MANTELLETTA (mantellumi). — An ecclesiastical, though not liturgical, garment, a kind of shortened mantle, ample in form and reaching to the knees, open in front, without sleeves, with two wide lateral openings through which to insert the arms. A distinctive 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. Within their own dioceses, all bishops wear the mozzetta without the mantelletta. In the Roman Curia, all, having laid aside the mozzetta, wear the mantelletta. In the presence of the pope, cardinals wear the rochet, the mantelletta, and the mozzetta; during a sede vacante, as in their places of jurisdiction, they proceed in the rochet without the mantelletta. In their own diocese, in the presence of a cardinal or of their own metropolitan, bishops wear the mantelletta and the mozzetta; if, however, the cardinal is a legate a latere, they wear only the mantelletta.
The color of the mantelletta depends on the person wearing it: cardinals have it in three colors, usually red, violet on days of penance and mourning, and rose on Sundays.