Amice

An amice
Type	Liturgical vestment

The amice is a liturgical vestment used mainly in the Catholic Church and other Western Christian traditions.

Description

The amice consists of a white cloth connected to two long ribbon-like attachments by which it is fastened. The garment is draped over the shoulders with the ribbons crossed over the chest, brought around to the back, and then brought forward again to be tied in front around the waist. The results can vary from being tight around the neck to leaving a deep v-neck opening. Before the liturgical reforms of 1972, its use was mandatory for all Roman Catholic Masses, but it is only required today if the alb does not cover the priest's ordinary clothing. Many priests choose to wear the amice for reasons of tradition or to prevent damage to their other vestments due to perspiration.

Certain mendicant orders, such as the Dominicans and Franciscans, and some other orders with hooded habits, often donned the amice over the raised hood. The priest, or minister, then fastened the ribbons – crossed at the chest – behind his chest. The alb was donned over the hood and amice, and fastened. The hood/amice could then be retracted neatly around the collar.

In several Mediaeval uses, such as the Sarum Rite, the amice bore a broad stiff band of brocade or other decoration, giving the impression of a high collar. These were called apparelled amices. This practice was abandoned at Rome at about the end of the 15th century, but continued in other parts of Europe until much later. By 1907, however, the practice was no longer tolerated in Roman Catholic liturgy, but still exists within many Anglican communities and in the Lutheran Church of Sweden.

This collar-like amice spread to the Armenian Church where is retained as a normal part of the priestly vestments among the Armenian Orthodox. However, it has become broader and more prominent, covering much of the back of the clergyman’s head.

Among Byzantine Catholics of the Ruthenian tradition, the amice (naplečnik) was long used under Latin influence, allegedly even before the Unia was formally signed, but it fell out of practice after the Second Vatican Council, when Latinized vesting customs were abandoned.

While donning the amice, the priest first drapes the amice over his head (as with a hood), then lowers it to his neck, tying it around his torso. During this action he prays a short prayer:

"Impone, Domine, capiti meo galeam salutis, ad expugnandos diabolicos incursus" (Place upon me, O Lord, the helmet of salvation, that I may overcome the assaults of the devil).

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Amice, a short linen cloth, square or oblong in shape and, like the other sacerdotal vestments, needing to be blessed before use. The purpose of this vestment, which is the first to be put on by the priest in vesting for the Mass, is to cover the shoulders, and originally also the head, of the wearer. Many of the older religious orders still wear the amice after the fashion which prevailed in the Middle Ages; that is to say, the amice is first laid over the head and the ends allowed to fall upon the shoulders, then the other vestments from the alb to the chasuble are put on, and finally, on reaching the altar, the priest folds back the amice from the head, so that it hangs around the neck and over the chasuble like a small cowl. In this way, as will be readily understood, the amice forms a sort of collar, effectively protecting the precious material of the chasuble from contact with the skin. On leaving the sanctuary, the amice is again pulled up over the head, and thus both in coming and going it serves as a head-covering in lieu of the modern birretta. This method of wearing the amice has fallen into desuetude for the clergy at large, and the only surviving trace of it is the rubric directing that, in putting it on, the amice should for a moment be laid upon the head before it is adjusted round the neck. The subdeacon at his ordination receives the amice from the hands of the bishop, who says to him "Receive the amice, by which is signified the discipline of the voice" (castigatio vocis). This seems to have reference to some primitive use of the amice as a sort of muffler to protect the throat. On the other hand, the prayer which the clergy are directed to say in assuming this vestment speaks of it as galeam salutis, "the helmet of salvation against the wiles of the enemy", thus emphasizing the use as a head covering. Strictly speaking, the amice, being a sacred vestment, ought not to be worn by clerics below the grade of subdeacon.

