Clothes Make The Man?

PapalvestmentsAfter the new pope is elected among the first things they will do (not the first thing) is get him suited up in papal clothing and then usher him out on the balcony of the Vatican Basilica so he can appear to the waiting people and give the apostolic blessing Urbi et Orbi.

I’ve been wondering: How do they know what size clothes to use for the new pope?

Do that have a bulky, one-size-fits all set of clothes?

Do they call in an emergency tailor?

Do they have several sizes standing by?

Turns out it’s the latter.

The tailor who makes the clothes (Filippo Gammarelli) delivers a small, medium, and large set before the conclave begins.

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Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

8 thoughts on “Clothes Make The Man?”

  1. The room in the Sistine Chapel in which the new pontiff dons the papal white is called the “Room of Tears”… for obvious reasons, presumably.
    I learned that here. (Well, not exactly there, obviously, though other people may have. But in the source referred to on that page.)

  2. I guess any of the potential papabile who might be “XXL” need to start dieting now, lest they be required to appear at the crucial moment in their skivvies.

  3. If we’re doing photo captions here, how about: “Vatican dignitaries model improved disappearing cream.”

  4. I remember reading that John XXIII was too portly for even the size large cassock and was rather uncomfortable on his first appearance on the balcony.

  5. Great! On top of all the other conclave criteria, now we have to add “fits well into one of the three sizes of cassocks that we have”.
    I’m changing my online bet! 😉

  6. That’s funny Ellen because I remember reading somewhere that John Paul I was so skinny that even the small cassock looked like circus tent on him.

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