Vestments from the Cathedral of Beauvais

The Cathédrale Saint-Pierre in Beauvais, France has a beautiful set of red velvet vestments within its treasury that showcase some of the great beauty of the French vestment tradition. Velvet was, of course, of particular popularity within France, as were vestments covered with patterned designs. This particular set, which includes a chasuble, dalmatics and copes, includes all of these elements as well as beautiful and more ancient embroideries that have been repurposed. 

On the back of the chasuble, starting from the bottom, we find the Visitation, the Nativity and finally the Dormition; on the front, the Annunciation and the Marriage of Joseph and Mary.  

Detail showing the Dormition of the Virgin

The beautifully tasselled dalmatics/tunicles of the set contain various saints who have been set into gothic niches. 

The copes, however, are the real star of this particular show in my estimation. At least three copes form a part of this set -- useful for Solemn Vespers or pontifical functions -- each of which have an intricately embroidered shield containing a Petrine motif: the repentance of St. Peter, St. Peter healing the lame man, and finally Christ giving St. Peter the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven.  

  

The Repentance of St. Peter

The Healing of the Lame Man

St. Peter Receiving the Keys

Before we leave our consideration of this set, I wanted to take a moment to share some closer views of the vegetal and floral motifs that pepper the bodies of these various vestments. 

When I see a set such as this, I cannot but think back to the writings of Dom Gerard Calvet, OSB, and specifically his comments on the power of liturgical beauty:

...one enters the Church by two doors: the door of the intelligence and the door of beauty. The narrow door... is that of intelligence; it is open to intellectuals and scholars. The wider door is that of beauty...  Take a group of Japanese tourists visiting Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. They look at the height of the stained-glass windows, the harmony of the proportions. Suppose that at that moment, sacred ministers dressed in orphreyed velvet copes enter in process for solemn Vespers. The visitors watch in silence; they are entranced: beauty has opened its doors to them. Now the Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas and Notre Dame in Paris are products of the same era. They say the same thing. But who among the visitors has read the Summa of St. Thomas? The same phenomenon is found at all levels. The tourists who visit the Acropolis in Athens are confronted with a civilisation of beauty. But who among them can understand Aristotle? And so it is with the beauty of the liturgy. 

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