Religious Hats

I HAVE A CONFESSION TO MAKE: As a Roman Catholic who came from the only Catholic nation in Asia, The Philippines, I find my inherited religion rich in colorful tradition, rituals and vestment  fashion - haute couture par excellence.  Catholic chic.

This is hard to verify, whether you accept it or not because it's beyond belief, that God looking down from heaven uses religious hat to tell who's who in the religious world and who are the players.  The omniscient God can tell the three great religions by their head accessories: the Jews wear black Yarmulkas, the Muslims wear white turbans, and the Roman Catholics (hierarchy) wear Zucchetta of different color - for some reason God prefers the grand design of his son Jesus.  Zucchetta is an Italian word for little squash, related to zucchini.  The little hat looks like a hollowed out gourd.  There's more to it than a fashion accessory for men - the Zucchetta was probably worn to keep one's head warm in the cold stone cathedrals of Europe.  Priests as a mark of the renunciation of worldly fashions, they have to have a clump of hair shaved off the top of their heads leaving a bald spot right on the top.  [One famous Franciscan model was St. Anthony de Padua.] Since the clergy need to maintain warm brains, especially bishops, the head covering is needed because the human body loses the most heat from the head. So the customary Zucchettas are worn by the upper clergy but not the lower clergy for they have no real need to keep their brains warm.

How these colors were chosen for these particular ministries probably started sometime in the middle ages

White Zucchetta for the Pope - the Pope wears white since the times of Pope Pius V (1566-1572).  He continued to wear his Dominican habit instead of the red that popes usually wore.  It must have been a windy day at the Vatican.

Red Zucchetta for the Cardinals - the Cardinals wear crimson red to represent the blood of the martyrs.

Fuschia Zucchetta for the Bishops - the Bishops wear purple-red because of their position of leadership in the Roman Catholic Church.  In the Roman and Byzantine empires, purple was limited by law so they also wear the black in their everyday clothing, as priests do, to symbolized poverty and renunciation of worldly fashions. 

You may ask how come I keep saying "fashion?"  Pay no attention because the word is just a matter of description. Yes, they are humble servants of God, sworn to poverty and should not be so ostentatious.  But God likes colors - the green earth, the flashy colors of flowers, birds and fishes

The bird was named for the Catholic Cardinals, not the other way around

Fashion Footwear

Pope Benedict wore red shoes made by a humble shoemaker to whom, when he was plain German priest had gone for years to have his shoes repaired.  Don't believe in the rumor, it's all nonsense.  Red shoes were the papal custom for centuries, way back to the day of the pre-Christian Roman high priests who wore red shoes.  The red shoes are a reminder that the blood of the martyrs has triumphed.  The blood of the martyrs had overthrown Rome and its government religion that had tried to wipe Christianity from Rome and the world.



Blessed John Paul wore brown shoes made by a humble shoemaker.



Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle of the Philippines - the second youngest Cardinal elevated by Pope Benedict XVI