December 28, 2010

Cardinal Birettas

The Original
Cardinal's biretta, Roman sytle, made of red silk with moiré effect (watered silk).
This model will be hand over to a new cardinal by the Pope during a consistory.
A cardinal's biretta always has a stem ( 2.5 cm high, made of twisted cord) on the top, never a pompon.
The lining is red silk as well.
The biretta is collapsible and to make it stiff, laminated cardboard (0.5 - 0.7 mm thick) is used.

Cardinal's biretta made of red cotton with moiré effect (watered silk)
Formerly it was used during winter season or rainy weather, because it is not
so sensitive against water spots.

Cardinal's biretta made of red cotton
Formerly it was used during winter season or rainy weather, because it is not
so sensitive against water spots.

Cardinal's biretta made of red taffeta fabric with some kind of patchy pattern 
It was made by an Orthodox tailor for a Catholic cardinal in Bulgaria.


Cardinal's biretta made of red taffeta fabric with paisly pattern 
It was made by an Orthodox tailor for a Catholic cardinal in Bulgaria.

Cardinal's mini biretta
sold as a souvenir item in the shops of some ecclesiatical tailors in Rome

4 comments:

  1. Officially, there are no "cotton" birettas but wool and silk. Formerly, prelates wore wool in ecclesiastical winter (nothing to do with rain) and in mourning, and silk in summer. Cardinals belonging to older religious orders wore only wool, as silk was forbidden monastics and semi-monastics. The silk biretta was a recent innovation (XVIII sec.?) but was the only one to survive the 1969 reforms.
    Watered silk was to be worn only by the pope and papal legates (cardinals, nuncios), although some clerics had usurped the privilege.

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  2. What's your email address? I want to send you some photos.

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  3. @ Anonymous:
    Thanks for your support.
    Please use the contact form to get in contact with me:
    http://www.dieter-philippi.de/en/contact

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  4. Hi Dieter,

    This is Josh! I am a fan of Catholic vestments just like birettas and miters. We hope you can launch a raffle and the prices are these precious red cardinal hats.

    More power Dieter!

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