Popes wearing the fanon. Top panel, from left: Pope Innocent III (1198-1216), Pius XII, and John XXIII.Bottom panel: Pius XII, Paul VI, and John Paul I. Note the full regalia of the earlier Popes, including the tiara and full-length liturgical gloves.
Mons. Guido Marini, in explaining the changes to the canonization rite earlier this week, failed to mention that Benedict XVI was going to revive the use of the fanon. A quick online search of Wikipedia and another source, fails to say, however, what is the ultimate significance of the fanon. A traditionalist Italian site today says it means "I am the Pope", because no one else can wear the fnaon, but that seems un-serious. A Pope does not need to underscore who he is, although I saw a picture of a dead Pope wearing the fanon.
The papal fanon returns:
Some facts about it
The fanon (old Germanic for cloth) is a vestment that around the 10th or 12th century became reserved for the Pope alone. Previously, the Pope wore it only when celebrating a solemn pontifical Mass, that is, only when all the pontifical vestments were used. Benedict XVI wore it for the first time today at canonization rites and the Eucharistic celebration that followed.
The fanon was regularly used until the Second Vatican Council but then fell into disuse. Until Benedict XVI used it today, it had not been used since 1984 when Pope John Paul II wore it during a visit to Roman convent.
...Spread apart, the fanon is an oval close to a circle with an approximate diameter of 92 cm. It consists of two sheets of silk placed on top of each other.
The latter are only stitched together at the central buttonhole. The diameter of the upper sheet is about a hand less than that at the bottom. The fanon has no lining. Both pieces of silk are white, decorated with red and/or golden stripes and framed by a golden braid. The front piece of the fanon is embroidered with a golden cross. In order to make it easier to put the fanon on, there is a slot in the neckline at the back. Unlike the amice, there are not ribbons to tie the fanon.
Putting on this vestment: The deacon equips the Pope with the linen amice, the alb, the cingulum (rope belt) and the pectoral cross. Hereafter, he uses the neckline to pull the fanon over the Pope's head, so that it covers the shoulders, back and chest just like a collar. The part decorated with the cross is at the front.
Then the deacon pulls the back half of the upper sheet over the head of the Pope, enrobes him with his stole, tunicle, dalmatic and chasuble. Then he lets the part pulled over the Pope's head down again and pulls the front half of the upper sheet out from under the chasuble. Finally, he arranges it around his shoulders so that the vestment covers the shoulders just like a collar.
- Braun, Joseph: Die Liturgische Gewandung im Occident und Orient – nach Ursprung und Entwicklung, Verwendung und Symbolik, Herdersche Verlagshandlung, Freiburg, 1904, page 52
As early as the end of the twelfth century the fanon was worn solely by the Pope, as is evident from the express statement of Innocent III (1198–1216). The vestment was then called an orale; the term fanon derived from pannus( cloth, woven fabric), was not used until a subsequent age.
P.S. It appears Innocent III traced the fanon to the ephod worn by Jewish High Priests in the Bible. The ephod developed from being a simple linen cloth to an elaborate cloth embroidered in gold and multicolored threads worn under the High Priest's breastplate. Originally the ephod symbolized atonement for the idolatry of the Israelites in the desert.
Sorry I have to settle for poor photos since I am simply picking them up where I can and not from a regular newsphoto service.
A big Thank You to Father Z who is wise enough to have placed the revival of the fanon today in the wide perspective in which it might be seen!
What Benedict XVI's revival
of the fanon means
October 21, 2012
...We all know that some more traditionally minded people are really into the old vestments and gear and that is about as far as it goes. The more thoughtful, however, see that the use of the older, traditional things has a deeper significance.
Our liturgical rites make a difference. Even small things have their influence. If we really believe what we say about what happens during Mass, if we we really believe that the Office is the Church’s official prayer, Christ the High Priest acting and praying through our words and gestures, then how can what we do, liturgically, not have a ripple effect through the whole Church (ad intra), through the whole world (ad extra)?
The virtue of Justice orders all our relationships so that we give to each what is his due. God is at the top of the hierarchy of all our relationships. God is qualitatively different from all other persons with whom we have a relationship. Thus, giving to God what is God’s due concerns its own virtue, the virtue of Religion.
The first one to whom we owe something is God and the first thing we owe to God is worship, both as individuals and collectively. If we screw up our relationship with God, all our other relationships will be disordered. If we do not worship God and worship Him properly, we have a hard time living properly in relation to everyone else.
