and in Russia panagias.
The cross is one of the attributes of the liturgical vestments. Wearing a cross is an ancient Christian tradition that spread among Christians from the first centuries. During persecution the cross was worn under the clothing. It was worn not only on the body, on the breast and on the head, but was even depicted on walls, on weapons and so on. Constantine the Great had a cross depicted on his own weapons, and at the beginning of the 5th century many clergy carried a cross both in the hand and on the shoulders.
From the 10th century, and particularly after the Crusades, images of the cross on clothing became more frequent. To be especially distinguished, emperors and hierarchs adorned their crosses with holy relics; often a particle of the Life-giving Wood was placed in the cross, and such crosses too were called encolpia. According to Symeon of Thessalonica, this cross, like the epigonation, hung over the vestments. Nowhere in Byzantine history do we see anyone of the lower clergy wearing a cross, apart from kings and hierarchs. At the Moscow Council of 1675 it was decided that pectoral crosses should be worn only by patriarchs and metropolitans. And even then a metropolitan in the patriarch's presence was to wear only the panagia; he had the right to wear the cross only in his own diocese. Only the metropolitan of Novgorod could wear both cross and panagia in the patriarch's presence. The metropolitan of Kiev, who was still subject to the Patriarchate of Constantinople, also had this right. Later, in imitation of Catholic abbots, the granting of a cross to certain archimandrites was introduced, which spread more widely under the Empress Elizabeth (daughter of Peter the Great) from 1742. By her order the archimandrites of all Russia were granted pectoral crosses, to distinguish them from abbots and hieromonks. Finally, the Emperor Paul I in 1797, to distinguish the white (married) clergy, ordered crosses to be worn on the breast on a chain. It should be noted that both the panagia and the cross represent the pectoral of the Old Testament high priest: the Urim and Thummim. We have already spoken above about the symbolism of these objects, so we add only one thing: the Saviour hidden in the symbolism of the Urim and Thummim is revealed on the panagia and the cross; and if we do not know exactly what meaning these objects had in ancient times, it would probably not be amiss to judge of them by the meaning of the panagia and the cross. These objects constantly remind the hierarch to carry in his heart the love of the Lord, which will unite him with the Creator.
The nabedrennik (thigh-shield) is also part of the liturgical vestments, but it belongs to an archpriest and is an award. It is not found among the Greek vestments; and its shape is different too: it is a rectangle that hangs by two corners. The nabedrennik too is a sword of the spirit, by which the evil one is overcome.
As we have seen, the main part of the vestments of a hierarch of Christ's Church takes its origin precisely from the vestments of Aaron. In both the Old and the New Testament the hierarch, by his vestments, represents Christ the Saviour, who was to restore to mankind its first garment and rekindle in it the light that had gone out. By His incarnation and crucifixion Christ fulfilled the mystery hidden in the Old Testament, and so brought the true Israel into the heavenly Jerusalem. “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever” (Heb. 13:8).
Nino Gvelesiani, fifth-year student of the Faculty of Christian Art
