The vestments of the clergy and their colors. Priests and their sacred garments (vestments)

Clothing of the clergy

To perform divine services, the clergy and clergy put on special clothes, the purpose of which is to distract their mind and heart from everything earthly and lift them up to God. If for worldly affairs, on solemn occasions, the best clothes are put on instead of everyday ones (Matt. 22.11-12), then the requirement to serve God in special clothes is all the more natural.

Special vestments for clergy were introduced in the Old Testament. It was strictly forbidden to enter the tabernacle and the temple in Jerusalem to perform worship without special robes, which had to be removed when leaving the temple (Ezek. 44.19).

Deacon's vestments: handrails, orarion, surplice

At present, the sacred garments in which divine services are performed are divided into deacon, priest, and episcopal according to the three degrees of the church hierarchy. Clergymen wear some of the deacon's robes.

According to the teaching of the Church, each highest degree of the church hierarchy contains grace, and with it the rights and advantages of the lower degrees. This idea is clearly expressed by the fact that the sacred clothes, established for the lower degrees, belong to the higher ones. Therefore, the order in vestments is as follows: first they put on clothes belonging to the lower rank, and then to the highest. Thus, the bishop dresses first in the clothes of a deacon, then in the clothes of a priest, and then in the clothes that belong to him as a bishop; The priest also first puts on the deacon's clothes, and then the priest's clothes.

Deacon's robes make up a surplice, orarion and handrails.

Surplice- long straight dress with wide sleeves. It marks the purity of the soul, which the persons of the holy dignity should have. A surplice is also required for subdeacons. The right to wear a surplice can be given to psalm-readers and laity servants in the temple.

orarion It is a long wide ribbon, which is mainly worn on the left shoulder, over the surplice. The orarion marks the grace of God, which the deacon received in the sacrament of the Priesthood.

Handrails are called narrow sleeves, pulled together with laces. The instructions remind the clergy that they, participating in the performance of the Sacraments, do this not with their own strength, but with the power and grace of God. The handrails are also reminiscent of the bonds on the hands of the Savior during His suffering.

Priest's vestments make up a vestment, stole, belt, handrails and phelonion (or riza).

Undershirt- this is a surplice in a slightly modified form: it is made of thin white matter, and its sleeves are narrow, tightened at the ends with laces. The white color of the vestment reminds the priest that he must always have a pure soul and lead a blameless life. The vestment symbolizes the tunic (underwear) of the Savior.

Stole there is the same orarion, but only folded in half so that, bending around the neck, it descends from the front down with two ends, which, for convenience, are sewn or somehow connected to each other. Epitrachelion marks the double (compared to the diaconal) grace given to the priest for the performance of the Sacraments. Without an epitrachelion, a priest cannot perform a single service (like a deacon - without an orarion).

Priest's Attire:
pectoral cross, kamilavka, skufia, phelonion - chasuble, stole, vestment, gaiter, belt, handrails, mace

Belt put on over the epitrachili and underdress. It marks the readiness to serve the Lord, as well as the power of God, which strengthens the clergy in their ministry. The belt also resembles the towel with which the Savior girded himself when washing the feet of His disciples at the Last Supper.

Riza or phelonion This is a long sleeveless dress. It is worn by the priest over other clothes. The riza symbolizes the scarlet in which the soldiers clothed the Savior during the abuse of Him. The ribbons sewn on the robe are reminiscent of the streams of blood that flowed over His garments. At the same time, the robe also reminds the priests of the clothes of truth, in which they should be clothed as servants of Christ. Over the chasuble the priest wears pectoral cross.

Bishop's Attire:
trikirion, cross, ripides, handrails, bishop's mantle, miter, sakkos with large omophorion, eagle, panagia, wand - staff, small omphor, dikirion, mace, small omophorion

For diligent long service, priests are given as a reward gaiter, that is, a quadrangular board, hung on a ribbon over the shoulder at two corners on the right thigh and meaning the spiritual sword, and also - skufia and kamilavka.

Bishop(bishop) puts on all the clothes of a priest: a vest, stole, belt, handrails, only his riza is replaced with a sakkos, and a cuisse with a club. In addition, the bishop puts on the omophorion and miter.

Sakkos- the outer clothing of the bishop, similar to the deacon's surplice shortened from below and in the sleeves, so that from under the sakkos the bishop can see both the vestment and the stole. Sakkos, like the priest's robe, marks the Savior's scarlet.

Mace- This is a quadrangular board, hung at one corner over the sakkos on the right thigh. As a reward for diligent service, honored archpriests sometimes receive the right to wear a club. They wear it on the right side, and the cuisse in this case is placed on the left. The club, like the legguard, means the spiritual sword, that is, the word of God, with which the clergy should be armed.

On their shoulders, over the sakkos, bishops wear omophorion- a long wide ribbon-like board, decorated with crosses. It is placed on the bishop's shoulders in such a way that, wrapping around the neck, one end descends in front, and the other behind. "Omophor" is a Greek word and means "shoulder". The omophorion belongs only to episcopal vestments. No omophorion (Kazan) in bishop's vestments the bishop cannot (photo from 1920s) no service. The omophorion reminds the bishop that he must take care of the salvation of the erring, like the gospel good shepherd, who, having found the lost sheep, carries it home on his shoulders.

On his chest, over the sakkos, the bishop wears a cross and panagia- a small round image of the Savior or the Mother of God.

On the head of the bishop is placed miter, decorated with small icons and colored stones. Mitra marks the crown of thorns, which was placed on the head of the suffering Savior. The miter can also be worn by archimandrites. In exceptional cases, the ruling bishop gives the right to the most deserving archpriests to wear a miter instead of a kamilavka during divine services.

During worship, bishops use wand or staff as a sign of supreme pastoral authority. The staff is also given to archimandrites and abbots, as heads of monasteries.

During the service, under the feet of the bishop are placed eagles- small round rugs depicting an eagle flying over the city. Eaglets mean that the bishop must, like an eagle, ascend from the earthly to the heavenly.

Priests, for the performance of Divine services, must put on special sacred clothes. Sacred garments are made of brocade or some other suitable material and are decorated with crosses.

clothes deacon are: surplice, orarion and handrails.

Surplice there are long clothes without a cut in front and behind, with a hole for the head and with wide sleeves. A surplice is also required for subdeacons. The right to wear a surplice can be given to both psalm-readers and laity serving in the temple. The surplice marks the purity of the soul, which the persons of the holy dignity should have.

orarion there is a long wide ribbon of the same material as the surplice. It is worn by the deacon on the left shoulder, above the surplice. The orarion marks the grace of God, which the deacon received in the sacrament of the Priesthood.

Handrails called narrow sleeves, pulled together with laces. The instructions remind the clergy that when they perform the sacraments or participate in the celebration of the sacraments of the faith of Christ, they do this not with their own strength, but with the power and grace of God. The handrails also resemble the bonds (ropes) on the hands of the Savior during His suffering.

The vestments of the priest are: underdress, epitrachelion, belt, handrails and phelonion (or chasuble).

Undershirt There is a surplice in a slightly modified form. It differs from the surplice in that it is made of thin white matter, and its sleeves are narrow with laces at the ends, with which they are tightened on the hands. The white color of the vestment reminds the priest that he must always have a pure soul and lead a blameless life. In addition, the undershirt also reminds us of the tunic (underwear) in which our Lord Jesus Christ Himself walked on earth and in which He completed the work of our salvation.

Stole there is the same orarion, but only folded in half so that, bending around the neck, it descends from the front down with two ends, which, for convenience, are sewn or somehow connected to each other. Epitrachelion marks a special, double compared with a deacon, grace given to a priest for the performance of the sacraments. Without an epitrachelion, a priest cannot perform a single service, just like a deacon - without an orarion.

Belt worn over stole and underwear and signifies readiness to serve the Lord. The belt also marks the Divine power, which strengthens the clergy in their ministry. The belt also resembles the towel with which the Savior girded himself when washing the feet of His disciples at the Last Supper.

Riza, or phelonion, put on by the priest over other clothes. This garment is long, wide, sleeveless, with a hole for the head at the top and with a large opening in front for free hand action. In its appearance, the riza resembles the purple robe in which the suffering Savior was clothed. The ribbons sewn on the robe are reminiscent of the streams of blood that flowed over His garments. At the same time, the riza also reminds the priests of the clothes of truth, in which they should be clothed as servants of Christ.

pectoral cross located on the chest of the priest, over the robe.

For diligent, long service, priests are given as a reward gaiter, that is, a quadrangular board, hung on a ribbon over the shoulder and two corners on the right thigh, meaning the spiritual sword, as well as head ornaments - skufia and kamilavka.

Bishop(bishop) puts on all the clothes of a priest: underdress, epitrachelion, belt, handrails, only his robe is replaced sakkos, and the gaiter club. In addition, the bishop puts on omophorion and miter.

Sakkos- the outer clothing of the bishop, similar to the deacon's surplice shortened from the bottom and in the sleeves, so that from under the sakkos the bishop can see both the vest and epitrachelion. Sakkos, like the priest's robe, marks the Savior's scarlet.

Mace, this is a quadrangular board, hung at one corner, over the sakkos on the right thigh. As a reward for excellent diligent service, the right to wear a club is sometimes received from the ruling bishop and honored archpriests, who also wear it on the right side, and in this case the cuisse is placed on the left. For archimandrites, as well as for bishops, the club serves as a necessary accessory of their vestments. The club, like the legguard, means the spiritual sword, that is, the word of God, with which clerics must be armed to fight unbelief and wickedness.

On their shoulders, over the sakkos, bishops wear an omophorion. omophorion there is a long wide ribbon-like board decorated with crosses. It is placed on the bishop's shoulders in such a way that, wrapping around the neck, one end descends in front, and the other behind. Omophorus is a Greek word and means pauldron. The omophorion belongs exclusively to the bishops. Without an omophorion, a bishop, like a priest without an stole, cannot perform any service. The omophorion reminds the bishop that he must take care of the salvation of the erring, like the gospel good shepherd, who, having found the lost sheep, carries it home on his shoulders.

On the chest, on top of the sakkos, in addition to the cross, the bishop also has panagia which means "Holy One". This is a small round image of the Savior or the Mother of God, decorated with colored stones.

On the head of the bishop is placed miter, decorated with small icons and colored stones. Mitra marks the crown of thorns, which was placed on the head of the suffering Savior. The archimandrites also have a miter. In exceptional cases, the ruling bishop gives the right to the most deserving archpriests during Divine Services to wear a miter instead of a kamilavka.

During worship, bishops use wand or staff as a sign of supreme pastoral authority. The staff is also given to archimandrites and abbots, as heads of monasteries.

During the service, under the feet of the bishop are placed eagles. These are small round rugs depicting an eagle flying over the city. Eaglets mean that the bishop must, like an eagle, ascend from the earthly to the heavenly.

Bishop, priest and deacon home clothes are cassock (semi-caftan) and cassock. Over the cassock, on the chest, the bishop wears cross and panagia and the priest cross

What do the colors of the priests' clothes symbolize?

The everyday clothes of the clergy of the Orthodox Church, cassocks and cassocks, as a rule, are made of black fabric, which expresses the humility and unpretentiousness of a Christian, neglect of external beauty, attention to the inner world.

During divine services, church vestments are worn over everyday clothes, which come in various colors.

