Coptica 15, 2016

Evolution of Coptic Liturgical Vestments

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This developing simplification can be seen also in the next point, in which Ibn Kabar describes the habit of the monks of St. Macarius not to wear a phelonion in the liturgy at all. Instead, the monks only wore the phelonion at other non-Eucharistic prayers, most likely vespers and matins. One reason for this may be that clergy do not usually vest in their sticharion at such services, and so perhaps the need to wear at least some vestment was met by the phelonion. In any event, this description of the current situation by Ibn Kabar is a far cry from the rigid tone of the canons of Benjamin I for the vesting of clergy at St. Macarius discussed earlier, and is more likely to reflect the reality by the 14 th century rather than the ideal. The Ritual Order of Gabriel V (15 th c.) The Ritual Order of Pope Gabriel V ( AD 1409-1427) was promulgated from the top of the Coptic Church hierarchy in order to establish consistency and uniformity in ritual practices. This explains why – after Ibn Kabar’s description – The Ritual Order shows a certain ritual maximalism or an attempt to return to ritual ideals, at least regarding vestments. In its description of the priest’s vesting for the liturgy, the text reads:

Then he advances to wear the garments of the priesthood and the vestment, as our good Savior, to him be glory, has said. And its description is known, and it is the silk robe [ jibbah ], and white silken ṭaylasān , and the epitrachelion [ biṭrashīn ], and the girdle [ zinnār ], and the sleeves [ al- akmām ], and the white silken phelonion [ burnus ].

ثم يتقدم يلبس آلة الكهنوت والبدله كما قال مخلصنا الصالح له المجد. ووصفها معروف وهى الجبه الحرير والطيلسان الابيض الحرير والبطرشين والزنار والاكمام والبرنس الابيض الحرير. 53

Pope Gabriel V’s Ritual Order describes an ideal that most likely was no longer the norm by his time, whether regarding the attempted re- introduction of the girdle, or of the idealized description of every vestment as white and silken. After The Ritual Order , there is hardly any similar known work that either describes or regulates the ritual practices of the

53 Alfonso ‘Abdallah, L’ordinamento liturgico di Gabriele V, 88° Patriarca Copto (1409- 1427) , SOC, Aegyptiaca ( Cairo, 1962), 172 (Arabic), 361-362 (Italian).