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- This article is about the ceremonial head-dress; see also mitre (disambiguation).
Secular
The camelaucum or καμιλαύκιον, the ancestral headdress to both the Western mitre and the Papal tiara, was originally a cap used by officials of the Imperial Byzantine court. In the late Empire it developed into the closed type of Imperial crown.Christian clergy
Western Christianity
In its modern form in Western Christianity, the mitre is a tall folding cap, consisting of two similar parts (the front and back) rising to a peak and sewn together at the sides. Two short lappets always hang down from the back.In the Roman Catholic church, the right to wear the mitre is confined by Canon law to the pope, cardinals and bishops, though by papal privilege it may be worn as a high honor by others such as certain abbots (some also are awarded a crosier), who are therefore called mitred.
The Mitre is most often worn by Mitred Abbots and all Bishops, Archbishops, Cardinals and the Pope walking in Procession, both inside and outside of the church building. If this is the case, they will also be seen wearing a Cope and will also be accompanied by their Crosier.
Three types of mitres are worn by Roman Catholic clergy for different occasions:
- The simplex is made of undecorated white linen or silk and is worn most notably at funerals and Good Friday. It is also worn when concelebrating Mass with the pope.
- The pretiosa is decorated with precious stones and gold and worn on Sundays and feast days.
- The auriphrygiata is of plain gold cloth or white silk with gold or silver embroidered bands and isused for penitential seasons. The mitre made up entirely of the cloth of gold is usually reserved for ordinations, including episcopal consecration, and for the blessing of an abbot. In rites of ordination, no other mitre should be used by the celebrant but the plain golden mitre.
With his inauguration as pope, Benedict XVI has broken with tradition and has replaced the tiara even on his papal coat of arms with a mitre and pallium. (The traditional tiara is shown on some renderings of his coat of arms, however). Prior to Pope Benedict XVI, each coat of arms always contained the image of the papal tiara and keys, even though the tiara had fallen into disuse in recent years, especially under Popes John Paul I and John Paul II. Pope Paul VI was the last pope to date to begin his papal reign with a formal coronation in June of 1963. However, as a sign of the need for greater simplification of the papal rites, as well as a sign of the changing nature of the papacy itself, he abandoned the use of his own tiara in a dramatic ceremony in Saint Peter's Basilica during the second session of Vatican II in November of 1963. However his 1975 Apostolic Constitution made it clear that the tiara had not been abolished: in it he required that his successor receive a papal coronation. Pope John Paul I, however, declined to follow Pope Paul's instruction and opted for a low-key papal inauguration, a precedent followed by his two successors. Pope John Paul in his 1996 Apostolic Constitution left open the option of either a coronation or an inauguration by not specifying what sort of ceremony was to be used, other than that some ceremony must be used to "inaugurate" (begin) a reign. (Technically both coronations and inaugurations fit the description as both inaugurate – ceremonially begin – a reign or term of office.)
Pope Paul donated his tiara (a gift from his former archdiocese of Milan) to the efforts at relieving poverty in the world. Later, Francis Cardinal Spellman of New York received the tiara and took it on tour of the United States to raise funds for the poor. It is now on permanent view in the Crypt Church in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.
The mitre fell out of use in the Church of England after the Reformation, but was resumed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a result of the Oxford Movement, and is now worn by most Anglican bishops on at least some occasions.
The mitre has always been used in ecclesiastical heraldry to surmount the coats of arms of bishops in the Church of England (instead of a crest, which is not used by clergy). The mitre was suppressed in all personal arms in the Catholic Church in 1969, and is since only found on diocesan coats of arms and other corporate arms. In heraldry the lappets are depicted with red lining.
The bishop in chess is represented by a stylized Western mitre.
Eastern Christianity
The most typical mitre in Eastern Christianity is based on the closed Imperial crown of the late Byzantine Empire. Therefore, it too is ultimately based on the older καμιλαύκιον although it diverged from the secular headdress at a much later date and after it had already undergone further development. It is made in the shape of a bulbous crown, often richly decorated with jewels and brocade and, in the case of the episcopal mitre, topped by a cross. As an item of Imperial , along with other such items such as the sakkos or Imperial dalmatic, it signified the temporal authority of bishops (especially the Patriarch of Constantinople) within the administration of the Rum millet, or Christian community, of the Ottoman Empire.
In the Eastern Orthodox and counterpart Eastern Catholic churches it is a prerogative of the bishop, but may be awarded to archpriests, protopresbyters and archimandrites. The priestly mitre is not surmounted by a cross, and is awarded at the discretion of a synod.
Oriental Christianity
Oriental Orthodox bishops sometimes use mitres, either of the Western or Eastern style. In the past, Coptic bishops have worn the ballin, an omophorion wound around the head like a turban. Syriac Orthodox bishops wear the maşnaphto (literally, 'turban') when presiding at the Divine Liturgy. This is a large, richly embroidered hood, often depicting the Holy Spirit as a dove. Armenian Orthodox bishops wear Western style mitres.
References
| Papal rituals, symbols & ceremonial |
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Apostolic Palace •
Papal Coat of Arms •
Conclave •
Coronation •
Holy See •
Inauguration •
Papal Ring •
Papal Fanon •
Papal Camauro •
Mitre •
Mozzetta •
Sedia Gestatoria •
Sistine Chapel •
St. John Lateran •
Pallium •
Popemobile •
St. Peter's Basilica •
St. Peter's Square •
Papal Tiara •
Vatican City |
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