Front cassock. Priest Robes

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 in 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-color stripes on surplices, about episcopal lamps and orlets, 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 centuries, 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 reward”, “to collect one for the other”) coincides with the primary meaning of the Turkic origin, according to linguists, the word san (“large number”, “top”, "glory"). In Old Russian word usage, the word “san” is also found 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 it, 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 surplice (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 “A Guide to 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 secular 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 it under his right hand, puts it on his left shoulder again and lowers the end to the ground, while looking to see that the two crosses on the orarion 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 the inner house of the 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 the 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", not only the Mother of God, but also the Infant in Her arms are depicted in such preciously decorated bell-shaped phelonions.
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, whereas 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 close the handrails, 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.
According to the symbolic meaning, the legguard marks “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, O 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 the miter and staff during worship should be regarded as one of the manifestations of the general trend in the development of Orthodox worship - in terms of the elevation of the lower rank to the highest, the gradual transfer of 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 Lord's 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. The omophorion, 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 erring 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 stole and, having cut off the neck hole from one, sew it to the neck hole of the other from the 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 lor, so the Council of Constantinople in 869 allowed only some 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 proceed along the line of strict observance of hierarchical differences, but, on the contrary, in the direction of “adding” to each of the junior ranks the distinguishing features of a 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 sakkos 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 Kyiv 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.

Upon 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 a distinctive feature of some of the bishops, from 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 one of 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 Slavonic Persi - “chest”), 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 ritual, to the practice of the grand duke and royal meal. 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 to have a chest round shape of the reliquary, to which the name of its contents was transferred - panagia.
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 (Ex. 28:4), this has only a figurative meaning: neither in Russian, nor in Greek, nor in Latin translations of Holy Scripture, we will not 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 hierarchal mitres - and even considers it superfluous for a hierarch to wear a 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 ermine-lined 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 the bishop serves, according to the interpretation of Orthodox canonists, "a sign of power over subordinates and the lawful management of them."
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 interceptions, 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 appeared from 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, carrying and protecting the bishop's staff during the service, it was their did not dare to touch.

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 - skufya 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 served. 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. In 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 Savior's suffering on the Cross and is associated with the memories of the scarlet dress 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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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 - skufya 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.

Archpriest Seraphim Slobodskoy
Law of God

Priests and their sacred garments (vestments)

Following the example of the Old Testament Church, where there was a high priest, priests and Levites, the holy Apostles established in the New Testament Christian Church three degrees of priesthood: bishops, presbyters (i.e. priests) and deacons.

All of them are called clergy because through the sacrament of the priesthood they receive the grace of the Holy Spirit for the sacred service of the Church of Christ; perform worship, teach people the Christian faith and good life (piety) and manage church affairs.

Bishops constitute the highest rank in the Church. They receive the highest degree of grace. Bishops are also called bishops, i.e., the chiefs of the priests (priests). Bishops can make all Sacraments and all church services. This means that bishops have the right not only to celebrate the usual Divine service, but also to consecrate (ordain) to the clergy, as well as to consecrate myrrh and antimensions, which is not given to priests.

According to the degree of priesthood, all bishops among themselves equal, but the oldest and most meritorious of bishops are called archbishops, metropolitan bishops are called metropolitans, since the capital is called in Greek the metropolis. Bishops of ancient capitals, such as: Jerusalem, Constantinople (Tsargrad), Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, and since the 16th century the Russian capital of Moscow, are called patriarchs.

Between 1721 and 1917, the Russian Orthodox Church was governed by the Holy Synod. In 1917, the Holy Council that met in Moscow again elected "His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia" to govern the Russian Orthodox Church.

Sometimes another bishop is given to assist the bishop, who is then called vicar, i.e. viceroy.

Priests, but in Greek priests or presbyters, constitute the second sacred rank after the bishop. Priests can perform, with the blessing of the bishop, all the sacraments and church services, except for those that are supposed to be performed only by the bishop, that is, except for the sacrament of the priesthood and the consecration of the world and antimensions.

