Where Do Liturgical Colors Come From?
Today, the Church uses priest and temple vestments of
various colors. There is even a full-fledged system of liturgical colors where
each holiday has a prescribed color. Where does this practice come from?
Originally, all
vestments were white, based on the following verses from the Revelation of St.
John the Theologian, “[the righteous] have washed their robes, and made them
white in the blood of the Lamb” (Rev. 7:14). White vestments are mentioned by
St. John Chrysostom and St. Gregory the Theologian.
Worship development
saw the use of vestments of other colors. However, the number of colors and
their practical usage was different in various places. According to St. Symeon
of Thessalonica, just two colors—white and purple—were used during the late Byzantine
era. Eugene Golubinsky, a Russian church historian, writes that the early
Russian Church inherited that practice, too. The Church in Russian lands used
only three colors—white, crimson, and yellow—for a long time. White was used on
Sunday, great holidays, for baptisms and funerals. Yellow was the color for
ordinary services. Clerics wore crimson robes mainly during the Great Lent or
on holidays dedicated to the Lord’s Cross.
However, this
system had quite a few caveats, too. If there was a richly adorned set of
vestments in a cathedral, they used those vestments even if they weren’t of the
required color.
The Typikon,
compiled in mid-17th century, contains just two rules regulating
vestment color: Priests have to put on white vestments on Great Saturday before
reading the Gospel during the Liturgy; and they also must wear “all-brightest
robes”, i.e., all white, on Easter Day. We find one more rule regulating the
color of clerical robes in the Lenten Triodion: “the priest changes his robe at
the Vespers when Lord I Have Cried is
being sung, leaves the sanctuary, and censes the church.” Thus, rubrics don’t
specify how exactly this or that color is to be used.
A more or less
consistent system of liturgical colors in Russia emerges only in the 17th-18th
centuries due to growing Western influence. The final five-color system was
approved by Pope Pius V in the 2nd half of the 16th century. It was
due to Roman Catholic influence that the idea of various colors corresponding
to various holidays gained traction. Nevertheless, there wasn’t a unified
system until the 20th century.
Each bishop or
monastery had their own system of liturgical colors. We know of a system
developed and used by Saint Philaret (Drozdov). For instance, Saint Philaret
used blue vestments on Sundays of the Great Lent, on Great Thursday, on
Christmas and Theophany Eve. He celebrated Easter Matins wearing red vestments,
and Easter Liturgy and all services during the Bright Week in white. Similar
approaches were practiced in monasteries, too. St. Sebastian of Karaganda, heir
to Optina Elders, described the pre-Revolution practice in Optina Pustyn. He
remarked that red was the ordinary color, green was used on lenten days, and
blue was used on days of commemoration of holy monks.
It was only in the
20th century that the system of liturgical colors gained its contemporary form
and was recorded in the Clergy Handbook.
Notwithstanding this fact, some dioceses and parishes still use their own color
system.
Other Local
Orthodox Churches may have different color systems or have no designated
liturgical colors at all (e.g., Greek Orthodox Church). The Orthodox in various
countries use vestments according to their local customs and traditions.
Therefore, the
contemporary system of liturgical colors belongs to the sphere of tradition
rather than strict rules, and can vary from one parish to the other. This
liturgical diversity isn’t inherently bad, for, according to Saint Athanasius
Sakharov, “Church laws strongly oppose monotonous banality.”
By Alexander Adomenas,
a PSTGU graduate, BTh
Source: https://pravlife.org/ru/content/otkuda-vzyalis-cveta-cerkovnyh-oblacheniy
