COCOLLA. - It is a specifically monastic garment and consists of a large robe with wide sleeves, to which is added a hood, either attached to the neck or loose, to be used on certain occasions.

Originally it was a kind of closed cloak or casula with the hood, but later it took on the sleeved form of a wide, ungirt tunic or of a dalmatic. St. Benedict, for the monk's outfit, assigns two of them: a heavier, shaggy one for winter, and another, lighter one for summer. The color is white or black according to the monastic Congregations that use it; thus the Cistercians, the Camaldolese, and the Olivetans have it in white, the others in black. It is essentially a choir garment, but among the Cistercians and in some monasteries it is worn for the more solemn common acts.

With the term cuculla, among the ancients, was meant a kind of scapular that was used for work and that covered the shoulders and the head. St. Benedict calls it scapulare propter opera.

In the East, garments similar to the c. are found in use, as is reported in the histories of Eastern monasticism.

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: E. Martène, De vestiario fratrum: PL 66, 773-75; A. Grea, La Sainte Liturgie, 2nd ed., Paris 1900, pp. 114-18; Ph. Oppenheim, Das Mönchskleid im christlichen Altertum, Freiburg im Br. 1931, pp. 142-74; id. Symbolik und religiöse Wertung des Mönchskleides im christlichen Altertum, Münster 1932, pp. 59-82.

Filippo Oppenheim

@incollection{ec3_cocolla, author = {Oppenheim, Filippo}, title = {Cocolla}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {III}, pages = {1908--1909}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1949}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/cocolla} }

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