PALL. — In the current liturgical sense, it is a small square of linen measuring about 20–25 cm, used to cover the chalice, especially from the Offertory to Communion.
Until the 11th century, the chalice was covered with the folded back part of the corporal, called the “great pall” (v.). This Franco-Italian usage is still followed by the Carthusians. For convenience in private Masses without a deacon, the chalice was first covered with another folded corporal (a cloth folded like a shroud), then with a linen cloth almost detached from the corporal and called corporale minus (e.g., corporals) or simply pall. This piece of linen, originally bordered with a flounce that was once loose, is now stiff or starched; in Belgium and Germany it is doubled in the middle with cardboard. The pall must always be made of pure linen, like the corporal from which it was detached (Decr. auth., 4174); if doubled, the upper part may also be made of silk and variously adorned or embroidered (ibid., 3882, 4). St. Charles Borromeo calls the pall “animetta” (little soul), because it is enclosed in the corporal as the soul is in the body; in the Mozarabic rite it is called “filiola” (little thread), because it derives from the great pall. The pall is blessed with the same formula as the corporal, from which it derives; the first washing, like that of the corporal, must be done by a priest or a subdeacon. Medieval allegorism sees symbolized in the corporal the shroud in which Christ was wrapped, and in the pall especially the sudarium (Jo. 20, 7).
In a broader and original sense, pall was also used to denote the altar cloth: two types are distinguished, “pallium altaris” and “pallium corporale,” i.e., the corporal of today, from which the pall was detached. Sometimes even the veil of the chalice is called pall. In the preparation of the chalice, the pall is placed over the paten. The Theatines use a second pall to cover the paten.