Pomiędzy grozą śmierci a nadzieją na życie wieczne, czyli o symbolice kilku ornatów żałobnych z końca XVIII oraz z XIX wieku
Between the Fear of Death and Hope for Eternal Life: On the Symbolism of Several Funerary Vestments from the Late 18th and 19th Centuries

Summary/Abstract: Very few funerary vestments that are black in colour have survived to our times. They were excluded from use in the liturgy following the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, and are rare today, which makes them an even more valuable testimony of Old Polish funerary culture. Four Polish chasubles, dating from the end of the 18th and 19th centuries, had a special role among the striking examples of the Baroque theatrum, in which motifs embroidered with coloured threads emerging from the black background played a special role. Two are in the collection of the Diocesan Museum in Siedlce. The others are housed in the Lviv Museum of the History of Religion and in the parish in Górka Kościelnicka near Kraków. They have a rich iconography. In addition to motifs related to the passion of Christ (the cross and instruments of the passion), they depict symbols of death and transience (skulls, skeletons, coffins, hourglasses, clocks), as well as souls in purgatory, reminding us that the fruits derived from holy Mass – remembrances of Christ’s bloody sacrifice – are also experienced by the dead. The vestments are complemented by Latin maxims containing excerpts from the Dies Irae hymn. The symbolism of the funerary vestments was not only subordinated to proclaiming the triumph of death, but also expressed the hope of salvation and eternal life.

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