Pontifical shoes
Pontifical shoes ( Latin sandalia ), together with pontifical stockings ( caligae ), formed the pontifical footwear of bishops and abbots , which was worn during the pontifical office . Today, like the pontifical gloves , they are only used in the extraordinary form of the Roman rite .
Evidence of liturgical footwear in clerics of all consecration levels can be found on mosaics and in written documents from the 6th century. Since the 11th century it was reserved for the Pope , bishops and cardinals , abbots and certain canons could be given it as an award. Putting on pontifical shoes was part of the rite of episcopal ordination.
The shoes are traced back to a class shoe that arose as an award in Rome in the 4th century and possibly represents a transformation of the footwear of Roman senators . Initially made of linen , they were white and similar to sandals. From the 11th century onwards, the shape of the closed shoe developed, initially as a high shoe, and finally more slippery. Silk became the common material , and the color of shoes and stockings was based on the liturgical color of the day. Black shoes and stockings were not in use because pontifical footwear was not worn on Good Friday and at funeral masses . The shoes often had ornamental decorations. From the 15th century, jewelry with a cross was reserved for papal pontifical shoes.
Shoes and stockings have been given symbolic meaning since the Middle Ages. The stockings were seen as a symbol of pure change, the shoes were related to the preaching office of the bishop, who like the apostles was sent by Jesus to preach the gospel of peace ( Mk 6.9 EU , Eph 6.15 EU ). The bishop said while putting on the shoes:
" Calcea, Domine, pedes meos in praeparationem evangelii pacis, et protege me in velamento alarum tuarum.
Shoe, O Lord, my feet to proclaim the gospel of peace and protect me with the umbrella of your wing. "
literature
- Joseph Braun : The Liturgical Paraments in the Present and Past. A manual of paramentics. Second improved edition; Herder, Freiburg (Breisgau) 1924, pp. 158-163 (reprographic reprint: Nova and Vetera, Bonn 2005, ISBN 3-936741-07-7 ).
