Divine services are sacred actions. This necessitates the need for them to be performed in special vestments (clothes). Because, if we wear more special clothes on special occasions (holidays, folk customs, etc.), it is much more justified to use special sacred vestments when performing divine services. That is why the Holy Church, from the deepest antiquity, has established special liturgical vestments (sacred vestments), which the priests wore when performing the Holy Sacraments. These vestments acquired the meaning of authority to invoke God’s grace, manifested in the sacred actions; they also became a symbol of the hierarchical ministry.
The first divine vestment was very simple – a long white upper linen shirt, called a sticharion, alb or tunic. The sticharion is a symbol of spiritual joy and moral purity. Over it are placed the other vestments that are distinctive for the three separate ministries: orarion (a long cloth band with which the deacon urges the faithful to prayer), epitrachelion (a priest’s orarion, a collar), and omophorion (a wide band of woolen cloth worn on the shoulders by the bishop). Without these vestments, even today, no priest can, except in extremely exceptional circumstances, perform his respective liturgical actions. Later, other liturgical vestments appeared. The common liturgical vestments also include the armlets, which signify the bonds with which the Savior’s hands were bound during His torture. The deacon’s stycharon is an outer garment and is therefore made of thicker fabric and has wide sleeves. The orarion is placed on the left shoulder. It also signifies angel wings. Therefore, in ancient times, the words of the angelic hymn were written on it: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts…” The orarion of archdeacons and protodeacons is longer and is worn under the right arm.
Priestly vestments are based on the deacon’s. The priest’s stichara is an undergarment and is therefore made of white soft linen with narrow sleeves. Once upon a time, during the ordination of a deacon to the priesthood, the back wing of the orarion was draped around the neck in front, and thus the epitrachil was obtained. It is a distinctive and essential vestment for the priest. Without it, the priest cannot perform a single liturgical act. Through the epitrachil, God’s grace is invoked, which is poured out, just as the myrrh was once poured on the head of the high priest Aaron. The epitrachelion is girded with a belt, which signifies the cloth (cloth) that Christ girded at the Last Supper when washing the feet of His disciples. On top, the priest wears a bell-shaped garment called a penula or fenula, a phelon. Subsequently, for greater practicality in performing the sacraments, the phelon was shortened or narrowed in front, and thus its present form was obtained. The phelon signifies the purple in which Christ was clothed at His trial, as well as the yoke of the pastoral ministry. Distinguished priests wear a crozier (a rhomboid cloth measuring about 30 x 30 cm) or a loincloth (a rectangular cloth measuring 30 x 40 cm), hung on the sides of the thighs, a symbol of a spiritual sword ¬ the word of God.
The bishop’s vestments are based on the priestly vestments, over which the omophorion is placed, a symbol of the lost and subsequently found sheep. There are two types of omophorions – short and long. The short one measures 25 x 250 cm; as mentioned, it is draped over the shoulders. The long one measures about 25 x 350 cm; it is draped over the shoulders so that one end falls in front, the other remains behind, and the middle part goes around the shoulders and descends in the form of a triangle above the chest. The bishop’s phelon was once wider than the priest’s; it was decorated with many crosses, which is why it was called polystavrion, i.e. many-crossed. Later, the Patriarch of Constantinople received a royal garment called sakos as a gift from the emperor. It resembles the deacon’s sticharion. Such a garment began to be worn by other patriarchs, followed by archbishops, until finally it became the garment of all bishops.
As a sign of a particularly high ministry, the mitre appeared among the bishop’s vestments – a crown decorated with gold and precious stones.
The bishop’s vestments and distinctive signs also include the mantle – a cloak with wide folds and a long hem, the panagia (the Blessed Virgin Mary, i.e. the Holy Mother of God) or the engolpie (breastplate), i.e. an icon, most often with the image of the Holy Mother of God, which the bishop wears hanging on a chain on his chest, a staff – a metal staff with a cross on the upper end – a symbol of spiritual authority, dikiri and trikiri, i.e. candlesticks with two and three candles, with which the bishop blesses the people during the service.
