Vestments

Changes in the colorful garb of ordained ministers mark transitions in the seasons of the church year and also highlight feasts.  Vestments at the Basilica represent the best design qualities that have become traditional over the long history of Roman Catholic worship.

There are four basic liturgical colors:

Green for ordinary time
Purple for Advent and Lent
White/Gold for Christmas, Easter, and certain solemnities and feasts; and for funerals.
Red for Pentecost, Passion Sunday, Good Friday and feasts of martyrs.

The chasuble, the outer garment worn by a priest, began as a simple cloak.  By the sixth century it was part of bishops’ vesture, and soon became elaborate.  The original form was conical, that is, free flowing and long.  By the seventh century, colored bands and minor embroidery appeared.  By the tenth century, embroidered cloth began to appear, and, by the fifteenth, elaborate designs and brocades began to influence the vestments of the church in a larger way, producing exquisitely crafted works of art.

Chasuble styles include: the Roman, often known as the 'fiddle back'; the Flemish style, tapered or sculptured in front somewhat in a fiddle form, but cut broadly and entirely square on the reverse; and the Gothic, what we see most often today, represented by the stunning set of vestments designed by Phyllis Lehmberg of Santa Fe for the Basilica.

Alb: the white tunic (which takes it name from the Latin albis for white) is the common vesture for all the baptized.  Liturgical ministers wear them to indicate that they minister by virtue of their baptism.

Chasuble: the outer garment worn by a priest or bishop for the celebration of the Eucharist, worn over the stole. (chasuble is a word derived from casula, meaning 'little house'.)

Stole: the long scarf-like garment worn by the deacon, the priest and the bishop. The deacon wears the stole on the left shoulder, while the priest and the bishop war it over both shoulders. 

Cope: sort of like a cape; worn by presiders for the beginning of a solemn Eucharist (Christmas, Easter, Pentecost) or for the celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours.