Coptica v. 16 2017

Evolution of Coptic Liturgical Vestments (Part II)

63

[ ghafārah ] 33 and others, [2] forty precious girdles [ wazrah ], and as regards clothing and turbans and trousers and [3] epitrachelia [ balāryāt ] and [4] ʿaraḍī [pl. of ‘arḍī ] and [5] epigonatia [ ḥujūr ], 34 which belong to the vestment that is upon the head.

وزره مثمنه واما من الثياب والعمايم والسراويلات [3] والبلاريات [4] والعراضى [5] والحجور التى للبدله التى تكون على الراس . 32

This lavish list of vestments was surely meant to make a point about the character of their owner. Cyril III was quite the controversial patriarch, and is notorious for having lobbied for the patriarchal throne for a long fourteen years before finally fulfilling his ambition. In an ecclesiastical culture that favors the display of humility – genuine or not – Cyril III certainly stood out, and this large inventory of costly vestments he left behind is just one of the many ways his biography makes this aspect of his personality clear. 35 From a vestment history perspective, most of the vestments mentioned are standard with the exception of the peculiar mention of the epigonation [5], certainly the first of its kind in Coptic sources discussed so far. The epigonation is known in the Byzantine Rite as a stiff brocade square worn by bishops and archpriests hanging from the right side close to the knee. It is known that even in the Byzantine Rite, the epigonation was a rather late addition, introduced into the ecclesiastical sphere from the imperial realm. In this description, not only is the very mention of the epigonation inexplicable, but its description as belonging to the vestment that is on the head renders this even more inexplicable. Perhaps Cyril III’s self-indulgence included vesting in Byzantine vestments. Otherwise, one would have to postulate that the epigonation had quietly become an accepted Coptic vestment without any other surviving evidence before that juncture. It is interesting indeed that during Cyril III’s tenure a group of bishops convinced him to sign a series of canons, which according to a shorter biography by Yūsāb bishop of Fuwwa, stipulated,

32 Antoine Khater and O.H.E. Burmester, History of the Patriarchs of the Egyptian Church Known as the History of the Holy Church , vol. 4, Pt. 2: Cyril III, Ibn Laķlaķ (1216-1243 A.D.) , Publications de la Société d’Archéologie Copte: Textes et Documents 15 (Cairo, 1974), 136 (Arabic), 277 (English). 33 Graf, Verzeichnis , 82. 34 Ibid., 37. 35 For more on Cyril III’s intriguing tenure, cf. Mark N. Swanson, The Coptic Papacy in Islamic Egypt (641-1517) , The Popes of Egypt 2 (Cairo, 2010), 83-95.