Tuesday, October 2

 

Papal High Mass




Here is a picture of John Paul II dressed in the way that Popes normally dressed for solemn Mass before the Second Vatican Council -- someone in the comments box inspired me to post it.

The striped vestment is called a fanon:

A shoulder-cape worn by the pope alone, consisting of two pieces of white silk ornamented with narrow woven stripes of red and gold... The front part of the fanon is ornamented with a small cross embroidered in gold.

The fanon is like an amice; it is, however, put on not under but above the alb. The pope wears it only when celebrating a solemn pontifical Mass... After the deacon has vested the pope with the usual amice, alb, the cingulum and sub-cinctorium, and the pectoral cross, he draws on, by means of the opening, the fanon and then turns the half of the upper piece towards the back over the pope's head. He now vests the pope with the stole, tunicle, (!) dalmatic, and chasuble, then turns down that part of the fanon which had been placed over the head of the pope, draws the front half of the upper piece above the tunicle, dalmatic, and chasuble, and finally arranges the whole upper piece of the fanon so that it covers the shoulders of the pope like a collar.

The fanon is mentioned in the oldest known Roman Ordinal, consequently its use in the eighth century can be proved.

John XXIII's mosaic portrait at St. Paul's Outside the Walls depicts him wearing the fanon.

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