vestment

A short text describing his pontificate was sealed inside a metal cylinder and placed with his body along with episcopal palliums, the a white wool vestment worn around the neck that symbolizes a bishop’s ecclesiastical jurisdiction.

The parish priest, the Rev. Tadeusz Rozmus, donned a white vestment that Benedict had worn during a Mass he celebrated for the Castel Gandolfo faithful in their church and then left behind as a gift.

The Vatican’s news site noted that Benedict was lying in state without a pallium, a vestment that would not be used for a “retired prelate.”

He was clad in a miter, red vestments and simple black shoes, but not the silver staff with crucifix or pallium, the vestment symbolizing papal authority.

He did not have a pallium, the vestment symbolizing the authority of archdiocesan bishops because it was “a symbol of jurisdiction which is normally not used for a retired prelate,” according to the Vatican website Vatican News.