Stephanos (bishop's crown)
The Stephanos (from Greek στέϕανος for "crown"), also called miter (μίτρα), is the purely liturgical headgear customary today for the bishops and patriarchs of many Orthodox and Catholic Eastern Churches. In some places other dignitaries from the Eastern Church, e.g. B. Archpriests and Archimandrites (superior of an Eastern church monastery or honorary title for unmarried priests), Stephen in honor.
In the Armenian rite priests use in the liturgy, a crown-shaped headgear ( Sałavart , "helmet"), catholicoi , patriarchs and bishops, however, wear a miter Latin Art.
In use and meaning, the Stephanos is equated with the miter. Thus he is also one of the pontificals .
Appearance and shape
Today's Stephanos is a spherical closed crown . It is mostly adorned with precious stones and crossed by four decorative stripes. An icon is usually attached to the end of each of these strips . In addition to pure gold , colored fabrics, especially silk (as brocade or damask ), are used for Stephanos mitres . This is usually decorated with elaborate embroidery.
Depending on the wearer, a cross , lying or standing, is attached to the top of the crown (see below), which can be removed if a higher-ranking bishop is present.
history
The Stephanos is modeled on the imperial crown of the late Byzantine Empire . It was only worn by the Eastern Church patriarchs after the fall of Constantinople (1453) . During the subsequent Millet system in the Ottoman Empire , the Patriarch of Constantinople, as head of the Orthodox Millet , wore the Stephanos together with other insignia such as the jacket and the epigonation as a symbol of the transferred secular power. Ordinary bishops followed this model only in modern times. In 1620 a bishop was deposed because he had dared to wear a miter in church services. Stephanos was not granted to non-bishops until late in the Slavic Orthodoxy as a decoration. From 1666, the Russian tsar granted Archimandrite the right to a miter, which was subsequently extended to protopresbyter . For the first time in 1786 the Russian Empress Catherine the Great bestowed a miter on her confessor Johannes Pamfilov. With the Greeks it was from Patriarch Gerasimos III. (1794–1797) as a general practice that bishops use the crown-shaped miter, even when concelebrating with one another. Today only the bishops of the Ecumenical Patriarchate do without the miter when they concelebrate with the Ecumenical Patriarch.
particularities
There are different traditions regarding the cross on Stephanos. In all churches it is equally true that only bishops and higher officials wear a cross on the crown, which is always upright in the Greek rites. In the Russian tradition, on the other hand, the cross lies flat on the Stephanos for simple bishops, while it stands upright for archbishops and higher clerics.
literature
- Petre Guran: L'origine et la fonction théologico-politique de la couronne patriarcale . In: Le patriarcat œcuménique de Constantinople aux XIVe – XVIe siècles: rupture et continuité. Actes du colloque international Rome, 5–6–7 December 2005 (Dossiers Byzantins 7). Center d'études byzantines, neo-helléniques et sud-est européennes, Paris 2007. 407-427.
- Armenia sacra. Mémoire chrétienne des Arméniens (IVe-XVIIIe siècle) . Dir. Jannic Durand - Ioanna Rapti - Dorota Giovannoni. Musée du Louvre, Paris 2007, 400. 403 No. 176. 403 (Armenian priest hats from 1611 and 1651).