What does christian priests wear?

Answer 1

Priests wear normal clothes when in casual dress. When 'on duty' as it were, the badge of a priest iis his or her clerical collar - a white strip worn in front of a clerical shirt -- a shirt designed to accept such a collar. Shirts are usually black for Catholic (or High Church Anglican) priests but are other plain colours (grey, blue, green, pink etc) for other priests or ordained ministers. During services the priest uusually wears robes which are meant to divert the attention from the fact that the person conducting thhe service is not just 'Joe Smith' but is a priest. The robes are as follows: The long black (or sometimes other colours) robe that covers him or her from neck to floor is called a cassock. This is usually worn in conjunction with another robe on top -a white cotton robe that comes three quarters the way down. This is called a surplice. Anyone can wear cassocks and surplices and these are the usual robes worn by anyone participating in a service eg organist, servers and choirmembers within the church. Occasionally in some churches the surplices are much shorter and embellished with lace. These are called cottas. If the person is ordained (ie a member of the clergy), he or she can wear a decorative scarf over these robes called a stole. If a deacon the stole is worn as a sash over one shoulder, If a priest it is worn over both. If a bishop it is worn over both shoulders, and a pectoral cross is worn as well. If a stole is not worn then an academic hood can be worn instead over the cassock and surpplice. This is the standard dress for lay preachers (readers) wiin the church. Occasionally, and sometimes at a communion service, the priest wears a white robe like a cassock, but tied in the middle with rope. The robe is called an alb (from the Latin albus - 'white') and the rope is called a girdle. At the communion service, the priest sometimes wears also a decorative robe over the alb called a chasuble which is oval in shape, with a hole in the middle through which the priest places his or her head, so that it hangs down like a poncho. This was based on the Roman toga. On special occasions the priest can wear a highly decorative cloak over his or her normal robes called a cope. Copes are often worn by bishops too especially in procession on special occasions. If a bishop wears a cope then he also wears a mitre - a tall pointed hat, and carries his staff - shaped like a shepherd's crook to symbolise the bishop as being the 'shepherd' (spiritual leader) of his 'flock' (the church).