Coptica v. 16 2017

Evolution of Coptic Liturgical Vestments (Part II)

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The following therefore is a broad description of the current practice of vesting in the Coptic Rite broken down by rank. As mentioned in the beginning, most servants today assisting in Coptic services are blessed or consecrated to the rank of psaltis or chanter. These are not considered deacons strictly speaking, but are nonetheless called as such in liturgical vernacular usage. In addition to the ubiquitous psaltis , one also encounters those ordained as aghnusṭus or reader, while those ordained to the rank of sub-deacon are generally rare. As far as the vestments worn by these minor orders, all are allowed to wear the sticharion or tūnyah as it is commonly called. 39 In addition, as seen in the sources, most parishes and jurisdictions allow all minor orders to wear an orarion [Arabic: biṭrashīl ]. Usually minor orders wear it crossed on the back, running horizontally across the waist and falling vertically from the shoulders down in the front. Unfortunately, there are no strict rules requiring minor orders to wear or not to wear the orarion , and one would notice in the same liturgical celebration those of the same rank who wear it and those who do not. The vestments for deacons are fairly straightforward. They of course are blessed to wear the sticharion and the orarion in the traditional way. Occasionally some deacons can be seen wearing a stiff crown resembling a short mitre. It has been previously shown that deacons in Scetis were urged to wear a type of head covering sometime around the 11 th century. 40 Perhaps not so much the fashion itself, but the practice of deacons covering their heads must have spread and given rise to the modern day deacons’ crown. At any rate, this crown is not widely available, and deacons are more likely to serve bareheaded or wearing a cloth skullcap. Nonetheless, the stiff crown is gaining in popularity in certain dioceses, such as the North American diocese of New York and New England. Compared to deacons and minor orders, there is considerably more variety in the vestments worn by priests. For the Eucharistic liturgy, married priests at the very least wear the sticharion and a modern version of the ṭaylasān that is essentially a pointed crown with a long band of white silk descending on the back. I have already mentioned the shamlah as another type of head covering, which in its short form is a long rectangular cloth of white silk approximately 2 meters long. 41 Instead of the ṭaylasān , priests frequently wore a white skullcap on top of which they placed the shamlah either falling freely from the top of the head in front of the chest, or with one end wrapped to cover the neck. This custom has slowly declined in recent decades, with the result that the shamlah is now restricted to priests of monastic rank, while the ṭaylasān is by and large the only head covering to

39 Graf, Verzeichnis , 31. 40 Mikhail, “Towards A History of Coptic Liturgical Vestments I,” 58-59. 41 Ibid ., 68. Cf. Mikhail, “‘And they Shall Stand Bareheaded’,” forthcoming , Pl. 4.