Known as a “garment of incorruption and purity,” the mantle (mantiya is Russian and mandyas in Greek) is an ecclesiastical outer garment for monastics which is basically a full-form cape without sleeves that drapes over the shoulders, extends to the floor, and is buttoned at the neck and feet. It often has a train with thirty-three pleats in memory of the thirty-three years of our Lord’s life.
This cloak-like attire was originally worn to word off the cold, but eventually came to epitomize monastic humility as it was also what a monk was buried in – thus, in a sense, they went about wearing their burial shroud. Monastics wear a black mantle made of simple fabric, while bishops wear varying colors that are generally made of moray taffeta: purple for bishops and archbishops, blue for Metropolitans, and Green for the Patriarch of Russia.
Mantles are first mentioned in the Old Testament as a garment worm by several prophets including Elijah and Elisha. In 2nd Kings (2:11-14), Elijah passes his mantle to Elisha, thus making him a prophet and his successor.
Over the years various types of ornamentation came to be applied to episcopal mantles. Rectangular “tablets” (two at the neck and two at the feet) came to be added and symbolize both, the Two Testaments and the Four Gospels. White or red colored ribbons are also often seen sewn to bishop’s mantles which represent the Word of God “streaming” to the four ends of the earth (Ezekiel 47:1-12; John 7:38; Revelation 22:1).
