“Why do you wear that black cassock?”


People have sometimes approached me and asked why Orthodox priests (as well as deacons, monks and bishops) traditionally wear black cassocks. In the earliest Church, it does not seem that clergy wore any distinctive garb, except of course liturgical vestments, which in some cases also were worn outside the Divine services. For example, sometimes bishops and priests wore the phelonion like regular clothing, as did the deacons with the sticharion (in the West dalmatic).

It seems reasonable to assume this was at least partly due to the facts that 1) Christians were frequently persecuted during the first centuries, and self-identifying marks like clerical garb would therefore in some cases be tantamount to suicide; and 2) there was, at that time, no pressing need to alter their standard wear.  The early priesthood was in many ways understood in the context of the Levitical priesthood inherited from the Jewish tradition by the early Church, and standard (non-liturgical) wear for them was not always identifiably different from that of others.

So for the first three centuries, priests wore more or less the same clothes as ordinary people. The tunics were normal clothes. But when it became fashionable to wear shorter robes, most priests kept the longer more conservative tunics, and thus they stood out from other people. As fashions changed in the Roman Empire, it seemed right for the ordained clergy not to follow the vain changes of worldly styles.

The Council of Braga in Portugal (572) seem to be one of the first synods to mandate that clergy wear a tunic reaching to the feet.

The Quinisext Council (692, i.e. the conclusion of the Sixth Ecumenical Council) stated: “None of those who are in the catalogue of the clergy shall wear clothes unsuited to them, either while still living in town or when on a journey: but they shall wear such clothes as are assigned to those who belong to the clergy.” (Canon XXVII)

Responding to reports of laxity in Britain, Pope John VIII  (c. 875) admonished the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to ensure that their clergy wore proper attire, particularly long tunics.

The English word “cassock” derives from the early French casaque,  meaning “a long coat.” The Russian word for the cassock is подрясник (podryasnik), and the Greek is αντερί (anteri) or ράσον (rason).


Fr. Andreas




Blessed Elder Amphilokhios of Patmos (1889-1970)

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