Coptica 15, 2016

Evolution of Coptic Liturgical Vestments

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article. At any rate, it is clear that by the middle of the fifth century strong evidence from the Egyptian liturgical sphere points to the use of specific vestments to distinguish each rank of the clergy during the liturgy.

Pseudo-Patristic Canonical Collections

In later centuries, scattered references to liturgical vestments appear in certain canonical collections falsely attributed to famous ecclesiastical figures, although usually surviving only in Arabic. Among these collections are the so-called Canons of Hippolytus , Canon 37 of which reads:

The thirty-seventh canon: That every time the bishop receives of the Holy mysteries, the deacons and priests are to assemble, wearing white vestments, more brilliant than all the congregation, and likewise the readers.

القانون السابع و الثلثون لاجل كل دفعة ينال الاسقف من السراير المقدسة يجتمع الشمامسة والقسٱ وهم لابسون ثياباً بيَضا ابهى من كل الشعب وكذلك الاغنسطسين 7

The sense of the canon is clear enough, showing for the first time in Coptic sources the emphasis on white-colored vestments for the clergy, a strong tradition that has been stable until today. 8 Regarding the text of the Canons , they are preserved in a large number of 13 th -and 14 th -century Arabic canonical manuscripts, which were used by Coquin in preparing his edition of the text. 9 Despite the absence of any early Greek or Coptic witnesses to this collection, it is most likely a late 4 th or early 5 th -century work. 10 They were later incorporated, though briefly, in the Nomocanon of al-Ṣafī ibn al- c Assāl, and thus made it into all modern editions of canons accepted by the Coptic Church. Despite the difficulty in accurately dating these Canons, it is very likely that they stand behind the strong tradition of white-colored vestments in the Coptic Rite, given their stability in the 7 René-Georges Coquin, Les canons d’Hippolyte: Édition critique de la version arabe, introduction et traduction française , Patrologia Orientalis 31, Fasc. 2 (Paris, 1966), 142-143. 8 This is the case in the modern era where sticharia are, without exception, made of plain white fabrics. Although strictly speaking there is no color system for vestments in the Coptic tradition, some seasons call for darker colored oraria and epitrachelia, such as funerals and Holy Week. 9 Coquin, Les Canons d’Hippolyte , 16-26. 10 While Coquin dated this collection of canons between AD 336 and AD 340, various theories compete on the matter. On the different theories regarding the dating of this canonical collection, cf. Paul F. Bradshaw, et al., The Apostolic Tradition: A Commentary , Hermeneia – A Critical and Historical Commentary on the Bible (Minneapolis, MN, 2002), 10.