The Christian community, subordinated to the conduct of the priest, is called his arrival.

More worthy and honored priests are given the title archpriest, i.e. the chief priest, or the leading priest, and the chief among them is the title protopresbyter.

If the priest is at the same time monk, then it is called hieromonk, i.e., a priestly monk. Hieromonks, according to their appointment as abbots of monasteries, and sometimes regardless of this, as an honorary distinction, are given the title abbot or higher rank archimandrite. The most worthy of the archimandrites are elected bishops.

Deacons constitute the third, lowest, sacred rank. "Deacon" is a Greek word and means "servant".

Deacons serve the bishop or priest during Divine services and the celebration of the sacraments, but they themselves cannot perform them.

The participation of a deacon in Divine services is not obligatory, and therefore in many churches the service takes place without a deacon.

Some deacons are awarded the title protodeacon, i.e., the first deacon.

A monk who has received the rank of deacon is called hierodeacon, and the senior hierodeacon - archdeacon.

In addition to the three sacred ranks, there are also lower official positions in the Church: subdeacons, psalmists(deacons) and sexton. They belong to the number clergy, are appointed to their position not through the sacrament of the Priesthood, but only according to the hierarchical order, blessedly so.

Readers It is their duty to read and sing, both during Divine services in the church on the kliros, and during the performance of spiritual services by the priest in the homes of parishioners.

Ponomari it is their duty to call the faithful to the service by ringing the bells, to light candles in the church, to serve the censer, to help the psalm-readers in reading and singing, and so on.

subdeacons participate only in hierarchical service. They dress the bishop in sacred clothes, hold lamps (trikirii and dikirii) and give them to the bishop to bless those who pray with them.

Clergymen, for the performance of divine services, must wear special sacred garments. Sacred garments are made of brocade or some other suitable material and are decorated with crosses.

clothes deacon are: surplice, orarion and handrails.

Vestments priest are: underdress, epitrachelion, belt, handrails and phelonion(or riza).

Belt It is put on over the stole and vestment and marks the 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.

On top of the chasuble, on the chest of the priest is pectoral cross.

Bishop (bishop) puts on all the clothes of a priest: underdress, stole, belt, handrails, only his riza 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 below and in the sleeves, so that from under the sakkos the bishop can see both the underdress and the stole. Sakkos, like the priest's robe, marks the Savior's scarlet.

On their shoulders, over the sakkos, bishops wear omophorion. The omophorion is a long, wide, ribbon-like platter adorned 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.

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.

Home clothes bishop, priest and deacon make up a cassock (half-caftan) and cassock. Over the cassock, on the chest bishop wears cross and panagia, a Priest - cross.

The color of liturgical priestly vestments, vestments of thrones and veils(at the Royal Doors) symbolizes holidays, events, days of memory on which worship is performed.

- Golden (yellow) all shades (Royal color).
Days of memory of the prophets, apostles, saints, Equal-to-the-Apostles, other servants of the Church, as well as the faithful kings and princes, and on Lazarus Saturday (sometimes they also serve in white).
Golden robes are used in Sunday services, and also on most days of the year, unless someone is commemorated.

- White (Divine color).
Holidays: Nativity of Christ, Epiphany, Meeting, Transfiguration and Ascension, on Lazarus Saturday (sometimes also served in yellow), disembodied heavenly forces, as well as at the beginning of the Easter service. White vestments symbolize the light that shone from the tomb of Jesus Christ at His Resurrection.

white chasubles are used when performing the sacrament of baptism, weddings and funeral services, as well as when putting on a newly appointed priest.

- Blue (the color of Supreme purity and purity).
Feasts of the Theotokos: Annunciation, Deposition of the Robe, Assumption, Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos, Intercession, Introduction, Days of Remembrance of the Icons of the Mother of God.

The blue color of various shades, up to blue, have the robes of metropolitans.

