VESTARARIUS (VESTERARIUS, VASTARARIUS). - He was the custodian of the treasury or wardrobe of high ecclesiastical or lay dignitaries, or of Chapters and monasteries. From the 7th century onward, this was the name given to the official entrusted with the care of the vestiarium lateranense, that is, the sacred treasury or wardrobe of the Pontiff.
On feast days, according to Ordo Rom. I (no. 22, ed. M. Andrieu, II, p. 73), the V. was required to issue, under his seal, the precious sacred vessels (per numerum gemmarum) for the papal pontifical ceremony (calicem et patenum maiores, evangelia maiora), and in the procession he rode immediately after the Pope, beside the vicedomino (Ordo cit., no. 10, p. 70). In the 9th century the office of V. aristocracy. The Ordo Rom. of Cencio Camerario (ed. Fabre-Duchesne), composed toward the end of the 12th century, mentions the presence at the papal Court of several V., who received each year, at Christmas and Easter, a gratuity (presbyterium) of four provisini (provenienses). It was also part of their office to present to the Pope, on the feast of the Purification, the candles to be blessed. For all major solemnities, except the feast of the Assumption, the V. candles. On the day of the Pope’s coronation, moreover, they ate at his table.
Del Vesterario della S. Romana Chiesa, Roma 1758; C. Dufresne Ducange, Vestararius-Vestiarius, in Glossarium, ed. L. Favre, VIII, Parigi 1938, pp. 291-92; M. Andrieu, Les Ordines romani du haut m. d., II, Lovanio 1948, pp. 42-43. A. Pietro Frutaz