Putting on Christ

In medieval Christendom, liturgical vestments were not just attributes for priestly identity. In direct contact with the celebrant’s body, they were charged with numerous allegorical significations that this article is aimed at studying. The first one associated the priest’s clothing with a moral “rite of passage.” Each vestment symbolized a virtue, thanks to which the priest was supposed to get ready for the Mass. A new allegorical system emerged in the thirteenth century: as symbols of arma Christi, the vestments invited the priest to follow Christ in his Passion. These liturgical garments were even considered as metaphors for Christ’s flesh. Towards the end of the Middle Ages, the celebrant’s clothing was a kind of new embodiment. By putting the liturgical vestments on, the priest was able to transform into the ultimate priest with a new emphasis on his quasi-demiurgic power; as such the priest became one of the most sacred components of the ritual of the Eucharist.