MOZZETTA. — An outer garment worn by ecclesiastical dignitaries outside liturgical functions; it is a little cape that covers the shoulders and a considerable part of the arms; in front it is buttoned over the chest, while at the back, near the top, a very small hood is sewn. It is proper to the pope, cardinals, bishops, regular abbots, and those who enjoy it by custom or pontifical privilege (e.g., the canons of many cathedrals). It is worn over the uncovered rochet, in addition to the pope, by prelates vested with jurisdiction.
The origin of the m. is uncertain; perhaps it is a shortening of the cappa magna; hence its name. The hood was reduced when the biretta came into use. The m. was in use in Rome in the second half of the fifteenth century.
The m. of cardinals is made of red or purple silk, or of violet or reddish-purple silk according to the different times of the year; in the presence of the pope it is worn over the mantellina. Cardinals belonging to monastic and mendicant Orders always use the m. made of wool, serge, or cloth and in the color of the habit of the Order to which they belong; e.g., the Benedictines wear it black, the Carmelites white, and the Franciscans gray. Bishops use
in many of the 18 masses (as well as fragments of masses). The two oratorios Betulia liberata (1771) and Davide pentente (1785) are less significant; of great expressive intensity are the stupendous Ave verum (1791) and the Requiem (1791), the last composition which, left unfinished at Lachrymosa dies illa, was completed by his pupil Ignazio Lüssmayer.
Regarded less favorably during the Romantic period, the music
only the reddish-purple or violet color; religious bishops use that of their Order, as do regular abbots. An m. without a hood is granted as a privilege to parish priests in certain dioceses.