Thursday, November 20, 2008

Spectacular Photographs of Papal Vestments

Earlier this month we were talking about Unused or Unseen Papal Vesture and Vestments, such as the fanon, the falda, the subcinctorium or the mantum. I have recently come across two rather spectacular photographs which show a full set of papal vestments to illstrate what we were talking about and which I thought many of you would enjoy (click to enlarge):


Here we see from top to bottom and from left to right: mitra pretiosa, tiara, mantum bearing the arms of Pius XII with stole and rationale (worn for the procession into St Peter's), stole for Mass, chasuble with alb, subcinctorium with cingulum and maniple, the falda, the little cloth to hold the candle the Pope carried at canonisations, pontifical sandals, pallium with pins, ? probably the cord for the pectoral Cross, pontifical gloves, dalmatic, fanon, tunicle.


The same vestments arranged differently. Note that the two detached parts of the fanon are here displayed seperately from each other.

The source of these splendid images are the archives of Life magazine, which are being brought online (cf. AP story here. Having had a first quick look, there were two pictures in particular I wanted to share with you in this context.

First, a rather magnificent display of papal mitres and tiaras:


From left to right: mitre of Leo XIII, tiaras of Gregory XVI and Bl. Pius IX, mitre of Benedict XV (worn by our Holy Father Benedict XVI last Christmas)

And then, a very nice photograph of Bl. John XXIII singing Papal Mass during the II Vatican Council, holding the ferula of Bl. Pius IX which has now been adopted as the permanent ferula of our Holy Father Benedict XVI (on his right, Alfredo Ottaviani acting as Cardinal Deacon, on his left, Enrico Dante, the legendary papal MC):

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