- Purple or dark red.
Holy Week of Great Lent; The origin (wearing) of the honest trees of the Life-Giving Cross of the Lord; Exaltation of the Holy Cross.

Violet color have episcopal and archbishop's robes, as well as award skufis and kamilavkas.

- Red, Dark red, Burgundy, Crimson.
The color of the holidays and days of memory of the martyrs. Maundy Thursday.
At Easter - the joy of the Resurrection of Christ. In the days of memory of the martyrs - the color of the blood of the martyrs.

- Green (the color of life-giving and eternal life).
Holidays and days of memory of the saints, ascetics, holy fools, the feast of the "Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem", the Day of the Holy Trinity.

The mantle of the patriarch has a green color.

- Dark blue, Purple, Dark green, Dark red, Black.
The color of fasting and repentance. Great post.
Black is used mainly during the days of Great Lent, on Sundays and holidays of which, the use of vestments with gold or colored trim is allowed.

Hierarchy and vestments.

Bishopor hierarch, archpastor, saint - common names for clergymen of the highest (third) degree of the church hierarchy - bishops, archbishops, metropolitans, exarchs and patriarchs. He must be a monk.

Only a bishop has the right to ordain deacons, presbyters and bishops, to consecrate churches according to the full order.

The bishop who heads the diocese is called ruling: all members of the Church who are in the diocese, all church institutions and educational institutions, monasteries and Orthodox brotherhoods are subject to his authority and care.

Priest, and in Greek priests or presbyters, constitute the second sacred rank after the bishop. Priests can perform, with the blessing of the bishop, all the sacraments and church services, except for those that are supposed to be performed only by the bishop, that is, except for the sacrament of the priesthood and the consecration of the world and antimensions.

The Christian community, subordinated to the conduct of the priest, is called his arrival.

The more worthy and honored priests are given the title of archpriest, that is, the chief priest, or the leading priest, and the title between them is given to the chief protopresbyter.

If a priest is at the same time a monk, then he is called a hieromonk, i.e. a priestly monk. Hieromonks, according to their appointment as abbots of monasteries, and sometimes regardless of this, as an honorary distinction, are given the title abbot or higher rank archimandrite. The most worthy of the archimandrites are elected bishops.

Deacons make up the third, lowest, sacred rank. "Deacon" The word is Greek and means minister.

Deacons serve the bishop or priest during Divine services and the celebration of the sacraments, but they themselves cannot perform them.

The participation of a deacon in Divine services is not obligatory, and therefore in many churches the service takes place without a deacon.

Some deacons are honored with the title of protodeacon, i.e., first deacon.

A monk who has received the rank of deacon is called a hierodeacon, and a senior hierodeacon is called an archdeacon.

In addition to the three sacred ranks, there are also lower official positions in the Church: subdeacons, psalmists (clerks), and sextons. They, belonging to the ranks of the clergy, are appointed to their position not through the sacrament of the Priesthood, but only according to the hierarchical order, blessedly.

Readers It is their duty to read and sing, both during Divine services in the church on the kliros, and during the performance of spiritual services by the priest in the homes of parishioners.

Ponomari(now in parish churches they call- altar servers) have their duty to call the faithful to Divine service by ringing bells, light candles in the temple, serve a censer, help the psalm-readers in reading and singing, and so on. For sextons, we have a separate page on our website "Altar Server Page".

subdeacons participate only in hierarchical service. They dress the bishop in sacred clothes, hold lamps (trikirii and dikirii) and give them to the bishop to bless those who pray with them.

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.

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

ROBING OF THE DEACON
(ROBING OF A HIERODEACON, A DEACON)

(hierodeacon) comprises cassock, handrail, surplice and orarius.

