Sunday, November 7, 2010

From the Vatican: the College Cassock

"Students traveled in pairs and they wore long black cassocks.  The wearing of the cassock was compulsory for priests and seminarians who never appeared in public unless so attired.  For street wear, a soprano was added to the costume, a cape of heavy cloth.  The hat was black, low of crown, and broad of brim.  Seminarians of various degrees, during their first patrols in Rome, were interested in the distinctive variations of the common clerical garb which distinguished the different houses.  The English wore three-cornered hats; Spaniards, cassocks of black and deep sky blue; Scots, purple cassocks and dark red sashes; Germans, flaming red cassocks; Americans, black cassocks with sky-blue piping.  The most exotic 'plumage,' in clerical language, was worn by the Greeks: ultramarine cassocks with orange sashes."

-Shephered of Mankind by William E. Barrett, p. 77.

No comments:

Post a Comment