Liturgical Stockings
The liturgical stockings, also known as the caligae, are the stockings worn by bishops over the regular stockings but under the episcopal sandals. They match the liturgical color of the Mass, except when the color is black. The stockings, which are of silk, are either knitted or are made by sewing together pieces of silk fabric that have been cut a suitable shape.
The caligae seem to have experienced no particular development. In the later Middle Ages they were, as a rule, made of silk. The earliest enforcement in respect to caligae of the regulations for liturgical colors seems to have been at Rome, but even here probably not until the fourteenth century. Like the episcopal sandals, the use of the liturgical stockings is primarily confined to the pre-Vatican II Tridentine Mass.
Read more about this topic: Episcopal Sandals
Famous quotes containing the words liturgical and/or stockings:
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—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)