SURPLICE

Long liturgical vestments of clergy and clergy with a hole for the head and with wide sleeves, they also wear it subdeacons. The right to wear surplice can be given to both psalm-readers and laity serving in the temple. or underdress is common vestments of the clergy. By time of origin surplice is the oldest attire. For deacons and lower clerics- this is upper liturgical vestment, for priests and bishops surplice becomes wider and more spacious than the diaconal and is called underwear over which others are put on vestments symbolizes salvation clothes and made of light-colored matter. Sometimes on the sides and sleeves surplice ribbons are sewn on, signifying the bonds by which he was bound Jesus Christ, and the blood that flowed from his rib. Slits under the sleeves surplice personify the perforated rib of jesus christ, a mantles from materials of other colors symbolize the ulcers from his scourging.

HISTORY OF THE COTCHAR

In ancient times vestment similar surplice was known by such names as, for example, alba, tunic. They all meant ordinary undergarments worn by men and women in ancient times. used in all ancient churches. In ancient times surplice made of linen and it was white, as indicated by one of its names - alba (white). symbolizes the bright life of those dressed in it, personifies purity and purity.

ORAR

orarion(outdated - orary) belongs to liturgical vestments of a deacon and liturgical vestments of a subdeacon. In Orthodoxy orarion is a property and liturgical vestments of protodeacons, as well as corresponding to them in the black clergy - hierodeacons and archdeacons. orarion performed in the form of a long narrow ribbon of brocade or other colored material. In Orthodoxy deacon wears orarion over surplice on the left shoulder, where it is reinforced with a buttonhole, and its ends hang freely almost to the floor from the side of the chest and back. orarion can be different color like others liturgical vestments. In Orthodoxy unofficially orarem reward senior or experienced altar servers.

HISTORY AND SYMBOLIC SIGNIFICANCE OF ORARY

It is believed that the prototype orarius New Testament Church is ubrus(towel), which in the Old Testament synagogues gave a sign by which they proclaimed "Amen" when reading the Holy Scriptures. orarion is a symbol of the wings of an angel, while he himself deacon personifies an angel who fulfills the will of God. Besides, orarion reputed to be a symbolic image of grace sent down deacon how clergyman.

DRESSING IN ORARIO

In the process of initiation (chirotession) in subdeacon the first thing happens vestment in orarion. After vestments newcomer to surplice, other subdeacons bring orarion the bishop who overshadows orarion the sign of the cross, after which the initiate kisses orarion and the hand of the bishop, and subdeacons cruciformly encircle the initiate orarem. At ordination (ordination) subdeacon in deacon they take him down orarion with which he was girded, and the bishop lays orarion on his left shoulder, while saying: "Axios" (from Greek - "Worthy"). In Orthodoxy deacon and subdeacon put on orarion over surplice only after the blessing received from the priest before the divine service. The blessing procedure includes a triple sign of the cross and bows to the cross of the Lord, after which surplice and orarion are added in a special way (at the same time, the composition liturgical vestments of a deacon are included and handrails) and are brought to the priest with the words: “Bless, Vladyka, the surplice with the orarion.” After receiving a blessing from the priest in the form of the sign of the cross, deacon's vestments and subdeacon.

DOUBLE ORARY

In Orthodoxy after five years of service deacon receives the first award - the right to wear double orarion. One of two oraries put on as usual deacon, a second orarion goes from the left shoulder, goes down to the right thigh, and joins here at the ends. Liturgical vestments of the archdeacon and protodeacon is protodeacon orarion, which is different from double orarion by the fact that nine, and not seven, are hung on it, as on a simple and double orary, crosses and the presence of the words "Holy, holy, holy", as well as rich embroidery.

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

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.

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.

On top of the chasuble, on the chest of the priest is pectoral cross.

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, meaning the spiritual sword, as well as head ornaments - skufya and kamilavka.

Vestments of a priest, archpriest, hieromonk and archimandrite.