White vestments are used when performing divine services on holidays dedicated to the Lord Jesus Christ (with the exception of Palm Sunday and the Trinity), angels, apostles and prophets. The white color of these vestments symbolizes holiness, permeation with uncreated Divine Energies, belonging to the heavenly world. At the same time, the white color is a memory of the Light of Tabor, the dazzling light of Divine glory. In white vestments, the Liturgy of Great Saturday and Easter Matins are performed. In this case, the white color symbolizes the glory of the Risen Savior. It is customary to perform burial and all funeral services in white vestments. V this case this color expresses the hope for the repose of the deceased in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Red vestments are used during the liturgy of the Holy Resurrection of Christ and at all divine services of the forty-day Easter period. The red color in this case is a symbol of the all-conquering Divine Love. In addition, red vestments are used on holidays dedicated to the memory of the martyrs and on the feast of the Beheading of John the Baptist. In this case, the red color of the vestments is a memory of the blood shed by the martyrs for the Christian faith.

Blue vestments, symbolizing virginity, are used exclusively for divine services on the feasts of the Theotokos.

Vestments of gold (yellow) color are used at services dedicated to the memory of saints. The golden color is a symbol of the Church, the Triumph of Orthodoxy, which was affirmed by the labors of the holy bishops. Sunday services are performed in the same vestments. Sometimes divine services are performed in golden vestments on the days of commemoration of the apostles, who created the first church communities by preaching the Gospel.

Green vestments are used in the services of Palm Sunday and Trinity. In the first case, the green color is associated with the memory of palm branches, a symbol of royal dignity, with which the inhabitants of Jerusalem met Jesus Christ. In the second case, the green color is a symbol of the renewal of the earth, cleansed by the grace of the hypostatically appeared and always abiding in the Church of the Holy Spirit. For the same reason, green vestments are worn at divine services dedicated to the memory of the reverend, holy ascetic monks, who were more than other people transfigured by the grace of the Holy Spirit.

Violet or crimson (dark burgundy) vestments are worn on holidays dedicated to the Holy and Life-Giving Cross. They are also used in the Sunday services of Great Lent. This color is a symbol of the sufferings of the Savior on the Cross and is associated with memories of the scarlet, in which Christ was dressed, the Roman soldiers who laughed at him (Matt. 27, 28).

Black vestments are currently worn at the everyday services of Great Lent. Like the everyday clothes of the clergy, they remind of the need for humility, without which repentance is impossible.

In preparing the material, the following works were used: "The Law of God", Archpriest Seraphim Sloboda Priest Mikhail Vorobyov, rector of the temple in honor of the Exaltation of the Holy Life-Giving Cross of the Lord in Volsk

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The liturgical clothes of the Orthodox Church have gone through a long history in their evolution - from the simple robes of Christ's apostles, yesterday's fishermen of Galilee - to the royal patriarchal attire, from the dark humble robes of the performers of the secret catacomb liturgies of the era of anti-Christian persecution to the magnificent festive services of Byzantium and Imperial Russia.
In the theological, liturgical sense, the basis of all Christian worship, as well as its external expression, including in liturgical vestments, is Holy Scripture. The Creator Himself, according to the inspired image of the Psalms, “dressed himself with light like a robe, and stretched out the sky like a tent” (Ps. 103). Christ the Savior in the teachings of the Apostle Paul appears as the Great Hierarch, Intercessor of the New Testament, "a merciful and faithful High Priest before God," a High Priest after the order of Melchizedek, "having an "undying priesthood," seated "at the right hand of the Throne of Majesty in heaven." John the Theologian in "Revelation" sees the heavenly temple: "and the throne stood in heaven, and on the throne was the One seated; and around the throne I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white robes and having crowns of gold on their heads” (Rev. 4:2-4). Here is the first description of the heavenly liturgy. The “whole armor of God” is also a prototype of church garments, about which the apostle Paul writes in the Epistle to the Ephesians: “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having your feet shod with readiness to proclaim peace, and above all, take the shield of faith, and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Eph. 6:11, 14-17). In these words, the symbolic meaning of liturgical garments is expressed with maximum completeness. They did not yet exist in the era of the Apostle Paul, but later, as they were formed, it was these apostolic words that formed the basis of their theological understanding. Often the holy fathers, referring to the interpretation of the meaning of certain accessories of church dignity, also compared them with the clothes of the Old Testament high priests described in detail in the Bible.
Historically, as we will see below, the picture in most cases looks both simpler and more complex. In the Orthodox East, both the liturgy as a whole and church robes in their diversity and development were influenced by two equally strong and profound, although opposite in nature, factors. "The Empire and the Desert" - this is how one of the best church historians designated the main driving contradiction of church life in Byzantium. In the wilderness, in the literal sense, in the great monasteries of Palestine and Egypt, the liturgical rule was born - the fruit of the thought of God and the prayers of ascetic monks. But, transferred to Constantinople, to the imperial throne, the church rite involuntarily had to reflect on itself a reflection of court splendor, which, in turn, led to a new theological understanding. As the professor of the Moscow Theological Academy A.P. Golubtsov, “it is enough to recall the sakkos, miter, multi-colored tablions or tablets on episcopal and archimandric robes, about sources or other-colored bands on surplices, about episcopal lamps and orlets, in order to stop doubting about borrowing some parts of church vestments from the royal Byzantine costume” .

The Byzantine stage in the development of liturgical vestments is represented by our well-known liturgical historians (A.A. Dmitrievsky, K.T. Nikolsky, N.N. Palmov) approximately in the following form. At the heart of almost every innovation lay the initiative of the emperor. One or another detail of royal ceremonial attire was first complained of in recognition of merit and merit, that is, as a reward, personally to one or another of the hierarchs. Thus, the documentary history of the bishop's miter begins with the fact that Emperor Basil II the Bulgar-Slayer granted Patriarch Theophilus of Jerusalem the right to "decorate himself in church (i.e. during worship) with a diadem." It was, explains A.L. Dmitrievsky, a sign of personal favor, “just like other emperors granted sakkos, handrails, a large omophorion or kundurs (shoes with Byzantine eagles embroidered in gold) to the patriarchs from their royal shoulder” . In other words, many characteristic accessories of this or that holy order in the church, which are now considered primordial for him, were originally in the nature of an award and a personal award.

