MANTELLETTA (mantellum). - An ecclesiastical, but not liturgical, garment: a kind of reduced mantle, ample in form, reaching down to the knees, open at the front, sleeveless, with two wide side openings for putting the arms through. A mark of dignity, it is the dress of the Roman prelature.

It is worn by cardinals, patriarchs, bishops, regular abbots, apostolic protonotaries and domestic prelates; it is always used with the rochet. In their dioceses, all bishops wear the mozzetta without the mantelletta. In the Roman Curia, all, having laid aside the mozzetta, put on the mantelletta. In the presence of the pope, cardinals wear the rochet, the mantelletta and the mozzetta; during a vacant see, as in their places of jurisdiction, they proceed with the rochet without the mantelletta. In their diocese, in the presence of a cardinal or of their own metropolitan, bishops wear the mantelletta and the mozzetta; if, moreover, the cardinal is a legate a latere, only the mantelletta.

The color of the mantelletta depends on the person wearing it: cardinals have it in three colors — red ordinarily, violet on days of penance and mourning, rose-colored on the Sundays

Gaudete and Laetare; the other prelates and bishops use violet as a rule. Cardinals, bishops and regular abbots are generally required to wear the dress of the color of their order.

Since when the mantelletta has been in use is not certain; perhaps the mantellum of the Ordo Roman. XIII (Caeremoniale Romanum, ed. iussu Gregorii X, after 1274) or of the Ordo Roman. XV (Liber de caeremoniis S. R. E. « auctore Petro Amelio, Ep. Senegalliensi », d. 1401) refers to the mantelletta (Braun); G. Catalani cites in the Caeremoniale episcoporum (I, Rome 1744, pp. 14-15) canon II of the Council of Buda (1279) and the decrees of the second provincial Council of Milan of St. Charles (16th century) « in usu fuisse saec. XV ».

Bibliography6 works

BIBL.: Motu proprio of Pius X, Inter multiplices, of 21 Feb. 1905, in Decr. auth. Congreg. Sacr. Rit., no. 4154 ad 7.16.26. (31); Decreto S. Congreg. Caerem., 24 June 1933, in AAS, 25 (1933), pp. 341-42. Studies: G. Antoni, s. v. in Diz. di erud. stor. eccl., XLII, pp. 150-54; P. Hinschius, System des kath. Kirchenrechts, I, Berlin 1869, p. 358, n. 5, 390; II, ibid. 1878, p. 47, n. 11; P. Hofmeister, Mitra und Stab der wirklichen Prälaten ohne bischöflichen Charakter, Stuttgart 1928, p. 58; J. Braun, s. v. in Cuth. Enc., IX, p. 611.

Pietro Siffrin

@incollection{ec7_mantelletta_mantellum, author = {Siffrin, Pietro}, title = {Mantelletta (Mantellum)}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VII}, pages = {1985--1986}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1951}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/mantelletta-mantellum} }

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