PHELONY(RIZA)

phelonion(in everyday life - riza) - top liturgical vestments of priests, and in some cases vestments of bishops. phelonion or riza- very old vestments of Orthodox priests. In ancient times phelonion (riza) was a cape made of a long rectangular piece of woolen fabric and served to protect against cold and bad weather. it priestly vestments worn on one shoulder or on both shoulders, while the front ends were pulled together on the chest. Sometimes a cutout for the head was made in the middle of such a cloak, and a long cloak worn over the shoulders covered the entire body of a person. Among the Jews, the edges of such a cloak were sometimes decorated with sewn lace trim, and a blue cord with tassels or fringe was sewn along the edge of this trim as a sign of memory of the commandments and the Law. He wore such a cloak Jesus Christ in your earthly life. The apostles also wore such a cloak. That is, the Lord and the apostles used phelonion (chasuble) as a normal top clothes of those times, and therefore it acquired a sacred meaning in the mind of the Church and from ancient times began to be used as . The form phelonion (vestments) changed. For comfortable wearing in the front phelonion (vestments) began to perform a semicircular neckline, that is, the front hem phelonion (vestments) no longer reached the feet. Upper mantle phelonion (vestments) began to be made solid and high, and took the form of a trapezoid.

STOLE

Stole(Greek - what is around the neck) is an accessory liturgical vestments of an Orthodox priest and bishop. Starting from the 15th century at the dedication deacon to dignity priest bishop wrapped around his neck diaconal orarion in such a way that both its ends evenly descended in front to the hem, and at the same time connected one with the other, it turned out stole- element vestments of Orthodox priests and bishops. Starting around the 16th and 17th centuries, stole as element vestments of an orthodox priest, began to do not from deacon's oraries but as a separate item priestly vestments. Currently stole It is made in the form of two separate strips of matter, sewn to each other in separate places, in which conditional buttons are placed, since there are no loops. Stole put on over underwear(at full robes of a priest) or cassocks(at little priest's vestment). Stole symbolizes the grace of the priesthood. Wearing stole means that Priest does not bring grace diaconal dignity, but acquires a double, in comparison with the grace of a deacon, giving him the right to be not only a minister, but also a performer of the sacraments. Bishop wears stole as a sign of conservation priestly graces. Without stole Priest and bishop they cannot perform rites. On each half stole hung on three crosses - a total of six. Crosses hung on stole, symbolize the six sacraments of the church, which can perform priest. In the neck priest on the stole the seventh cross is hung, which indicates that Priest accepted his ministry from bishop and subject to him, and that he bears the burden of service Christ.

RAILS

Handrails(armlets) are an element liturgical vestments of the Orthodox clergy. Handrails designed to tighten sleeves underwear at priests (priests, archpriests) and bishops (bishops). Handrails also included in deacon's vestments. Handrails are made in the form of a wide strip of dense matter with the image of a cross in the middle. Handrails wrap around the wrists and tie on the inside of each hand with a cord. In this case, the image of the cross is on the outside of the hands. Handrails represent the bonds by which he was bound Jesus Christ. Russian name for this element vestments — « handrails" means that Priest entrusts during service ( instructs) myself Christ.

GAIT

Gaiter is an accessory liturgical vestments of an Orthodox priest. Gaiter performed in the form of an oblong rectangle (board), with a cross in the center. Gaiter worn on a long ribbon at the hip on the right, and in case of clubs(at archpriest and archimandrite) is on the left. As well as bishop's club, gaiter symbolizes the “spiritual sword, i.e. The Word of God". rectangular shape gaiter points to four gospels. AT Russian Orthodox Church gaiter appeared in the 16th century. Gaiter is unique hierarchical award ROC which is not found in other Orthodox Churches. arose gaiter, most likely as a modified version bishop's club. Gaiter is awarded priest (priest and hieromonk) as the first reward (usually not earlier than 3 years after ordination) for diligent service.

Cassock Cassock Cassock

Headwear of the priesthood.

Cowl of the Metropolitan

Headdress of the Patriarch - Kukol.

Field uniform of a military priest

On Divine Liturgy and the Symbolism of Sacred Vestments.

Vestment of a bishop.

Bishop's dress.

On the chest, over the sakkos, except 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.

