The Pope's Vestments

The Pope's Vestments

The Pope wears the same vestments of a bishop with the following differences:

The Pope wears the Papal Pallium (Pope Benedict XVI & Pope Francis). Previous popes John Paul I & II, Paul VI wore the same pallium used by metropolitans.  It is fixed in place by three golden pins, symbolic of the nails with which Christ was crucified and is worn over his chasuble when celebrating Mass.

Only the pope wears the pallium by right, and he may wear it at all ecclesiastical functions without restriction. 

Fanon

A vestment which is restricted to the pope alone is the Fanon made out of alternating silver and gold stripes. The fanon is similar to a shawl, one end of which is passed under the stole and the second over the chasuble; the pallium is then placed over the fanon. The fanon has gone out of common use in recent times but its use has not been altogether abolished, as Pope John Paul II made use of the fanon on a few occasions and Pope Benedict XVI used it as well.

Prior to the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council, there were a number of other vestments which were worn only by the pope:

• The Sub-cinctorium—a strip of embroidered fabric similar to a maniple which was suspended from the cincture. It was embroidered with a cross and the Agnus Dei.

• The Falda—a particular papal vestment which forms a long skirt extending beneath the hem of the alb. The skirts of the falda were so long that the pope had train-bearers both in front and in back whenever he walked.

• The Mantum—a very long cope worn only by the pope. Originally, it was red in color, but later was made to correspond to the liturgical colours.

When the pope would stand on his throne or at the sedia gestatoria, both the falda and the mantum would flow down to the lower steps, and had the effect of making the pope look taller than the other dignitaries present. All three of these vestments were discontinued during the reign of Pope Paul VI, but not abolished.

Papal Episcopal Staff

The papal cross or ferula is the episcopal staff used by the Pope. This is in contrast to other bishops, who use a crozier. 

The pontifical staff is a liturgical insignia to signify the pope’s episcopal authority, jurisdiction and temporal power.

The use of the staff was never a part of the papal liturgy, except on some occasions such as the opening of the Holy Door and the consecration of churches, during which the pope took hold of the staff to knock on the door three times and to trace the Greek and Latin letters on the floor of the church. 

The reason why the pope did not use the staff resides in the fact that the staff was a symbol of investiture of a newly elected bishop given to him by the metropolitan archbishop or by another bishop. The pope, however, did not receive investiture from another bishop, the pope receives his power from God alone. 

In the late Middle Ages, the popes also used as a staff a crozier with a triple cross.

In the past, this design of the triple cross was often used in ecclesiastical heraldry, as a distinctive mark of his office. It has three horizontal bars near the top, in diminishing order of length as the top is approached. It is thus analogous to the two-barred cross used in heraldry to indicate an archbishop, and seems to have been used precisely to indicate an ecclesiastical rank still higher than that of archbishop.

Symbolism connected with the papal powers have been attached to the three crossbars, similar to the symbolism attached, with greater historical foundation, to the three bands on the papal tiara. 

The crossbars have also been said to represent the three crosses on Calvary, to represent the Father, Son & Holy Spirit and the 3 theological virtues of Faith, Hope & Love.

They also correspond to several ecclesiological positions, including:

• the Pope's triple roles as leader of worship, teacher and community leader

• the Pope's triple religious authorities as Bishop of Rome, Patriarch of the West, and successor of St Peter, Chief of the Apostles

• the Pope's powers and responsibilities: temporal, spiritual, and material

• the Pope's extra bar of authority over the two-bar Archiepiscopal or Patriarchal cross

The papal cross is an emblem of the papal court. It was carried before the Roman pontiff in processions or was used by him as his pastoral staff. 

After Pope Paul VI’s election in 1963, he commissioned a Neopolitan sculptor by the name of Lello Scorzelli to design a pastoral staff to be used during solemn liturgical celebrations. This silver crozier (formally known as a “ferula” in Italian) went back to the traditional type of staff that took the form of a cross, accompanied however by the corpus of the Crucified One. Paul VI used this crozier for the first time for the closing of the Second Vatican Council, on 8 December 1965. Afterwards, he used this crozier – often but not always in liturgical celebrations – as any bishop makes of his crozier. On certain occasions, Paul VI and John Paul II also used the triple cross as insignia.

In 1990, Scorzelli made Blessed John Paul a second cross, similar in design, but lighter. 

 On Palm Sunday 2008, Pope Benedict XVI substituted this staff, used also by Pope John Paul I, Pope John Paul II, and by himself, with a staff surmounted by a gold cross, that had been given as a gift to Blessed Pope Pius IX in 1877, by the Circolo San Pietro, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of his episcopal consecration. This crozier had already been used by Blessed Pope John XXIII for various liturgical celebrations during Vatican II.

With the celebration of First Vespers for Advent 2009, the Holy Father, Benedict XVI, began to use a new staff, given to him by the Circolo San Pietro, similar in style to that of Pius IX.

Pope Francis used this staff at his installation mass in March 2013.