mantelletta

All the Cardinals, even the Penitentiary and the Camerlengo, at once doffed the distinguishing mark of their rank, the short, capelike mantelletta, wearing simply the white mozzetta or small cape, the rest of their attire violet for mourning.

In 1904, at the early age of thirty-nine, he was advanced from the soutane violet of the bishop to the mantelletta scarlet of the cardinal, and after the accession of the present Pope, Pius X, he was appointed to the highest office in the Vatican, that of Secretary of State, the Pope paying him the high tribute because of his “devotion to work, his capability and absolute self-negation.”

It is freely prophesied in Rome that the Cardinal secretary is destined to yet exchange the mantelletta scarlet for the zucchetta white, when Pius X shall have gone the way of all his predecessors in the papal chair.

And," she wrote, "I cannot tell you what I felt when I put on the black dress and mantelletta and veil, which are de rigueur when a lady is granted an audience with the Pope.

The plates are handed to Him by prelates of mantelletta, and during the ceremony one of His chaplains reads a spiritual book.