Tunicella

TUNICELLA (tunica, tunica linea, tunica striscia; subtile; dalmatica minor, dalmatica subdiaconalis). - Liturgical outer vestment of the subdeacon, of the same form and fabric as the dalmatic (v.) of the deacon.

Used in Rome in the 6th century, it was abolished by Gregory the Great, but it returned in the 9th century and spread even outside Rome. In the meantime (6th-9th centuries) the subdeacons wore, like the other clerics, the chasuble; today the (folded) chasuble has remained only in the penitential liturgical seasons of Advent and Lent. From the time when the subdiaconate was numbered among the major Orders, the subdeacons were given, to distinguish them from the other Orders, an ordinary service garment similar to the diaconal one: an ungirt tunic, of smaller width, with tight sleeves, without clavi. Later it gradually came to resemble the dalmatic and followed its shortening and deformation. The handing over to the newly ordained subdeacons was introduced in the 13th century. From this time the name "t." is also required; at first, especially outside Rome, it was called subtile

The t. belonged to the papal pontifical vestments already in the 8th century. Bishops wore under the chasuble until the 12th century either the diaconal dalmatic with long sleeves, or the subdiaconal t. with tight sleeves: little by little both, but only at the pontifical Mass and at that of Ordination. Abbots until the 13th century were rarely granted the use of the t., as a rule only that of the diaconal dalmatic. - See plate LVIII.

Pietro Siffrin