A whole history on your shoulders

It doesn't get much more festive than this chasuble! During important Christian festivals like Easter and Christmas, priests wear white vestments. The white colour symbolises joy, purity and innocence. This chasuble also officially counts as “white”, but the lavish embroidery with colourful flowers, fruits and insects would almost make you overlook it. The back of the chasuble is the most important, which was the side that people in the church saw the most when the priest's back was turned towards them.

The lavish decoration tells us something about the time the chasuble was made. In the 17th century, Protestantism was the dominant religion in the Netherlands. Catholics were no longer allowed to express their faith in public. In a short time, they had to exchange large, decorated churches for small and inconspicuous hidden churches. They compensated for this loss by decorating their utensils even more lavishly than ever before. Thus, this chasuble is also a symbol of how Catholics held on to their faith in times of oppression.

It is no coincidence that this centuries-old showpiece is preserved in an Old Catholic church building. The Old Catholic Church was created by a split from the Roman Catholic Church in the 18th century. The parishioners of the hidden church on the Brouwersgracht, for which this chasuble was made, belonged to the group of Dutch Catholics who felt that the pope in Rome was usurping too much power. The Old Catholics went their own way. Consequently, they cared less about the wave of innovation that caused many Roman Catholic churches to discard their old vestments to start wearing more modern designs in the 1960s. Thus, this chasuble is a symbol of adherence to one's own traditions not only in the 17th century, but still in our times.