www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Traditional Ruthenian/Non-Latinized Altar Boy Vestments

Pavel Ivanovich posted

"It is pity to hear of parish that is so far behind as that parish of saint Teresa in America. I thought it was bad enough with the 'Prussian' altar servers in the photos with their latinised extra short stikars and cassocks . The gloves were a real turn off. That is pre Vatican II extremism at it's worst . Liturgy on weekdays in Great Lent...where have they been over teh past 40 years!!!!"

What do True Ruthenian Altar Boy Vestments look like? What is their significance?

Here is the link to St. Therese Byzantine Catholic Church in St. Petersburg Florida, Altar Boy page.
http://www.sttherese-byzantine.com/altar_servers

Here is a link to some Greek Vestments. Scroll down a bit to see them.
http://www.nioras.com/index.php?cPath=9000

Do Greek and True Ruthenian Altar Boy Vestments differ? If so, how?

What are all the ways in which St. Therese's Vestments are Latinized?

Do the Greeks wear a Cassock underneath?

The Sticharion is the servers vestment. It should be full length not shortened so that a cassock or alb can be seen. Generally, Orthodox servers do not wear a casscok underneath a stichar, as the cassock is reserved to those in minor orders and up. In any case a Latin alb should not be worn under a stichar. The gloves are tacky and can't even be called a Latinization as in the Tridentine Rite only a bishop has the right to gloves.

Dear Father Deacon,

The gloves thing reminds me of Erasmus of Rotterdam's comment on the Last Judgement . . .

On that day, he wrote, a monk will present a beautiful pair of white gloves as proof positive that his skin never touched money . . .

Cheers,

Alex

Refering to the Altar Boys of St. Therese, Aren't Pectoral Crosses only for Priests and Bishops?

I always thought so - at least in the East.

The Latin Parish I attend when I have to, has it's Servers wearing wooden Crosses on a cord over their albs.

Pull over, the liturgical police have their lights and sirens on!
:rolleyes:

No kidding; you'd have the be quite the purist to look at that photo and see Latinization!

-Daniel

Evidently I'm quite a purist, then - and I failed to notice the "pectoral crosses". [Perhaps they're really Proto-Altar-Boys.]

Pace Erasmus of Rotterdam, but some of this foolishness has to do with money. Since boys grow rather rapidly, it's cheaper to supply them with ersatz albs instead of real sticharia. Real sticharia, incidentally, are lined, are sewn with decent vestment brocade and galoons.

An excellent thing to do is to restore the use of adult men to serve at the Altar, encourage them by providing good, genuine vestments and eventually having them ordained as subdeacons.

Incognitus

As far as my tired old eyes could see while squinting at the pic at least 5 boys appeared to have neck crosses on fairly long chains/cords or whathave you. If you look at the 2 Servers in white - front R and front L theirs are pretty obvious and you can just see them on the gold stichars as well.

I realise full well that there is a big problem with boys growing - it can't be easy getting good stichars to fit them all but if the parish is providing them - then it would be in their interest to see that there are sufficient sizes to cope with 'normal' Liturgies.

Dear Friends,

I don't see what is wrong with wearing nice neck crosses over one's clothing.

Something about witnessing to Christ, no?

Not every neck cross is a pectoral cross . . .

So everyone put one on - and don't leave home without it!

Alex

John, John, Jude,

If I knew how I'd put our picture of our altar boys here. Can one of you do it. You know the picture of the four altar boys standing together that you just sent me.

CDL

Ok...

I will try

[Linked Image]

Here are the older Altar Boys from Annunciation.

John

Thank you, my friend. I know I shouldn't have done it and will have to go to confession for it but this will make them jealous, don't you think? And to think, we all post on this forum.

CDL

BTW People say that they see a striking resemblence between my Patron Saint and myself. What do you all think?

CDL

So are any of the guys in the above photo any of our esteemed members? Inquiring minds want to know!