The word reward itself, with its obviously Slavic appearance and meaning, entered the Russian language relatively late, not earlier than the end of the 17th - beginning of the 18th century, and in the modern specific sense (“to award with a miter or an order”) is completely an innovation of the 19th century. It is interesting that the primary figurative and poetic meaning of this word (to reward means “to heap on”, “collect one for the other”) coincides with the primary meaning of the Turkic origin, according to linguists, the word san (“ big number”, “top”, “glory”). In Old Russian word usage, the word “san” is found, among other things, in the sense of “a set of church vestments". The charter reads, for example, an instruction to serve the Paschal matins "in all the most illustrious rank." Church awards, figuratively speaking, are, as it were, “additions”, “additions” to a given rank, bringing its bearer closer to the next, hierarchically senior degree.

Before considering in more detail the system of church awards, usually associated with various accessories of the clergy and liturgical robes assigned to him, it is necessary to briefly, in general terms, remind the reader what liturgical robes are and what is the order of vesting of clergymen.

The Orthodox clergy (clergy) includes three degrees of church consecration: deacon, priest and bishop. The bearers of these three degrees are called clergymen. The junior ranks compared to the deacon: readers, singers (psalm readers), subdeacons (deacon's assistants) - make up the category of clergy or clergy (in Byzantine times there were much more categories of lower clerics: anagnostes, psalters and protop-salts, candilaptes, ekdiki and etc., in the Great Church, i.e. Hagia Sophia, the number of different categories of clergy reached thirty).

According to the church charter, the vestments of the clergy of the highest rank always include the vestments of the lower ones. The order of vesting is as follows: first they put on the clothes assigned to the lowest rank. So, the deacon first puts on the sticharion (Byzantine camisium, Roman alba), common to him with the subdeacons, and then attaches the orar assigned to him on his shoulder. The priest first dresses in deacon's clothes, and then in proper priestly ones. The bishop first puts on the robes of a deacon, then the robes of a priest, and then already those that belong to him as a bishop.
A distinctive accessory of the diaconal dignity are the surplice and orar. A surplice is a straight long, to the toe, clothing, like a shirt, with wide long sleeves, covering a person completely. As Archpriest Konstantin Nikolsky writes in his “Handbook for the Study of the Rule of Divine Services”: “The surplice marks the “robe of salvation and the garment of joy,” that is, a pure and calm conscience, a blameless life and spiritual joy. The clergyman, who dresses in a surplice at the liturgy, says a prayer: “My soul will rejoice in the Lord: clothe me (for you have clothed me) in the robe of salvation and clothe me with a garment of joy (clothed me); like a bridegroom, lay a crown on me (he laid a crown on me, like a bridegroom) and, like a bride, adorn me (decorated me) with beauty. Such a state of spiritual joy should be inherent in all participants in the divine service, therefore everyone - from a deacon to a bishop - puts on a surplice. Since priests and hierarchs wear a surplice under other robes, it is slightly modified accordingly and is called a vestment. When the bishop dresses, it is not he himself who reads the prayer, but the deacon, turning to him: "Let your soul rejoice in the Lord." It is not for nothing that the deacon compares his clothes with the attire of the bride and groom. “In lay life, from which it was taken for liturgical use, the surplice was the uniform of some court officials,” writes Academician E.E. Golubinsky in the History of the Russian Church is one of the types of clothing that the Greeks called chitons, and the Romans called tunics. The private name of the surplice comes from the Greek - "row, line, strip" and means that it was decorated with different-colored stripes that were sewn on or lined up on it. It was, as we think, taken from worldly life for church use, firstly, in remembrance of that non-sewn and seamless tunic of Christ, which the Gospel speaks of (John 19, 23), and secondly, because, being dressed at home clothes, he completely hides these latter and, therefore, as it were, hides a worldly person in the one who serves during the divine service.

The main liturgical difference of the deacon is the orarion, a long wide ribbon, which he wears on his left shoulder over the surplice, and the subdeacons gird it around their shoulders crosswise. The deacon girds himself with his orarion crosswise only at the liturgy, after the prayer "Our Father", preparing himself for the reception of the Holy Mysteries. When proclaiming prayers, at the words: “Let us listen”, “Bless, Master”, etc., he each time raises the end of the orarion with three fingers of his right hand. There are two opinions about the origin of the word orarion, which, however, do not contradict one another. Some raise the word to the Latin word orio - “prayer”. Others - to the Latin - "mouth", since in ancient times the deacon wiped the lips of those who took communion with an orarion. "Plant for wiping the face" is also known in classical Latin. In a symbolic interpretation, the deacons represent cherubim and seraphim, and the orarion in this sense symbolizes angelic wings. Sometimes an angelic song is embroidered on it: "Holy, Holy, Holy."
Archdeacons serving the Patriarch traditionally wore the orarion in a different way. They, unlike deacons, lowered the front, longer end of the orarion from the left shoulder under the right arm, encircled their backs, and then again lowered it forward over the left shoulder.
In Russia, before the revolution, only a very few protodeacons used the right to wear such a “double” orarion - for example, the protodeacon of the Resurrection Cathedral in New Jerusalem, since the service in it was performed according to the order of the Jerusalem Church of the Holy Sepulcher.
Currently, the double orarion is a common form of church award for deacons of the Russian Orthodox Church. The idea of ​​making it a church award was discussed for the first time in 1887 in the pages of the journal A Guide for Rural Shepherds by the famous historian and liturgist AL. Dmitrievsky. “There can be no obstacle to changing the current usual form of the orarion “in the likeness of the archdeacon and protodeacon,” he wrote, answering a question from one of the interested readers. —Our bishops can really award meritorious deacons with these oraries, which for some reason are assigned only to archdeacons and some of the protodeacons. In the East, in general, the deacon's orarion reaches a length of 7 arshins (almost 5 meters) and is worn in this way; the deacon, laying this orarion on his left shoulder, lowers it to the right side and, passing under his right hand, again lays it on his left shoulder and lowers the end to the ground, while looking to see that the two crosses on the orar lie on his shoulder next to him.
The liturgical garments of a priest (priest, or presbyter) include an epitrachelion, a belt, and a phelonion (upper chasuble). Epitrachelion in the old days was called “navynik”. It is the most important liturgical sign of the priesthood. By historical origin it is directly connected with the orar. In ancient times, a bishop, consecrating a deacon as a presbyter, did not place on him, as now, an embroidered epitrachelion, but transferred only the back end of the orarion to the right shoulder so that both of its ends remained in front.
Later, epitrachili began to be made folding, with buttons in the middle. Therefore, even now crosses are sewn on the stole, two in a row, depicting a double-folded orarion.
According to its theological, symbolic meaning, epitrachelion means the special (i.e., double) grace of the priesthood: the first time a priest receives it at his ordination to the diaconate, the second time - at the ordination of a priest.

