Coptica v. 16 2017

62 Ramez Mikhail

meant for the epicheri to be on the head. In this case, the epicheri can be a shoulder scarf (i.e. omophorion ). Otherwise, it may be that the word epicheri itself, unattested in Greek or Coptic literature, is a fluid term meaning anything rectangular akin to the Arabic ,عرضى ʿarḍī , and thus can be used to refer one time to a shoulder omophorion -like garment, and another time to the epitrachelion . Although evidence for the omophorion in the Coptic tradition is rather scarce, it is clearly attested in wall paintings. In this regard, the paintings in the old church of the Monastery of St. Antony by the Red Sea are particularly instructive. Two omophorion styles can be observed in the iconographical program of this church. Certain saints are depicted wearing wide Byzantine style omophoria essentially the same as the classic Y-shaped omphorion . Such saints include St. Mark, St. Severus of Antioch, St. Peter of Alexandria, and St. Pisentius bishop of Coptos. 29 Others wear narrower, scarf-like omophoria wrapped in a tighter fashion closer to the neck. St. Athanasius and St. Dioscorus wear this style, 30 which Innemée calls the Coptic style omophorion , providing further examples of its depiction from Nubia, Bawit, and Sūhāj. 31 Thus, though textual evidence is often difficult to visualize adequately, the evidence from iconography – which usually depends on older models in its depiction of famous saints – can lend further support for the existence and types of omophoria that likely co-existed in the Egyptian liturgy of Late Antiquity. In summary, the patriarch’s vestments present the following items, despite the ambiguity: A tunic ( sticharion or morphotakion ), a stole ( orarion or epitrachelion ), a phelonion , a scarf for the head ( morphorin or lention or phakialion , identified here as ballīn for consistency), and a scarf for the shoulders ( epicheri , identified here as an omophorion for consistency). It is indeed remarkable that in a vesting description of such complexity, there is no mention of the girdle ( zonē ) or sleeves ( epimanikia ), which will only appear in the second millennium. This is another proof of the antiquity of the text of Coptic Museum 253 Lit. (AD 1364).

The Vestments of Pope Cyril III ibn Laqlaq (13 th c.)

In the biography of Patriarch Cyril III ibn Laqlaq ( AD 1235-1243), one encounters an inventory list of the vestments owned by Cyril III at his departure, which lists the following:

[1] And it is said that they found with him [1] sixteen wine-colored phelonia

[1] و يقال انهم وجدوا له ستة عشر غفاره عنابى وغيره [2] واربعين

29 Paul van Moorsel, Les Peintures du Monastère de Saint-Antoine près de la Mer Rouge , vol. 2 (Cairo, 1997), Pl. 25/26, 29/30, 31/32, 87/88. 30 Ibid., Pl. 27/28, 29/30. 31 Innemée, Ecclesiastical Dress , 52-53.