Origin 100 to 400 CE
A plain white full-length tunic, the base garment over which the other Eucharistic vestments are put on, gathered at the waist with a cord called a cincture. Its name is simply the Latin for white.
It is the one liturgical garment that signals nothing about rank. Bishop, priest, deacon, acolyte and lay reader wear the same alb, and it is explicitly connected to the white garment given at baptism, which every Christian receives. In a system of dress built almost entirely to distinguish offices, the alb is the deliberate exception, and the sequence in which a priest vests, alb first, then the marks of office over it, is making that point in order.
Facts
Practice
ObligationObligatory on those who meet its conditions 2Tradition: Roman Catholicism Sourced to the subject's own accountRequired of the minister at Mass, under the outer vestments Origins
Origin Period Learn More
The One Vestment That Says Nothing About Rank
In a system of dress built almost entirely to distinguish offices, the alb is the deliberate exception, and its placement in the sequence of vesting makes an argument.
White, and shared
The alb is a plain white full-length tunic, gathered at the waist with a cord, over which the other Eucharistic vestments are put on; its name is simply the Latin for white. Bishop, priest, deacon, acolyte and lay reader all wear the same alb, and it is explicitly connected to the white garment given at baptism, which every Christian receives.
The order of vesting
A priest vests alb first and then adds the marks of office over it, and the sequence is not accidental. The base garment is the baptismal one, common to all the faithful; the stole and chasuble that distinguish the ordained are put on top of it. The dress therefore states, in the order it is assembled, that ordained office is something added to a Christian identity shared with the whole congregation rather than a separate thing, which is the same claim the theology makes in words.
The White Garment, at the Font and at the Grave
The alb is the tunica alba, the white tunic, and like the cassock it is a surviving piece of ordinary late antique clothing. What made it liturgical was not a decision to invent a vestment but the accumulation of meaning around a colour.
That meaning runs through the whole life of a Christian rather than through the sanctuary alone. The newly baptised in the early church were clothed in white after coming up from the water, and the white garment is still given at baptism in most Western rites with words about putting on Christ. The pall laid over a coffin at a funeral is white and is explicitly identified in the rite with the garment given at baptism, so the same symbol closes the circle. Behind both stands the vision in Revelation of a multitude in white robes.
Around the alb sit two smaller items. The amice, a rectangle of linen tied about the shoulders, was originally a neck cloth to protect the vestments and is now optional in most places. The cincture, a cord at the waist, gathers it and has its own prayer about chastity in the older vesting formulae.
Two derivatives are more familiar to most churchgoers than the alb itself. The surplice is a wide sleeved white garment worn over a cassock for the office and for non Eucharistic services, and the cotta is a shorter version of it. Choirs and servers generally wear one of these rather than an alb.
The alb's indifference to rank is the point worth holding on to. Everything else in the vestry says who someone is. The alb says only that they are baptised, which is the condition of being in the sanctuary at all.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Belongs to Tradition
Contrasts With
The alb is girded and belongs to the Eucharist; the surplice is loose and belongs to the office and the sermon.
Element Of
Ordinary where the eucharistic vestments are worn and absent where they are not, so its use marks the churchmanship of a parish rather than the doctrine of the church.
Alb and stole are the ordinary eucharistic vesture across the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
The alb was kept at the Reformation. The Augsburg Confession treats vesture as a matter of good order rather than of faith, so nothing about it was abolished on principle.
Methodism, Denominations The alb has become common in Methodist churches over the last half century, worn with the stole in place of the older gown.
The white full length tunic worn beneath the outer vestments by ministers of every rank.
Rejected Here
The alb went with the rest of the mass vesture. The Reformed minister comes to the table dressed as a teacher, not as a celebrant.
Sources
1. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised edition
F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.), Oxford University Press, 2005on the alb and the Eucharistic vestmentsView the Source 2. General Instruction of the Roman Missal, third typical edition
Congregation for Divine Worship, Congregation for Divine Worship, 2002Nos. 336, 339the holders' own accountView the Source Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd edition
Holy See, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997on baptism and the white garmentthe holders' own accountView the Source Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
Choose a year to see this entry's facts and connections as the atlas records them at that moment: what it held then, what it held instead, and what it had not yet adopted. Choose Present for the current record.