In tracing the history of the amice we are confronted by the same difficulty which meets us in the case of most of the other vestments, viz. the impossibility of determining the precise meaning of the expressions used by early writers. The word amictus, which is still the Latin name for this vestment, and from which our word amice is derived, seems clearly to be used in its present sense by Amalarius at the beginning of the ninth century. He tells us that this amictus is the first vestment put on, and it enfolds the neck (De Eccles. Offic., II, xvii, in P. L., CV, 1094). We may also probably feel confidence in identifying with the same vestment the anagolagium spoken of in the first Ordo Romanus, a document which belongs to the middle of the eighth century or earlier. Anagolagium seems to be merely a corruption of the word anabolium (or anaboladium), which is defined by St. Isidore of Seville as a sort of linen wrap used by women to throw over their shoulders, otherwise called a sindon. There is nothing to indicate that this last was a liturgical garment, hence we must conclude that we cannot safely trace our present amice farther back than the above-mentioned reference in the first Roman Ordo (P. L., LXVIII, 940). It is curious that this anagolagium, though it was also worn by the papal deacon and subdeacon, was put on by the Pope over, not under, the alb. To this day the Pope, when pontificating, wears a sort of second amice of striped silk called a fanon, which is put on after the alb and subsequently folded back over the upper part of the chasuble. The amice, moreover, in the Ambrosian Rite is also put on after the alb. At what date the amice came to be regarded as an indispensable part of the priest's liturgical attire is not quite clear; for both Bishop Theodulph of Orléans (d. 821) and Walafrid Strabo (d. 849) seem to ignore it under circumstances in which we should certainly have expected it to be mentioned. On the other hand, the "Admonitio Synodalis", a document of uncertain date, but commonly referred to the ninth century (see, however, Revue bénédictine, 1892, p. 99), distinctly enjoins that no one must say Mass without amice, alb, stole, maniple and chasuble. Early liturgical writers, such, e. g. as Rabanus Maurus, were inclined to regard the amice as derived from the ephod of the Jewish priesthood, but modern authorities are unanimous in rejecting this theory. They trace the origin of the amice to some utilitarian purpose, though there is considerable difference of opinion whether it was in the beginning a neck cloth introduced for reasons of seemliness, to hide the bare throat; or again a kerchief which protected the richer vestment from the perspiration so apt in southern climates to stream from the face and neck, or perhaps a winter muffler protecting the throat of those who, in the interests of church music, had to take care of their voices. Something may be said in favour of each of these views, but no certain conclusion seems to be possible (see Braun, Die priesterlichen Gewänder, p. 5). The variant names, humerale (i.e. "shoulder cloth", Germ. Schultertuch), superhumerale anagologium, etc., by which it was known in early times do not help us much in tracing its history.

As in case of the alb, so for the amice, linen woven from the fibre of flax or hemp is the only permissible material. A little cross must be sewn to, or worked upon the amice in the middle, and this the priest is directed to kiss in putting it on. Approved authorities (e. g. Thalhofer, Liturgik, I, 864) direct that the amice ought to be at least 32 inches long by 24 inches broad. A slight lace edging seems to be permitted by usage in case of amices intended for use on festal occasions, and the strings may be of white or coloured silk (Barbier de Montault, Costume Eccl., II, 231). In the Middle Ages when the amice was turned back over the chasuble, and thus exposed to view, it was commonly ornamented by an "apparel", or strip of rich embroidery, but this practice is no longer tolerated.

Braun, Die priesterlichen Gewänder (Freiburg, 1897), 1–15, supplies by far the best historical account, with appropriate illustrations; Rohault de Fleury, La Messe, VII, also gives drawings of ancient amices; Thurston in The Month (Sept., 1898), 265 sqq. See also the works mentioned above in the bibliography of Alb; Gihr, The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, (tr., St. Louis, Mo.,1902), 273–277, which supplies a full account of the symbolism attributed to this and other vestments by medieval liturgists.

Further reading

• Thurston, Herbert (1907). "Amice". Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. pp. 428–429.