The priest's belt in ancient times was also different from the modern one. It was a cord (rope) or a narrow braid. Regarding the origin of the current wide priestly belts, church historians do not have a single opinion. According to the well-known historian of the Russian Church, Academician E.E. Golubinsky, "they are our national form, that is, they are taken from our own everyday life (from the South Russian folk costume)" . A.A. Dmitrievsky, a specialist in the Orthodox East, objected: "Such belts are used in the East in liturgical practice everywhere: in Jerusalem, on Sinai, Athos, Patmos, in Athens and in other places." In the sacristies of the eastern monasteries, the researcher saw "many wide silk belts, with metal, sometimes openwork, very skillful work, buckles, even decorated with precious stones" .

In Byzantine times, priests wore a handbrake on their belts - “the same towel,” E.E. Golubinsky, - which is currently hanging on a small tax near the throne. With such an enchiridion on her belt, the Most Holy Theotokos is depicted on the altar mosaic of the 10th century in St. Sophia Cathedral in Constantinople.
The priestly robe is called a phelonion. However, in the Greek language "phelonion" is also a borrowing (according to some sources, from Persian). According to the cut, the phelonion "was a bell-shaped garment that covered the entire priest from head to toe, front and back." According to the interpretation of one of the Byzantine writers, it is “like a wall and depicts entering with the fear of God into inner house mind and there is an interview with God. It is no coincidence that the icon, on which the Mother of God is depicted in such a bell-shaped phelonion, is called “Addition of the Mind”.
In Latin, the phelonion is called differently - "house". In the Italian city of Loreto, where the “House of the Mother of God” transported by the crusaders from Nazareth is located in the temple, the Mother of God is depicted on a local miraculous icon in the same “felony house” as on our “Increasing the Mind” icons. In the monastery of the Black Madonna in Alt-Etting (Germany), called the "liturgical heart of Bavaria", in such preciously decorated bell-shaped phelonions, not only the Mother of God, but also the Infant in Her arms are depicted.
The modern form of the phelonion has changed significantly in comparison with the ancient one, and has become more convenient for sacred rites. The large cutout at the bottom front has led to the fact that if a modern phelonion is cut in the middle in front, not a circle is formed, but a semicircle. In addition, crosses are now sewn onto the phelonion, while back in the 15th century, at the time of the famous interpreter of the liturgy, Simeon of Thessalonica, only bishops could wear a cross-shaped phelonion (polystauri).

Handrails, as an independent part in the vestments of the clergy, also came from the Byzantine imperial attire, where they were originally a necessary addition to the royal dalmatic. The surplice or tunic that looked out from under the short sleeves of the Dalmatic was designed to cover the cuffs, or armlets. Thus, they, like other parts of liturgical vestments, as we see, have a historically determined, completely functional origin in terms of costume, and only under the pen of later theologian writers did they receive a special symbolic and liturgical justification.
Initially received as a reward, an imperial award only by court bishops, they spread from the 12th-13th centuries. on priests (initially also not on all), by the end of the XIV century. became their obligatory liturgical accessory, and in the 15th century, again as a distinction, they appeared among the archdeacons. Today, in Russian liturgical practice, handrails are a necessary accessory for both deacon and priestly and episcopal robes. In addition to practical convenience (they tighten the edges of the sleeves, strengthening them, freeing the hands for the sacred service), the handrails also carry a specific theological burden. Putting the handrail on his right hand, the priest says a prayer: “Thy right hand, Lord, be glorified in the fortress; Thy right hand, O Lord, crush (crushed) the enemies, and with the multitude of Thy glory thou hast erased (destroyed) adversaries” (Mech. 15:6-7). Putting on the left handrail, the priest says: “Your hands (hands) created me and create me (created me): give me understanding (me), and I will learn your commandment” (Ps. 118, 73). In a symbolic interpretation, the instructions of the priest and bishop, depicting Christ the Savior at the liturgy, are reminiscent of the bonds with which His hands were bound.
Among the accessories of the priestly ministry is also a gaiter - a quadrangular oblong board, which is hung on ribbons to the belt at the two upper corners. The gaiter is a purely Russian phenomenon; in the Orthodox East it is not among the liturgical garments. Epigonatius (see below), which among the Greeks is included in the vestments of bishops, archimandrites and some archpriests, is what we call a club.
By symbolic meaning the cuisse signifies "the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God" (Eph. 6:17). With this sword, the priest is armed against unbelief, heresy, wickedness. Wearing a loincloth at the liturgy, he pronounces the lines of the psalm: “Gird up Your sword on Your thigh, Strong One, with Your beauty and Your goodness. And succeed, and reign, for the sake of truth, and meekness, and righteousness, and Your right hand will instruct Thee marvelously ”(Ps. 44, 4-5). The archpriest and archimandrite may, in addition to the legguard, also have a club. She, like the legguard, is a spiritual reward for the priesthood (see below).
The right granted to archimadrites as a reward to use a miter and staff during worship should be regarded as one of the manifestations general trend development Orthodox worship- in terms of the elevation of the lower rank to the higher, the gradual transfer of the signs and features of the hierarchal service to the service of the archimandrite.
The same tendency is clearly manifested in another church award: the permission for archpriests and archimandrites to celebrate the Liturgy at the open Royal Doors until the time of the Cherubim or even before the Our Father prayer, as happens during episcopal service.

