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Editor’s Note: This article is one of the few which delves into the history of the Papal Attire. — It dispels the oft repeated rumor that Saint Pius V, a Dominican, was the first pope to wear white. The truth is that it’s the fault of Pope Gregory X (1271-1276), the pope who called the Fourth Lateran Council, reunited the Church of Rome and Constantinople, and who made Saint Bonaventure, Cardinal of Albano.

But the article omits one important fact, that the man responsible, Pope Gregory X, Teobaldo Visconti, of the powerful Italian Noble House of the same surname, was a member of the Third Order of Saint Francis.

See more on him, here.

Here is a fresco of him, painted just 60 years after his Pontificate, in the Cathedral of Arezzo, near Assisi — Click to enlarge — The symbolism of the colors: a white cassock covered with a red mantel, was to remind the Holy Father that he should be walking spiritually in the foot steps, not of Christ the King in Glory, but of Christ falsely condemned by the Judeans and on trial in the Praetorium of the Roman Procurator, Pontius Pilate (Cf. William Durandus, Rationale Divinorum Officiorum (1286), Pius II, Commentaries, vol.1, 198–99).

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Pope Gregory X was beatified by Pope Clement XI in 1713 A. D., and during the reign of Pope Pius XII his cause for Canonization was introduced. The cause is still awaiting a certified miracle.

Blessed Gregory X pray for us!

Here is another article on the Papal Habit, from Tradition in Action, from which I drew the citation from William Durandus.

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The Book on the Trinity, every faithful Catholic priest would love as his next present

This is Br. Bugnolo's English Translation, of Saint Bonaventure's encylopedic book of theology on the Trinity: With this book, your priest will always have something intelligent and awesomely inspiring to preach to you about God the Father, God the Son & God the Holy Spirit!

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