It was on this Sunday, in 33 A.D., the Catholic Church is born! The Apostles gathered together to celebrate the Jewish Festival of Weeks (50 days after Passover - which is where we get the name "Pentecost" as in pente = 50) and the Holy Ghost descended upon the Apostles and the Blessed Virgin Mary, witnessed as tongues of fire upon their heads.
So Why Red Vestments for Pentecost?
It is widely known that red is the color of martyrdom, and is the color of the vestments for the feast day of a martyr, but why red on Pentecost? Well, there are at least two reasons red is the appropriate color for Pentecost, first and foremost - red is also the color for fire, and the fire of the Holy Ghost is represented in the red vestments. Secondly, it is truly an apostolic holy day (holiday) and since most of the 12 Apostles (all but St. John) died as martyrs, the red color of martyrdom is also appropriate.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Keep in mind while posting:
1) Please respond ON TOPIC to the article at hand.
2) Posts more than 4 weeks old are set to automatically save new comments for moderation - so your comment may not show up immediately if you're responding to an older post.
3) The "Spam Filter" is on - and randomly messages get caught in that filter. I have no control over which messages get caught in the spam filter and those that do must wait for me to mark them as "not spam." A message caught by the spam filter may show up for a moment, making you think it posted, and then disappear. Do not assume I have deleted your comment, it's probably just the spam filter and it will show up.