What is the significance of the vestments priests wear?

Questions that I have often fielded from parishioners in the past go something like this, “Father, what is the significance/meaning of the vestments you wear during Mass? Do you have to wear all those clothes?”

For Christianity, in the case of its many symbols, it is difficult to know for certain the what, the why, and the when. Regarding the many symbols/garments, the original significance may have been forgotten over time, or quite possibly, there was no significance to begin with. This is true regarding the vestments the priest wore at the dawn of Christianity. In the early Church, vestments worn for liturgies were the same as the clothes in ordinary popular use. The defining elements regarding the vesture of the Church lies in the secular clothing of the Greek and Roman culture which can be traced to the 4th century. The vestments became distinctive when their form was not changed to match changes in popular style. Distinctive, meaning their symbolism flowed from the garment, not the garment from the symbolism.

For the Latin Rite priest, the current traditional attire to wear when celebrating the Mass is; the amice, alb, cincture, stole, and the chasuble. 

The amice, the first part of the liturgical attire worn under the alb (now optional) during the liturgy is a rectangular cloth placed over the shoulders, tucked in around the neck over the priest’s street clothing and secured around the waist with two cloth ribbons. The use of the amice has a very early tradition in the Church. There is documentation from the eighth and ninth centuries giving witness of its use which would suggest that it was in common use before those dates. The amice was originally a cape that the priest wore over his head known as the “helmet of salvation” (Ephesians 6:17). This is given witness to by the prayer the priest would recite when putting on the amice: “Place upon me, O Lord, the helmet of salvation, that I may overcome the assaults of the devil.” As time would have it the amice was also seen as having more practical uses. In the middle-ages it was used as a scarf to keep the priest’s neck warm in the cold drafty churches. Another practical use was to protect the expensive gold embroidered vestments of the middle-ages from the sweat and body oils of the priest.

The alb worn over the amice derives its name from the Latin word for white, albus. The alb symbolizes the garment of the newly baptized, also the purity of soul required for Mass, (Matthew 5:8), in addition, the garment in which Pilate clothed Christ. The prayer that can be offered when donning the alb references Revelation 7:14, “Make me white, O Lord, and cleanse my heart; that being made white in the blood of the Lamb I may deserve an eternal reward.”

The cincture is the cord used as a belt to gather the alb at the waist. Usually white, but it can be the color of the day or liturgical season. At funerals, a personal exercise I do is to wear a black cincture. Black, one of the three colors (white, violet or black) permitted to be worn at funerals, reminds me that I will encounter my own death one day.  In the symbolism of the liturgical vestments the cincture represents the virtue of self-mastery, which St. Paul also counts among the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). The corresponding prayer, taking its cue from the first Letter of Peter (1:13), saying, "Gird me, O Lord, with the cincture of purity, and quench in my heart the fire of concupiscence, that the virtue of continence and chastity may abide in me.”
The stole, in the form of a long narrow strip of cloth is worn about the neck and down the front of the priest, usually over the alb. The stole is an article of enormous importance, which, more than any other garment, indicates the state of ordained office.

Like the cincture, the stole can be, and, usually is, the color of the day, or liturgical season.  Putting on the stole, the priest recites this prayer, "Lord, restore the stole of immortality, which I lost through the collusion of our first parents, and, unworthy as I am to approach Thy sacred mysteries, may I yet gain eternal joy.”

The chasuble , the outer and the last of the vesture, also is the color of the day or the liturgical season. The traditional symbolism of the chasuble is that it represents charity covering a multitude of sins, as this liturgical vestment covers the individuality of the priest with the priestly role of the High Priest, Jesus Christ. The prayer for the donning of the chasuble references the exhortation in the Letter to the Colossians (3:14), "Above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfection"—and the Lord's words in Matthew, 11:30, “O Lord, who has said, My yoke is sweet and My burden light, grant that I may so carry it as to merit Thy grace.”

Fr. Schuster is the pastor at Church of St. Hildegard in Menoken and Sacred Heart in Wilton. If you have a question you were afraid to ask, now is the time to ask it! Simply email your question to [email protected] with the “Question Afraid to Ask” in the subject line.