Let's move on to episcopal robes. The main liturgical sign of a bishop is an omophorion - a shoulder pad, or, in Old Church Slavonic, an amice. Omophorus, in other words, maforium, could have various forms: cover not only the shoulders, but also the neck, sometimes - like the Mother of God on the icons - and the head. The veil that the Most Holy Theotokos spread, in the vision of Andrew the Holy Fool, over the believers in the Vlachris Church, was her maphorium. As it is sung in one of their stichera of the Feast of the Intercession, “cover, O Lady, with the omophorion of your mercy our country and all the people.” The first episcopal omophorion was, according to legend, woven by the Virgin Mary herself for the righteous Lazarus, when she visited him in Cyprus, where he ministered for thirty years after the Lord resurrected him, “in the city of Kiteysky” (now Larnaca).
As for Byzantine documentary evidence, the oldest of them is connected with the activities of St. Mitrofan, Archbishop of Constantinople (325). The omophorion, according to St. Isidore Pelusiot (436), was always made "from a wave (wool), and not from linen, since it symbolizes a saved lost sheep." This idea is also expressed in the prayer that is pronounced when the omophorion is placed on the shoulders of the bishop: “On Ramo, Christ, you took the lost nature and, lifting it up, brought it to God and the Father” (i.e. “on your shoulders you took our sinful human nature and lifted up - at the Ascension - to God").
Iconographic images (the oldest ones are in the Menology of Emperor Basil, early 11th century) testify to the initial existence of two types of omophorion: in the form of a wide ribbon, which has survived to this day, and in the form of the so-called "double stole". As E.E. wrote Golubinsky, “if you take two priestly stoles and, having cut off the cervical opening from one, sew it to the cervical opening of the other with opposite side, then this, so to speak, double stole will be the omophorion of the second form. Worn around the neck, it fell down with both ends to hang freely, so that it represented, over the bishop's phelonion, as it were, two epitrachili - front and back.
Byzantine historians explain the origin of the form of the so-called "wide" episcopal omophorion generally accepted today as follows. “The main difference between an official in ancient Rome was lor — a wide purple border around the tunic of senators and consuls. Then, even in pre-imperial times, it separated - it became a consular wide bandage around the neck, falling to the chest. When the lor passed from the consuls to the emperors, they began to decorate it with precious stones and pearls. This lore, adorned only with crosses and fringe, became a sign of episcopal dignity, replacing the simple, ancient omophorion.
And here, in the history of the omophorion, we again encounter the fact of the original gift or award character of the most important church distinction. Just as at first only 12 major Byzantine dignitaries had the right to wear a wide imperial lore, so the Council of Constantinople in 869 allowed only certain bishops to wear a large omophorion (like lore) and only on certain holidays. (This was, of course, not about the omophorion in general, but specifically about the large omophorion of the type of the imperial lore). Moreover, the width of the omophorion depended on the hierarchical height of the bishop. The higher the position occupied by the chair on the hierarchical ladder, the wider was the omophorion of the bishop, a narrow omophorion, similar to the deacon's orarion (such are the omophorions of saints on the Ravenna mosaics of the 6th century), were worn either by worshipers of special antiquity, or by primates of one of the lower degrees in the list of chairs. Similarly, another emblematic bishop's garment, the sakkos, was originally the garment of only one Byzantine emperor. Sakkos (Greek - "bag"; the word is believed to be of Hebrew origin) was in ancient times a narrow long tunic, worn over the head and in appearance fully justified the name "bag". According to the place of its origin, from Dalmatia (modern Croatia), this clothing in the Byzantine royal everyday life was called dalmatic. Sometimes, for the convenience of dressing, the dalmatic was cut on the sides and the cuts were tied with braid or fastened with brooches. On the bishop's sakkos, the brooches were later replaced by the so-called bells (bells) - in the image of the clothes of the Old Testament high priest.
The dalmatic (= sakkos) entered the vestments of the Patriarch of Constantinople at the same time as he became available to the highest categories of Byzantine court nobles (XII-XII centuries). But even in the thirteenth century The patriarch put on the sakkos only on three major holidays: at Easter, at Christmas and at Pentecost, on other days, even holidays, being content with the bishop's phelonion. Back in the 15th century. Simeon of Thessalonica, answering the question, “why the bishops do not wear either a polystauri (cross-shaped phelonion) or a sakkos, and if they put it on, then what’s wrong with that,” answered: “Everyone should keep what belongs to his rank, because to do that what is not given, and to receive what is not due, is characteristic of pride.

But the development of church clothing in this case, as in others, did not follow the line strict observance hierarchical differences, but, on the contrary, in the direction of "adding" to each of the junior ranks hallmarks senior rank. In the XVI century. sakkos are in general use among the Greek bishops. Our metropolitans of the first centuries of the existence of the Russian Church did not have either a saccos or a polystaurium (let us recall that in the petitions - the lists of the episcopal sees of the Patriarchate of Constantinople - the Russian Metropolis initially occupied a very modest 61st place). But in 1346, the Metropolitan of Kiev had already blessed (granted) the Archbishop of Novgorod Vasily Kalik "cross-shaped vestments" - polystaurium. The metropolitan himself at that time already had a sakkos. Basil's successor, Bishop Moses of Novgorod, receives "cross-shaped robes" directly from Constantinople, from Patriarch Philotheus, as confirmation of his dignity. Sakkos remained at that time the personal property of the Metropolitan. The oldest surviving Russian sakkos was brought by Metropolitan Photius, Saint of Moscow, from Greece and dates back to 1414-1417.

