Priest

:This article is about religious workers. For other uses of the word, see priest (disambiguation).

Dress

In most Christian traditions, priests wear clerical clothing— a distinctive form of street dress. In form it varies considerably–even within individual traditions–depending on the specific occasion. In Western Christianity, the stiff white clerical collar has become the nearly universal feature of priestly clerical clothing, worn either with a cassock or a clergy shirt. The shirt may be worn with or without a jacket, and occasionally a pectoral cross is worn with either the cassock or the shirt. The collar may be either a full collar or a vestigal tab displayed through a square cutout in the shirt collar. Eastern Christian priests mostly retain the traditional dress of two layers of differently cut cassock: the rasson (Greek) or podriasnik (Russian) beneath the outer exorasson (Greek) or riasa (Russian). Pectoral crosses are worn only if they are awarded.

Related Topics:
Clerical clothing - Western Christianity - Clerical collar - Cassock - Clergy shirt - Pectoral cross - Eastern Christian

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Distinctive clerical clothing is less often worn in modern times than formerly, and in many cases it is rare for a priest to wear it when not acting in a pastoral capacity, especially in countries that view themselves as largely secular in nature. There are frequent exceptions to this however, and many priests rarely if ever go out in public without it, especially in countries where their religion makes up a clear majority of the population.

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Every Christian tradition that retains the title of priest also retains the tradition of special liturgical vestments worn only during services. Vestments vary so widely that there is little that can be said in general about them. Garments traceable in origin to the ancient Roman dalmatic, such as the alb, surplice or stikharion, are very common, as is the stole, but these are not worn universally. Priests of denominations that are more minimalist in their approach might wear nothing more elaborate than an academic gown.

Related Topics:
Liturgical - Vestment - Dalmatic - Alb - Surplice - Stikharion - Stole - Academic gown

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