www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall The Pope's Cap

Dear Friends,

O.K., this is a question I've always wanted to ask, but was afraid to . . .

What is the white cap that the Pope wears, as do the Cardinals and other Latin prelates?

What is its meaning? Is it descended from Judaism?

Alex

Alex,

it's a zuchetto derived from the Italian zucca, "pumpkin". I imagine it does resemble a yarmulke(sp?), but there are practical uses for it development. In times past when all clerics received tonsure by shaving the head or leaving a ring of hair, the zuchetto was used as a head covering, either to keep the head warm in the winter or protected from the sun in the summer. Usually only prelates or abbots now wear them. Of course color denotes rank- white for the pope, scarlet for cardinals, purple for bishops, black for abbots.

John

[ 07-30-2002: Message edited by: bisantino ]

Dear John,

Thanks very much!

Is there a liturgical function in terms of worship for the zucchetto?

Why are there moments in a Papal Mass, for example, when it is taken off His Holiness?

Alex

Taken off for the Anaphora?

ABBOTS OF THE NORBERTINE ORDER ALSO WEAR WHITE ZUCCHETTOS.

Dear Alex:

I am sorry to tell you this now because it could have become useful to your meeting with his Holiness.

There is an old tradition where a person meeting the Pope can present him with a new Zucchetto and the Pope will exchange it for the one he is currently wearing.

If you go to the papal outfitters [Gamarelis?] in Rome they will sell you the exact type that the Pope likes to wear.

Just a Papal tidbit.


defreitas

Dear Alex:

Bishops, up to the Pope, are allowed to wear the zucchetto when celebrating the Mass, but are required to remove the same during the Canon, i.e., consecration.

Also, a Bishop may not wear his zucchetto when giving benediction.

All others may not wear their zucchettos during Mass WITHOUT papal dispensation.


bisantino:

I would prefer to designate the color for the Cardinals' zucchetto as RED. Scarlet accepts a range of colors to include reddish-orange, which is not entirely proper for the red zuchetto of Cardinals. (The color SCARLET further connotes, in literature, the color of sinfulness!)

Ditto for the Bishops' zucchetto: it is properly designateed as VIOLET, although you might be correct to say it is purple.

Laus Tibi:

Prelates and other ecclesiastics such as abbots, wear BLACK, unless a special privilege to wear violet is granted.

The Norbertine Order must have been granted a special Papal permission to wear their zucchettos in WHITE!? Nevertheless, a Cardinal who belongs to this Order is required to wear a RED zucchetto.


AmdG

[ 07-30-2002: Message edited by: Amado Guerrero ]

[ 07-30-2002: Message edited by: Amado Guerrero ]

The papal zuchetti are sold for around US $65, last I heard.

In the Syrian tradition, there is a skullcap that is black and made of seven triangular pieces...magic number three from another post, plus seven, for the seven-fold priesthood. Priests and deacons wear this hat. Among the Arabs, it is a skullcap, while among the Indians, it is a cylindrical hat, but with the seven pieced cap incorporated at the top of the "cylinder". It is always worn when priests and deacons are in cassock, whether at liturgy or not.

Dear De Freitas,

Actually, I have a white yarmulka, but I don't think the Pope would have "traded with me . . ."

I'll remember that when I go to Rome for a papal audience on behalf of the government next spring!

Alex

Dear Bisantino,

If you're so "Bisantino" how come you know so much about this subject?

Why is the cap removed for the consecration and the blessing?

I'm asking what the religious significance of the cap or other headgear, such as Mor Ephrem has described, is liturgically?

What does it do apart from protect the tonsure?

A Jewish friend once told me the yarmulka is there to indicate a "separation" between God and humanity (?).

Alex

Alex asked:

"Is it (the zucchetto=skullcap) descended from Judaism?"

Some accounts tracing the origins of the Roman Rite tend to show elements of Jewish religious customs incorporated into its primitive form, i.e., as practiced during the early days of Christianity, although the wearing of the Catholic's zucchetto by ecclesiastics became customary only in the 13th century.

It might be safe to assume that the wearing of the "yarmulke" was one of the Jewish customs adopted by the early converts to Christianity since it was only instituted in Talmudic times (approximately the second century CE).

In Judaism, especially to the Orthodox and Conservative Jews, wearing of a head covering (yarmulke, yarmulka, skullcap, or kippah)for men was/is an indication for respect and fear of God.

Some Jewish historians liken it to the "High Priest" who wore a hat to remind him something was always between him and God. Thus, wearing a yarmulke, to the Jews, makes them all like the high priest and turns them into a "holy nation."

The head covering is also a sign of humility for Jewish men, acknowledging what's "above" (God).


AmdG

Dear Amado,

And if you're so Catholic, how come you know so much about Judaism?

Thanks - your post unifies much research into one coherent whole!

Alex

Dear Alex:

Because Jesus WAS a Jew!? And Mary, and Joseph, and.....


AmdG

Dear Amado,

In that case, Ba shana haba Bi-Yerooshalayim!

Shalom Aleichem!

Alex

Dear Alex:

Or, as Rome's Chief Rabbi, Israel Zolli, retorted when asked why he and his wife converted to Catholicism right after World War II and the Holocaust: because a Christian is a "completed Jew!"


AmdG