After the establishment of the patriarchate in Russia in 1589, the sakkos becomes the iconic vestment of the Patriarch of Moscow and the primates of the four metropolitanates established at the same time - in Novgorod, Kazan, Rostov and Krutitsy. The patriarchal sakkos differed from the metropolitan's in the apron - a sewn-on epitrachelion studded with pearls - in the image of the biblical Aaron's henchman (Ex. 28, 15-24). The sakkos became a common episcopal affiliation only after the abolition of the patriarchate under Peter the Great. (From 1702 - as distinguishing feature some of the bishops, since 1705 - as a common affiliation of the dignity).
Another distinctive element of the episcopal liturgical attire is epshonatiy, in Russian - police (i.e. "small sex") or, in common parlance, club. The club is a square (more precisely, diamond-shaped) board, which is hung on the belt at one end on a long ribbon, so that it hangs on the hip in a rhombus, really resembling a weapon - a sword or a club. When a bishop is dressed, when a club is hung, the same prayer is said as when a priest is dressed with a legguard: “Gird up your sword on your thigh” (Ps. 44, 4-5).
If the legguard is among the awards for priests (usually this is the first award), then the club is an obligatory accessory of the liturgical attire of a bishop, and archimandrites and archpriests are also given only as a reward. Archimandrites have long (and now archpriests) usually wear both a cuisse and a club. At the same time, the bishop's club is placed on top of the sakkos. Archimandrites and archpriests put on both a club and a cuisse under a phelonion on a ribbon over their shoulders. The priest wears a gaiter on his right side. If the archpriest (or archimandrite) is awarded sweat and a club, it is placed on the right, and the cuisse on the left.

On the chest, the priest during divine services wears a pectoral cross (from Old Slavic Persi - “breast”), and bishops wear a cross with decorations and a panagia - a small round image of the Savior or the Mother of God. For a bishop, the reward may be a second panagia.
Initially, bishops and presbyters, like all believing Christians, wore only pectoral encolpion crosses on their chests under their clothes. Encolpions could contain particles of holy relics and in this case were called reliquaries. Wearing a smartly decorated reliquary on the chest, over formal clothes, was the prerogative of the emperor (in Byzantium) or the grand dukes - and later tsars - in Muscovite Russia.
"Panagia" was the name of a part of the liturgical prosphora, taken out on the proskomedia in honor of the Most Holy Theotokos. In the eastern cenobitic monasteries, the rite of the ascension was performed. Panagia - at the end of the fraternal meal.
In the era of Metropolitan Cyprian and Sergius of Radonezh, in the last quarter of the 14th century, this custom also came to Russian monasteries, and then, obviously, under the influence of the corresponding Byzantine royal rites, to the practice of the grand ducal and royal meals. But if in stationary conditions, in a monastery or in a palace, it was convenient to store and carry the Mother of God bread in a special vessel, panagiara, then in field conditions (and bishops, like princes, most of the time, especially at Russian distances, were forced to spend in traveling) it was more convenient chest round shape the ark, to which the name of its contents, the panagia, passed.
In any case, ancient Russian ecclesiastical and tsarist practice knows both functional uses of the panagia. The oldest panagia that has come down to us is a silver double-leaf panagia from the Moscow Simonov Monastery with images of the Ascension on the lid, the Trinity and Our Lady of the Sign on the inner wings. This is a typical monastery panagia. About a similar panagia from the Annunciation Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, with the image of the Almighty and the Evangelists on the lid, it is positively known that it was worn "on campaigns to the Great Sovereign at the tables."
Later, the panagia, having entered the vestments of bishops, lost its original functional purpose, turning into a symbolic regalia - a round or figured breast icon of the Savior or the Mother of God.
The episcopal vestments are completed by a special liturgical headdress called a miter. The miter can rightfully be considered one of the most mysterious headdresses. The word itself has no Greek etymology, despite the fact that it occurs for the first time already in Homer's Iliad. But not in the sense of a headdress. Homer calls the underarm bandage of one of the characters "mitre". Most likely, the word (in the primary everyday meaning - “bandage”, “connection”; cf. Old Slavonic faded - “headband of the high priest”) represents an early Iranian borrowing in Greek - from the time of the Scythian-Cimmerian contacts. One-root is the name of the pagan ancient Iranian god Mithra, who was originally revered as the "patron of connections and alliances" (a closely related Iranian root is also presented in Sanskrit).
The second riddle is related to the fact that the modern episcopal miter is in no way associated in appearance with the Persian, generally exotic oriental, headband. Although the Old Testament high-priestly kidar is now sometimes called a miter (Exodus 28:4), this has only a figurative meaning: neither in Russian, nor in Greek, nor in Latin translations of Holy Scripture, we will find this word. The modern miter is not similar to the episcopal bandages of the Christian first bishops.
The fact is that the Greek clergy call the miter a crown (korsoua) or a crown - the same as the royal crown is called. This similarity, according to A.A. Dmitrievsky, "speaks for the fact that the episcopal miter and the royal crown are by nature homogeneous." In imperial life, the crown also did not appear immediately. Equal-to-the-Apostles Constantine the Great, according to legend, received from the East a diadem (cloth bandage, later replaced by a metal hoop). Another of the great Christian emperors, Blessed Justinian, already wore a gold hoop, with a soft cap inside and gold cruciform temples topped with a cross on top (i.e., a cap, as if covered with a gold star).
Constantine's deed of gift to Pope Sylvester, granting him the imperial crown, is, of course, apocryphal. But, as we have already said, at the turn of the X-XI centuries. Byzantine emperor Basil authentically granted the Jerusalem Patriarch Theophilus the right to use the royal diadem in liturgical services.
However, the famous interpreter of Orthodox worship, Archbishop Simeon of Thessalonica, who wrote in the 15th century, does not yet describe the hierarchical mitres - and even considers it superfluous for a hierarch to wear any kind of headdress during worship: -or, but according to the word of the Apostle Paul: honoring Christ as the Head, we must have uncovered heads during prayer ... And especially the hierarch. After all, at the time of ordination, he has the Gospel on his head, therefore he should not have another cover when he performs the priesthood.
In the Orthodox East, the miter retained the form of a royal crown in subsequent times. As A.A. Dmitrievsky, “It was quite natural for Greek national pride after the fall of Constantinople in 1453 to place the crown of emperors that no longer exist on the head of their Ecumenical Patriarch, the head and sole guardian of the interests of Orthodoxy in the entire Muslim East.” From the Patriarch, according to the principle already known to us of awarding the younger insignia to the elders, the miter-crowns also passed to the metropolitans and bishops subordinate to the Patriarch. However, even in the XVI-XVII centuries. Eastern hierarchs, except for patriarchs, avoided the use of Met. Even now, when several bishops serve, only the eldest in consecration serves in the mitre.
In Moscow, an episcopal miter of the crown type was first seen in 1619 on Patriarch Feofan of Jerusalem, who arrived to head the enthronement of Patriarch Filaret of Moscow. Later, a lover of Greek customs, Patriarch Nikon, ordered a miter of this form for himself in the East. (It is now kept in the Historical Museum.)
As for the warm, padded with cotton wool and trimmed with ermine, Russian bishop's caps that replaced mitres in the pre-Nikonian time, this, according to historians, is nothing more than ancient Russian grand ducal caps, with which the same thing happened as in the East with a miter-crown. They were originally a generous gift "from their heads" of pious Russian princes, not to everyone at once, but at first only to the most worthy, most revered of the hierarchs. By the time of Nikon, these hats were the standard accessory of metropolitans.
For archimandrites and archpriests, the right to wear a mitre during divine services is a church award (see below).