Because we are wounded by Original Sin, it is hard for us to fulfill the virtues of Justice and Religion. And because we are limited mortals, we cannot offer God the worship that is His due. Our worship of God is, itself, a gift from God. God makes it possible for us to worship Him in a way that is pleasing to Him.
One of the great gifts He gave us is Holy Church, upon whom He bestowed His own authority to determine how we, the members of the Church, worship Him and, therefore, order our lives properly. Christ, God man, the one mediator, the true Head of the Church, founded His Church on Peter, upon whom He bestowed the special role of exercising the highest authority in the Church in teaching and in worship.
Where Peter goes, we follow.
Peter, in the person of Benedict XVI, is teaching us – now during a special Year of Faith – about how to recover and reorder that which has been lost. We are disordered. In order to be better ordered again as a Church and as individuals, we must bring our worship of God into continuity with the way we have always, as Catholics, worshiped God.
The use of the fanon is, itself, a small gesture. The return to use of the ferula was a small gesture. The use of older forms of vestments was a small gesture. The white mozzetta during Easter season, a small gesture. Small gestures matter. They pave the way for larger gestures.
The return of the Holy Father to a more worthy manner of distribution of Communion was a large gesture. The rearrangement of the altar with the Cross at the center, corpus toward the celebrant, is a large gesture. Summorum Pontificum was a huge gesture. More huge gestures will come, along with the small and the larger.
The Holy Father used the fanon today in a context.
First, use the fanon during a canonization. Canonizations had their own particular traditions. Some of those were restored today. For example, in the old days the Roman Pontiff was petitioned three times to enroll hitherto Blesseds in the “album of the saints”.
[NB: This triple petitio was also revived today by Benedict XVI.]
Benedict XVI, and most theologians, have not considered beatifications to be infallible acts. Canonizations, however, are. The Pope has preferred to delegate the celebration of beatifications to other prelates and also to have them celebrated in a local Church, since generally only local Churches or institutes recognize beati at the altar.
Canonization has a different theological importance for the Church. Benedict has underscored the difference between beatification and canonization by the return of traditional gestures in the rite and by the use of the fanon.
Second, he used the fanon today during a meeting of the Synod of Bishops in the Year of Faith. Benedict does not teach by imposition. In his writing for decades, when talking about the damage to our Catholic identity that occurred with the imposition of an artificial, cobbled-up liturgy and the abuses of it, he also cautioned against abrupt corrections.
Pain and chaos was caused by the ripping apart of altars and the turning around of the focus during Mass. We mustn’t cause pain and chaos by an abrupt return to ad orientem worship even though it is superior.
For example, Benedict has tried to lead by example, rather than by imposition, in the matter of ad orientem worship. The so-called “Benedictine arrangement” is an intermediate measure on the way to a wider return to ad orientem worship.
He hasn’t with his own pen removed the permission to distribute Communion in the hand, but he has clearly shown what he thinks is the better way by his own example. He has hoped that prelates and priests would be with Peter in this, too, and not just give lip service to their unity.
Today, with all the participants of the Synod of Bishop present, the Holy Father used the fanon.
They cannot use the fanon, but they can pick up on the spirit of what he is trying to do: restore continuity to our worship of God for the sake of the right ordering of our relationships within the Church (ad intra) and with the wider world (ad extra). The participants of the Synod will have now something to reflect on as they return home.
Pope Benedict teaches by example.
For Benedict, gestures like the restoration of the fanon have layers of meaning. His liturgical choices, even details such as pontifical garb, are not simply personal preferences. They are polyvalent signs that point to deeper things.
The other day in Detroit I told Bishop Sample that I thought that Benedict would make a dramatic gesture during the Year of Faith. No, I don’t think the fanon is that gesture. However, it may be a propaedeutic for something big.
Paul VI in 1967-68 had a special year to commemorate the centenary of the martyrdom of Sts. Peter and Paul. During that year all hell broke loose. The young Joseph Ratzinger was deeply influenced by the upheaval he witnessed that year. During 1968 Paul VI issued Humanae vitae - in a gesture that confirms those few historic moments when we have a confirmation that the Holy Spirit will not allow Peter to err in a disastrous way. At the end of that special year, Paul issued the great “Credo of the People of God”.
During this Year of Faith, when all hell is again breaking loose, I think Benedict will issue an encyclical on Faith. He has written already on Charity and Hope. However, I don’t think that this predictable encyclical will be the big gesture for the Year of Faith.
I sense, however, that the use of the fanon is a small teaching gesture that points to what that big gesture may be.
[All I am hoping for at this point in terms of 'gesture' is for Benedict XVI to celebrate the Extraordinary Form of the Mass in public - ASAP!]
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 22/10/2012 00:11]