Early Christian Mosaic in Basilica of Sant' Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna, Italy
I came across some references to early Christian ritual vestments this morning in Matthew Brown’s The Gate of Heaven. He cited The Awe-Inspiring Rites of Initiation by Edward Yarnold, and The Archæology of Baptism by Wolfred N. Cote. I looked up these references and they were intriguing in describing an early Christian practice of face veiling during initiation rites:
In some places a white linen cloth was also spread over the candidate’s head. Theodore took this to be a mark of freedom: slaves have to uncover their heads. John the Deacon believed it to be a symbol of the priesthood: ‘for the priests of that time always wore on their heads a mystic veil.’ St. Augustine in a Low Sunday sermon takes the opposite view to Theodore: it is unveiling that symbolizes freedom:
Today is called the octave of the infants [newly baptized, not necessarily young]. The veils are due to be removed from their heads and this is a sign of freedom… Today, as you see, our infants mingle with the faithful and fly as it were from the nest.1
In another place Yarnold informs us:
St. Cyril tells the candidate that when he is exorcised he will be breathed on and his face will be covered to secure for him peace of mind from the dangers of a roving eye. 2
Wolfred Cote likewise agrees:
Some days before baptism they were veiled, or with their faces covered, in order that their mind might be more at liberty, and that the wandering of their eyes might not distract their soul. 3
I looked up St. Cyril of Jerusalem’s word about this in the Procatechesis or Prologue to his catechetical lectures in the fourth century CE (see my intro to these lectures). As part of the initiation rite was an exorcism, or a casting out of Satan and any devils from the initiate. As part of that rite, Cyril tells us that the face was veiled as a means of focus:
Thy face has been veiled, that thy mind may henceforward be free, lest the eye by roving make the heart rove also. But when thine eyes are veiled, thine ears are not hindered from receiving the means of salvation. 4
The early Christian veil served many more symbolic purposes than shielding the eyes, but these we will study at another time.
a
Notes:- Yarnold, The Awe-Inspiring Rites of Initiation, 33, link.
- Yarnold, The Awe-Inspiring Rites of Initiation, 10, link.
- Cote, The Archaeology of Baptism, 70, link.
- Cyril of Jerusalem, Procatechesis 9, link.
Related Posts
Continue reading at the original source →