One of the most noticeable outward differences of the episcopal dignity during worship is a staff - with a small head, as a rule, with serpentine horns and a special board, the so-called sulk. The staff (in the ceremonial version, also called a baton) in the hands of a bishop serves, according to the interpretation of Orthodox canonists, "a sign of power over subordinates and their lawful control."
The staff in its long ecclesiastical liturgical evolution went through the same stages as the sakkos or miter described above. On the one hand, the relationship of the shepherd's crook with the usual shepherd's crook is indisputable. When the Lord, in a conversation on Lake Tiberias, says to the Apostle Peter three times: “Feed my sheep!”, He, according to church historians, returns to him the shepherd’s crook, which in the early Christian community was a sign of apostolic dignity, lost by Peter on the night of the triple denial of the Savior . This meaning is also meant by the apostle Paul when he says in 1 Corinthians: “What do you want? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love and a spirit of meekness?” (1 Cor. 4:21).
Each of the parts of the episcopal baton has not only a symbolic, theological, but also a direct functional purpose, determined by pastoral (= pastoral) practice. A Latin proverb describing the bishop's staff reads: “The curved top attracts, gathers; the direct part rules, holds; the tip executes. On the staff of the Patriarch of Moscow Filaret Nikitich, the father of the first tsar from the Romanov dynasty, Mikhail, it was written: "(rod) of government, punishment, approval, execution."
In the history of the archpastoral staff, the matter was also not without the influence of Byzantine imperial rituals and etiquette. The newly elected Patriarch of Constantinople received his staff after the panagia in the palace from the hands of the king. And in its structure, with the exception of the upper part, this patriarchal dikannik was similar to the royal one: smooth, silver-gilded, beautiful and expensive. So, gradually, from a sign of shepherding, the staff turns into a sign of dominion.
Thus, in the history of the staff, the influence of the Empire is closely combined with the legacy of the Desert. Abbot's staffs, as in the Greek East, were smooth, without the so-called apples, or intercepts, usually black, single-horned (like a stick) or with a simple transverse handle topped with a cross. It was convenient to lean on such a staff during long laborious services.
Episcopal rods were, as a rule, decorated with one or another number of "apples", with carvings - on wood, bone, metal, stone - with sacred images. In the XVII-XVIII centuries. the hierarch's rods were completely covered with precious stones, pearls, filigree and enamel. Very few hierarchs, like St. Theodosius of Chernigov, even in the bishopric preferred to remain with a modest monastic staff.
It must, however, be borne in mind that the ceremonial liturgical baton of a hierarch differs significantly from the everyday staff used on hierarchal outings.
Curved snakes on the episcopal staff have appeared since the time of Patriarch Nikon in imitation of the Greek East, where a serpent or dragon, trampled by Christ (or saints) or pierced by a cross, is a very common symbol.

A real innovation that appeared in the Russian Church from the middle of the 17th century was the sulok (from the Russian dialectal suvolok) - a quadrangular, double-folded board attached to the upper part of the bishop's and archimandrite's staff. A.L. Dmitrievsky believed that the sulok had a functional purpose - to protect the hierarch's hand from the cold during winter services in the cold. According to another, more convincing explanation, the origin of this element, which has now acquired a purely decorative meaning, is based on religious and psychological reasons. In this sense, the sulok is a variety of the enchirilium mentioned above - the priestly handbrake. With the development of a sense of holiness in relation to liturgical objects, taking a staff with a bare hand began to seem as sacrilegious as taking a deacon or a priest by hand with the holy Gospel [I, p. 275-276].
Today, a wand without a sulk is the exclusive privilege of the Patriarch. Also a feature of the Patriarchal Liturgy is the right of the Patriarch to enter the altar with a rod through the Royal Doors, while other bishops, entering the altar, give the rod to the subdeacon, who holds it in his hands, standing to the right of the Royal Doors. As the sulki themselves often became a work of church art, and sometimes even the highest award to one or another hierarch, they began to be treated with more care than the staff itself, and the assistant deacons, who carry and take care of the bishop's staff during the service, it is their did not dare to touch.