PENULA. - Among the Romans the paenula was a dark-colored cloak, perhaps of Celtic origin, closed also at the front and sleeveless, circular in shape with a hole in the middle through which the head was passed; the hands were brought out below its raised edges.
It was used especially when traveling; in the city in rainy and cold weather, with the addition of a hood (cucullus). It was made of thick cloth lined with fur (gausapa, paenula gausapina); there were also ones of thin leather. A plain paenula, open at the front, was worn by slaves over the exomis tunic. Because of its cut and the quality of the fabric, it was little suited to being draped elegantly like the other cloak called the lacerna, which was smaller, open at the front and always with the cucullus. A cloak of the same kind as the paenula (ρελένη) was requested by St. Paul from Timothy (II Tim. 4:13), having been left by him at Troas, with Carpus, along with some of his books. In the 4th and 5th centuries a more practical style of p. became common, shortened and open at the sides to allow movement of the arms. From it, used by bishops and presbyters
(as with St. Martin of Tours) derived the chasuble or planeta, while from the lacerna derived the cope (pluvialis). It was, subsequently, between the 8th and 9th centuries that, other kinds of vestment having come into use, the paenula and the lacerna became exclusively ecclesiastical and liturgical garments. Various types of paenula are represented in depictions of bishops and presbyters; thus St. Ambrose (v.) is dressed in the Milanese mosaic of the 5th century (A. Ratti, Il più antico ritratto di s. Ambrogio, in Ambrosiana, Milan 1897, p. 20), likewise in paintings near the tomb of St. Cornelius, in the cemetery of Callistus (6th century), in the Ravenna mosaics (6th century), in the paintings of S. Maria Antiqua in the Roman Forum (8th century) and in those of the lower church of S. Clemente in Rome (11th century).