During Divine services, bishops use a rod or staff as a sign of the highest pastoral authority. The staff is also given to archimandrites and abbots, as heads of monasteries.

During Divine services, eagles are placed under the feet of the bishop. 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 bishop wears cross and panagia, a Priest - cross.

SACCOS

Sakkos- it is decorated with bells upper episcopal vestments, similar to a deacon's surplice shortened from the bottom and in the sleeves. On the sides sakkos 33 brooches-buttons are sewn on (16 on the sides and one near the cutout for the head), which recalls the number of years Christ lived on earth. Translated from Hebrew sakkos"means" rags. Sakkos considered a garment of repentance and humility, the ancient Jews wore sakkos in the days of repentance, fasting and mourning. Sakkos symbolizes the scarlet of the Savior (crimson - robe purple, in ancient times - clothes kings - a sign of supreme power). Jesus, for the purpose of his ridicule, was put on robe purple, possibly the red cloak of Roman soldiers (in Mt 27:28 it is called purple, in Mk 15:17, 20 and John 19:2, 5 - purple). Under sakkos a sock guard is put on. In Byzantium sakkos was clothes emperor and his entourage. In the XI-XII centuries. sakkos began to enter the liturgical practice as vestments Constantinople Patriarch, then in sakkos other eastern patriarchs began to dress, as well as the Moscow Metropolitan. From the 16th century in the east and from the beginning of the XVIII century. in Russia sakkos becomes mandatory vestments of bishops, replacing the phelonion. Sakkos decorated with gold embroidery, personal images, ornamental embroidery and sewn-on crosses.

OMOPHORO

omophorion- a long wide ribbon, decorated with crosses, which is worn over sakkos, happens great omophorion and small omophorion. omophorion symbolizes the lost sheep brought by the good shepherd on his shoulders to the house (Luke 15:4-7), i.e. omophorion commemorates the salvation of the human race by Jesus Christ. And dressed in omophorion bishop depicts the Good Shepherd (an allegorical image of Jesus Christ in the form of a shepherdess with a sheep on his shoulders, borrowed from the Old Testament), who carries a lost sheep on his shoulders to the not lost (that is, to the angels) to the house of the Heavenly Father. Great omophorion made in the form of a long wide ribbon with images of crosses, it goes around the neck bishop and descends with one end on his chest, and with the other on his back. Small omophorion- This is a wide ribbon with images of crosses, both ends of which descend to the chest. Front tape omophorion sewn or fastened with buttons.

Mace

Mace- a quadrangular cloth board (rhombus), hung over an acute angle at the right thigh over sakkos on the tape. Mace is a part liturgical vestments of a bishop, from the 16th century. archimandrite and from the 18th century priest, which is given for excellent diligent service as a reward. Mace- a symbol of spiritual weapons - the word of God. ppalitsa is a necessary accessory liturgical vestments of bishops and archimandrites. Archpriests get the right to wear mace from the ruling bishop as a reward for diligent service. Compared to the legguard mace refers to a higher level, as it also personifies the edge of the towel with which Jesus Christ wiped the feet of his disciples.

MITER(Greek - bandage, crown)

Liturgical headdress, belonging to the vestments of the higher clergy and the priests awarded with it in the Orthodox and Catholic churches. According to the traditions of the Byzantine rite miter is an element of the vestments of bishops and priests (archpriests and archimandrites), who in exceptional cases get the right to wear it instead of a kamilavka as an award from the ruling bishop.
The ancient Romans miter- a female cap made of dense matter, part of which hung back, forming a kind of bag in which hair was removed. Greeks miter- a wide ribbon placed over the forehead and tied in a knot with hanging ends behind the head. Subsequently miter -Christian bishops also began to wear armbands. Gradually, the bandage began to grow upwards, forming a kind of hat with an open top and prominent pointed protrusions at the temples, which resembled horns. By the middle of the 12th century. miter they began to wear it differently: the “horns” began to protrude not above the temples, but above the forehead and the back of the head. Such a form miter characteristic of the Catholic Church.

