Cincture

An Anglican priest wearing a white cincture around his waist to hold his alb and purple stole in place (2005)

The cincture is a rope-like or ribbon-like article sometimes worn with certain Christian liturgical vestments, encircling the body around or above the waist. As usual with vestments, both the term and the object are taken from ordinary everyday dress of the distant past. There are two types of cinctures: one is a rope-like narrow girdle or rope-like belt around the waist. The other type is a broad ribbon of cloth that runs around the waist and usually has a section that hangs down from the waist; this type is often called a "band cincture" – it would be a "waist-sash" in secular contexts. One or both (or other) types are often used in various Christian denominations. Both types are used in the various Western rites of the Catholic Church and provinces of the Anglican Communion. Consecrated members of the various Eastern rites, whether in the Catholic Church, or in the various Orthodox communions, sometimes wear a belt referred to as a zone.

In the Western rites of the Catholic Church, as a matter of customary terminology, the term cincture is most often applied to a long, rope-like cord with tasseled or knotted ends, tied around the waist outside the alb. The colour may be white, or may vary according to the colour of the liturgical season. A Catholic bishop's cincture is made of intertwining gold and green threads, a cardinal's has red and gold, and the pope's with white and gold. When the cincture is tied in the front and the ends draped on either side, it is called a Roman Knot.

The same rope-like vestment is widely used in the Anglican, Methodist and Lutheran churches, as well as some other Protestant churches. The band cincture in the Roman Catholic Church is usually known as the "fascia".

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Cincture — (Lat. Cingulum.)

The cincture (or, as it is more commonly called in England, the girdle) is an article of liturgical attire which has certainly been recognized as such since the ninth century. Then as now it was used to confine the loose, flowing alb, and prevent it from impeding the movements of the wearer. But its liturgical character appears from the prayers which even from early times were recited in putting it on and from the symbolism of spiritual watchfulness which then specially attached to it, according to the text, "Sint lumbi vestri præcincti". The cingulum is enumerated among the Mass vestments in the Stowe Missal, and this very possibly may represent the practice of the Celtic Church in the seventh century. It seems probable, however, that in the Celtic Church, as in the Greek Church of the present day, the girdle was worn only by bishops and priests; the deacon's tunic was left ungirded. Some few surviving examples of early girdles (tenth- and eleventh-century) show that in the beginning the cincture was not always a simple cord, as it is now. On the contrary, we find narrow bands of silk and precious stuff, often richly embroidered, and these lasted until late in the Middle Ages. Some such bands and sashes were again introduced for the same purpose in the last century, but the Congregation of Sacred Rites has disapproved of the practice, though it permitted those which existed to be used until worn out (24 November, 1899). The material of the girdle is preferably flax or hemp, but wool and silk -- the latter especially for occasions of solemnity -- are not prohibited. This material is woven into a cord, and the ends are usually decorated with tassels, By way of ornament strands of gold and silver thread are sometimes introduced, particularly in the tassels at the extremities. The prayer now recited by the priest in putting on the girdle, "Gird me, O Lord, with the girdle of purity", etc., strongly suggests that this vestment should be regarded as typical of priestly chastity. Like the other Mass vestments, the girdle requires to be blessed before use.

Some kind of cincture, we may further note, is included in almost every form of religious or ecclesiastical costume. In certain religious orders it receives a special blessing, and in such familiar instances as the Cord of St. Francis or the Girdle of St. Augustine it is sanctioned and indulgenced by the Church as indicating a profession of allegiance to a particular institute. Again, the broad sash, which forms part of the civil attire of bishops, priests, and other ecclesiastics, has been imitated, apparently for sthetic reasons, in the costume of choir boys and servers at the altar. It should be said that this last development, while not expressly prohibited so long as certain rules are observed regarding colour and material, is not in any way prescribed or recommended by ecclesiastical authority.

BRAUN, Die liturgische Gewandung (Freiburg. 1901) VAN DER STAPPEN, Sacra Liturgia (Mechlin, 1902), IV; BARBIER DE MONTAULT, Le Costume et les usages eccl siastiques (Paris, 1901); THALHOFER, Liturgik, etc.; ROHAULT DE FLEURY, La Messe, VII. Almost all works on the Mass, e.g. those of GIHR, MÜLLER, BENEDICT XIV, devote a section to vestments.

External links

• Media related to Cincture at Wikimedia Commons