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Dalmatic
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The dalmatic is a long wide-sleeved tunic, which serves as a liturgical vestment in the Roman Catholic, Anglican, and United Methodist Churches, sometimes worn by a deacon at the service of worship or mass and, although infrequently, by bishops as an undergarment above the alb.
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The dalmatic is a long wide-sleeved tunic, which serves as a liturgical vestment in the Roman Catholic, Anglican, and United Methodist Churches, sometimes worn by a deacon at the service of worship or mass and, although infrequently, by bishops as an undergarment above the alb. Like the chasuble, it is an outer vestment and is supposed to match the liturgical colors of the day.
History
Historically, the dalmatic was a garment of Byzantine dress, and was adopted by Emperor Paul I of the Russian Empire as a coronation and liturgical vestment. In Russian Orthodox icons of Jesus Christ as King and Great High Priest he is shown in a dalmatic.
It was a normal item of clothing at the time when ecclesiastical clothes began to develop separately around the fourth century, worn over a longer tunic by the upper classes, and as the longest part of the dress of men of lower rank.
Eastern tradition
In the Eastern Orthodox Churches and Eastern Catholic Churches, there are two vestments very similar to the dalmatic. The first is the sticharion worn as the outer vestment by subdeacons and deacons and servers and as an undergarment by priests and bishops, strictly speaking, corresponding to a Western Alb. The second is the sakkos, which is more elaborately decorated and more amply cut, worn as an outer vestment by the bishops, derived from Byzantine imperial dress, and hence identical in origin to the Western Dalmatic.
Roman Catholic Church
At Rome, and throughout Italy, the dalmatic is a robe with wide sleeves; it reaches to the knees, is closed in front, and is open on the sides as far as the shoulder. Outside of Italy it is customary to slit the under side of the sleeves so that the dalmatic becomes a mantle like a scapular with an opening for the head and two square pieces of the material falling from the shoulder over the upper arm. The distinctive ornamentation of the vestment consists of two vertical stripes running from the shoulder to the hem; according to Roman usage these stripes are narrow and united at the bottom by two narrow cross-stripes. Outside of Rome the vertical stripes are quite broad and the cross-piece is on the upper part of the garment. At a Pontifical High Mass, a dalmatic (usually made of lighter material) is worn by the bishop under the chasuble. At solemn papal liturgical occasions the Pope is assisted by two Cardinal Deacons vested in a dalmatic and wearing a mitra simplex (simple white mitre).
In the Roman Catholic Church the subdeacons wore a vestment called the tunicle which was originally distinct from a dalmatic but by the 17th century the two became identical, though a tunicle was often less ornamented than a dalmatic, the main difference often being only one horizontal stripe versus the two becoming a deacon's vestment. Additionally, unlike deacons, subdeacons do not wear a stole under their tunicle. Today, the tunicle is rare in the Roman Catholic Church as only certain authorized clerical societies (such as the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter) have subdeacons.
See also
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