First, headdresses, as a symbol of power, began to be hoisted over the heads of crowned persons. For the first time such a headdress began to be worn by the Byzantine emperor Constantine the Great (4th century). It was a diadem - the headband of the Greek priests. Subsequently, the diadem was replaced by a metal hoop - a stemma adorned with pearls, which was worn by Justinian I. Later samples of the stemma were made in the form of a gold hoop with crosswise intersecting arcs extending upward from it, at the crosshairs of which a precious cross was installed, on the sides of the stemma were pendants made of pearls or precious stones. All this metal construction was put on a cloth cap. A well-preserved example of a stemma is the crown of St. Stephen, who received the signs of royal power from the hands of the papal legate and in 1000 became the first Hungarian king.

At the end of the 9th and beginning of the 10th centuries. Byzantine Emperor Basil granted the Patriarch of Jerusalem the right to use the imperial stemma during divine services. Subsequently, the Christian clergy began to include headdresses in their liturgical vestments.

The miter, as an element of liturgical vestments, was also borrowed by the clergy of the Eastern Orthodox Church from the Byzantine emperors.

The oldest surviving eastern miter in the form of a crown of the later Byzantine emperors, i.e. in the form of a high hat with a rim around the head and with a rounded top, is considered to be the crown of the Byzantine emperor Nikephoros Phocas (963-969), now kept in the Lavra of St. Mount Athos.

After the division of the church into Eastern and Western, such miter-crowns began to be worn first by the Patriarchs of Alexandria, and then by the Patriarchs of Constantinople. Other clergy - metropolitans and bishops, wore miter bands, hoods or hats. However, until the 15th c. miters were almost never used during worship.

In the Orthodox East up to the 17th century. only patriarchs wore mitres. Starting from the second half of the 17th century. All Eastern patriarchs were honored with the right to wear mitres, however, during joint service, the miter was placed only on the head of the oldest of them. Metropolitans and bishops used the miter only in their diocese, and when they excelled in worship. In the presence of the patriarch, they did not put on mitres, but covered their heads with kamilavkas.

In Russia until the 15th century. representatives of the church wore only hoods. In the 15th century hierarchs in Russia began to wear mitres in the form of princely hats trimmed with fur, decorated with embroidery and pearls. The miter acquires its modern look from the middle of the 17th century, when in 1653, through the efforts of an admirer of the Greek orders, Patriarch Nikon, the miter-crown from Constantinople also passed to us in Russia, displacing miter-caps. Since 1705, not only bishops, but all archimandrites have worn a miter as a liturgical headdress. At that time, the miter was an element of the liturgical vestments of the monastic clergy - archimandrites and bishops, and in 1797, by decree of December 18, Emperor Paul I ordered that especially deserved archpriests be awarded with a miter, while the miter, like the cross with decorations, complained to the priests by decrees of His Cabinet Imperial Majesty. Before the revolution, the miter was not particularly common as an award; at that time, only a few people were awarded this award in Moscow. After the revolution, the miter was given quite often as a reward.

In the Russian Orthodox Church, only His Holiness the Patriarch and metropolitans wore a cross on a miter. At a meeting of the Holy Synod on December 27-28, 1987, it was decided to establish the custom of wearing a miter crowned with a cross for the episcopate.

The miter is put on during the celebration of the liturgy, the vigil and some other services and ceremonies. During divine services, the clergy embody the image of the King of Glory, which Christ is considered to be, and therefore the miter is a likeness of the princely and imperial crowns. In addition, the miter symbolizes the crown of thorns of the Savior.

Usually the miter is richly decorated with gold embroidery, gems, pearls and small images.

Icons depicting Jesus Christ, the Mother of God, John the Baptist, and any saint or holiday are placed on the sides of the miter. There can be four, eight, twelve or even sixteen such icons on the sides of the miter. One icon depicting the Trinity or Seraphim is placed at the top of the miter. At the bishop's miter, instead of the upper icon, a small cross is installed.