www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Ruthenian deacons in dalmatics

Attwater tells me Ruthenian deacons used to wear alb and dalmatic. Anyone got pictures?

Thanks in advance.

I've seen the pictures in the anniversay books at the seminary. It also worth noting often the deacons were priests serving as deacons.

This may be a case of semantics. Consider this:

[Linked Image]

This is a Ruthenian deacon vested circa 1965. To me he is wearing his sticharion over something like a Roman alb or the less ornamental sticharion worn by a Byzantine rite bishop or presbyter under the Sakkos or Phelonion. The Roman alb is the equivalent of the Byzantine sticharion, so the pictured deacon is wearing a sticharion over another sticharion. The Byzantine deacon should wear the sticharion directly over the cassock. I've see catechetical videos of Bishop Andrew when he was bishop of Parma -- so say as late as the 1990's -- segments of the liturgy, where the deacon serving with him was vested as in the above picture.

I think the idea was a hold-over latinization until it was realized that the sticharion is the alb itself. Like the alb, it is the baptismal garment, proper to all christians but worn by all the clergy at the Divine Liturgy (and other services as prescribed). The Roman deacon puts on, over the cassock, the alb (like the sticharion), the stole (like the oararion) and then the dalmatic, thus covering the stole. The Byzantine deacon does not put on the extra garment which would inhibit him from using his orarion as directed by the rubrics.

Though vested as a deacon the person pictured above was actually a presbyter at the time (so I'm told), but was serving as a deacon at a Hierarchical Divine Liturgy. His orarion is fairly short like the Russian style but he wears it, as is the current custom of the BCC, in the style of the Greeks. I'm also told (so I can convince myself of some resemblance) that the person pictured is now Bishop Gerald of Phoenix.

Another oddity of wearing the sticharion over the sticharion is the zone was worn as well. How do I know? I was left a set of Byzantine vestments by a biritual Latin deacon who passed away. They resemble the above photo exactly, diaconal sticharion, cut short at the hem and sleeve, orar, cuffs, extra priest sticharion and zone! And the made by tag? The Sister of St. Basil the Great, Uniontown.

Yes, I thought to mention the shortened length of the outer sticharion, mimicking the Roman dalmatic, after I had posted. Or was it that it really had evolved as a dalmatic and the orarion worn on the outside out of necessity? Having the zone would probably be an indication of following the Romans but then it may have been that since the practice of presbyters serving as deacons was so common, it was natural for presbyters to vest as such except for the diaconal essentials.

I don't know of any liturgicon that has the deacon vesting in the zōnē/pojas. Cuffs are standard for deacons although they are NOT given at diaconal ordination but rather at presbyteral ordination (Ruthenian Recension). So their use by the deacon is something of an inconsistency based on you don't wear it unless the bishop has given it to you.

A real sign of intended dalmatic or sticharion would be the "distinctive ornamentation of the vestment [which] consists of two vertical stripes running from the shoulder to the hem" (link [en.wikipedia.org]) and the characteristic cross pieces on the Roman dalmatic/tunic for deacon/subdeacon consisting of two/one in number (see link [wdtprs.com]). Oddly, the newer style of the dalmatic looks more like a sticharion ( link [en.wikipedia.org]).

The pojas was not given at diaconal ordination, but was given at the tonsure to the rank of reader. The new reader was vested in the white alb and pojas, in imitation of Latin practice. The other vestments were then added on top of that in succession.

Fr. David

Learn something new everday. Thank you for the info Fr. David.

We sometime see something similar still in photos were we see altar servers in some Byzantine Catholic Churches wearing sticharions that are very short (worn then with a black cassock/rason like garment) and have short sleeves they clearly have been modeled on a Latin surplice.

Great information and pictures - thanks so much! Christ is born! Glorify him!

I was interested in Fr David's posts - did any of these practices (readers wearing albs and zone) carry over into ACROD for a time or do they postdate that?

Also, going from Fr David's information, I assume that subdeacon wore "dalmatic", alb, zone, and girded orarion.

Is it fair to assume that only priests who were "acting" as deacons wore cuffs; a "transitional" deacon would have worn "dalmatic", zone, alb and orarion until ordained as a presbyter?

So many "latinisms" in one post

No. The Ruthenian Recension Služebnik has the deacon vest in cuffs but the same recension's Archieratikon does not have the deacon given cuffs by the bishop at ordination [The deacon is given orar, kadilnitsa and ripida. (link [patronagechurch.com])], rather, cuffs are given at ordination to the presbyterate. The 1997 interim Passaic liturgicon did not have the deacon vesting in cuffs and the accompanying prayers were not included. The deacon vesting in cuffs was in the 1965 English translation and is also back in the 2007 RDL.

FYI- that is not Bishop Gerald, but Emil Sopaliga in the picture.

Thanks Fr. Deacon, that makes more sense and a better -- because true! -- resemblance. I suspect my source was right but that I got the picture and the actual event (the hierarchical liturgy) switched.

Or, we don't have a sticharion to fit them

Many years,

Neil

Until the time when then-Bishop Nicholas assumed leadership of the Diocese, when readers were tonsured by either Met. Orestes or Bp. John, they were vested in alb and pojas. (I have not seen photos of tonsured readers with Met. Orestes, but I have seen them with Bp. John.) Deacons--who were always transitional--added the stichar/dalmatic, orar and cuffs. The late Metropolitan always vested readers in a stichar/dalmatic, not a stichar/alb.

I had to explain this to one of my seminary classmates, since he received a set of deacon's vestments from the estate of a deceased priest, and could not understand why there was a pojas in the mix.

A curious practice existed in ACROD, wherein seminarians (perhaps once they were tonsured, although I'm not 100% sure) would vest in a stichar/dalmatic and an orarion on one shoulder (like a Russian deacon, sans cuffs). This can be seen in old ACRY Annuals, for example. I am not exactly sure if why this was done, or what functions these seminarians performed being vested in this manner.

Fr. David