BARBA. — Among early Christians, the beard was a sign of authority, as Clement of Alexandria affirms (Paedagog., III, 11: PG 8, 633). In early Christian art, the following figures are depicted with beards: the Eternal Father in various scenes (the creation of Adam and Eve, the offerings of Cain and Abel, the conversation with Jacob in the dream), Abraham, Pharaoh, Jacob, Elijah, Elisha, Nebuchadnezzar, the elders of Susanna, John the Baptist; Jesus Christ almost always in the delivery of the Law, and the Apostles Peter, Paul, Andrew, and James the Less; sometimes artists alternate bearded and beardless apostles, as in the sarcophagus of Gorgonius in the cathedral of Ancona (Wilpert, Sarcofagi, pl. 14, 3). Many sarcophagi depict bearded Christians, in which case they are true portraits, as in the sarcophagi of the two brothers, of Comes Balerius, of Julius Caetervius, of Valerius Valentinianus, etc.
The type of the bearded Christ never predominated in the West, even later, especially in Carolingian art, which deliberately drew inspiration from classicism. In Italy, before the modern age—when Christ is either completely orientalized or depicted in our own time—artists are divided, and among the most famous depictions of Christ, some are bearded (Raphael’s Transfiguration, Titian’s Christ), while others are beardless (Michelangelo in the Last Judgment, Leonardo da Vinci in the Last Supper). A special chapter of iconography has created the legend of female saints with beards (cf. H. Delehaye, Les Légendes hagiographiques, 3rd ed., Brussels 1927, pp. 103, 195).
Regarding the beard, there is an entire ecclesiastical tradition. Eastern monks and clergy always preserved the beard; in the West, however, there has never been a fixed rule. The Statuta ecclesiae antiquae (Mansi, III, 955) prohibit only the cultivation of the beard. Sidonius Apollinaris (Ep. 4, 13; PL 58, 519), etc., v., describes a priest who was perfectly clean-shaven. Nevertheless, in the West in the 11th century, bearded monks are noted, as seen in M. Inguanez - M. Avery, Miniature cassinesi del sec. XI illustranti la vita di s. Benedetto, Montecassino 1934. Yet from the 9th century onward, the practice of not wearing a beard must have been general in the West, as it became one of Photius’ accusations against the Latin Church (Nicholas I, Ep. 52 ad Hincmarum: PL 119, 11, 55). Those who, at the invitation of Nicholas, responded to the Greek accusations—Enea, Bishop of Paris: Liber adversus Graecos, 182 (PL 121, 744 ff.); Ratramnus, monk of Corbie, Contra Graecorum opposita, IV, 5 (PL 121, 322 ff.); the German bishops gathered at Worms, Responsio Episcoporum Germaniae (PL 119, 1212)—did not disdain to address clerical beards without irony: “Si sanctitas est in barba nullus sanctior est hirc” (Responsio Episcop., ibid.).
In 1050, the Synod of Coyaca (Spain) issued canon 3, which ordered the cutting of the beard for clerics (Mansi, XIX, 787), and in 1119, the Council of Toulouse (Mansi, XXI, 228) threatened excommunication for clerics who wore beards in the manner of laymen.
It should be noted, however, that the prohibition against wearing a beard did not require that it be shaved off; indeed, even in the 17th century, the practice of trimming the beard with scissors on the cheeks and chin persisted, as seen, for example, in the portraits of St. Philip Neri and St. Vincent de Paul.
In the 16th century, however, there was a tendency to wear beards; Julius II and Clement VII occasionally followed this custom, until the latter prohibited it in the Curia, provoking the recriminations of contemporary dandies. But to no avail: the custom of wearing beards continued, even among popes, until the end of that century. During the 17th century, everyone, including popes, followed the common fashion of mustaches and small goatees; until Clement XIV made it fashionable to shave the beard. From that time onward, prescriptions by popes and bishops on this matter followed one another uninterruptedly until the response given on January 10, 1920, to the Bishop of Breslau (AAS, 12 [1920], pp. 43 ff.), which prohibited secular clergy from wearing beards; some have taken this to mean that the silence of the Code of Canon Law on this point did not signify the abrogation of previous discipline. The custom of wearing beards, however, became entrenched in certain religious orders, both monastic (Camaldolese hermits) and mendicant (Capuchins), as well as among missionaries.
In the liturgical sphere, the beard is related to the tonsure, and this entailed the removal of the beard. The same liturgical act (E. Martène, De Ant. Eccles. Rit., lib. II, Antwerp 1736, pp. 187, 193; lib. III, pp. 629-634) and, more precisely, the shaving of monks and friars is addressed in local monastic constitutions (Martène, op. cit., lib. III, p. 684 ff.).