Biretta, Biretta

The most probable origin of the biretta is the academic hat of the high Middle Ages, which was a soft, square cap. The medieval academic hat is also the ancestor of the modern mortarboard hat used today in secular universities. The tuft or pom sometimes seen on the biretta was added later; the earliest forms of the biretta did not bear the device.

Those worn by cardinals are scarlet red and made of silk. After the Second Vatican Council the ceremony of giving the galero to Cardinals was replaced with giving the biretta. The biretta of a bishop is amaranth, while those worn by priests, deacons, and seminarians are black.

Priests in religious orders do not usually wear birettas, though the canons of the Order of Prmontr wear a white biretta and the black biretta is also part of the habit of some other congregations of Canons Regular. The Congregation of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri also wear birettas, but without a pom, regardless of rank. The Pope does not make use of the biretta.

It is occasionally seen today, and is often only used by bishops and cardinals. Some priests wear it during outdoor services such as burials or processions and, as is intended, during the celebration of Mass and other liturgical services. The biretta is also worn by a priest, deacon, and bishop in attendance at a Mass offered according to the rubrics for the Roman Missal of 1962.

However, a four-peaked biretta is awarded to those who complete a doctoral degree in a pontifical faculty or university (as opposed to doctorates from other faculties), which may be piped and tufted with the color indicating the field of expertise; thus dark blue for philosophy, green for canon law, and dark red for theology.

The doctoral biretta has been borrowed for depictions of another doctor of the Church, St. Thrse de Lisieux.

Source: Wikipedia > Biretta