Coptica 15, 2016

Evolution of Coptic Liturgical Vestments

61

Burmester noted that the text shows many signs of antiquity, such as the unusual amount of prayers and acclamations entirely in Greek, the reference to the Angelion church, and the description of a litanic procession with the newly consecrated patriarch in the public spaces of Alexandria. All of this led Burmester to conclude that the text must have originally belonged to the period before the Arab conquest. 25 Innemée likewise concluded based on the same observations that the rites and vestments described in the text date somewhere between the 7 th century at the earliest and the 14 th century at the latest. 26 The first rank for which we have the ordination prayers is that of reader. According to the text, the candidate is to be brought and “set, without vestment [ ϩⲃⲱⲥ , ال ,] تونية before the altar.” 27 During the course of the prayers, the candidate never receives any vestment, not even a tunic or sticharion. This can be somewhat surprising given the current practice in the Coptic Church, where readers and even chanters wear a sticharion, and sometimes even an orarion. There is no further information regarding vestments for the reader provided by the text. Next, subdeacons are also brought to the altar without a vestment. However, in their case they are given the orarion towards the end of the ordination prayers. The text reads, “The bishop turns to him and places the orarion [ ⲡⲓⲟⲩⲛⲁⲣⲓⲟⲛ ]البلاريه , on his shoulder [ ⲙⲟⲩϯ ].” 28 This is Burmester’s translation of ⲙⲟⲩϯ as shoulder, and Karel Innemée follows the same interpretation. 29 Although this would fit the familiar way in which the orarion is worn, the word ⲙⲟⲩϯ itself can also mean neck, 30 as it is translated in the Arabic text of the manuscript, and was copied in another late ordination manuscript, Antony 1 Lit. (14 th c.). 31 In fact, evidence of the orarion worn in exactly such a manner – draped around the neck and falling to the front and back – can be seen in iconographical 25 Burmester, The Rite of Consecration , 1-2. 26 Innemée, Ecclesiastical Dress , 19. 27 Coptic Museum 253 Lit. (AD 1364), fol. 3r. Cf. Burmester, Ordination Rites , 23 (Coptic), 73 (English). 28 Coptic Museum 253 Lit. (AD 1364), fol. 9r. Cf. Burmester, Ordination Rites , 30 (Coptic), 81 (English). 29 Innemée, Ecclesiastical Dress , 20. 30 W.E. Crum, A Coptic Dictionary (Oxford, 1939), 189. 31 Athanasius al-Maqārī, Al-Kahanūt al-Muqaddas wa al-Rutab al-Kanasiyah [The Holy Priesthood and Ecclesiastical Ranks], vol. 1, Țuqūs Asrār wa Ṣalawāt Al-Kanīsah 10/3 (Shubra, 2011), 224. 4.2 Subdeacons 4.1 Readers