The Dalmatic: What a Deacon Wears, When, and How It Should Fit
The deacon's outer vestment at Mass: what it is, when GIRM 338 lets it be omitted, how it differs from a chasuble and a tunicle, and the four measurements that decide whether it fits.
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A dalmatic is the outer vestment of a deacon at Mass. It is a wide-sleeved tunic, open at the sides, worn over the alb and stole and made in the liturgical colour of the day. The General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM 338) calls it “the vestment proper to the Deacon” and, in the same sentence, allows it to be left off “out of necessity or on account of a lesser degree of solemnity”. That one clause explains why some deacons wear a dalmatic every Sunday and others own one and wear it three times a year.
What a dalmatic is
The dalmatic is a tunic with a head opening, a closed front and back, and wide sleeves that finish between the elbow and the wrist. The sides are open from the hem up towards the underarm, so it hangs from the shoulders rather than fitting the body. Two vertical bands, the clavi, run from shoulder to hem on the front and the back. Most modern dalmatics join them with one or two horizontal bands, and the frame they make is where the embroidery sits. Some makers call these bands orphreys, borrowing the chasuble term.
It hangs shorter than the alb. That is deliberate: the alb shows below the hem and at the wrist, and the contrast between white linen and coloured cloth is part of how the vested deacon reads from the nave.
Where it came from
The name comes from Dalmatia, on the eastern Adriatic. The garment began as a long, wide-sleeved tunic reaching the feet, in common use at Rome by around the second century. The Catholic Encyclopedia records the tradition, from the Liber Pontificalis, that Pope Sylvester I (314–335) introduced it into church use, and that by the ninth century it was worn almost everywhere in Western Europe by bishops and deacons. It then shortened steadily: roughly 51 to 55 inches long in the thirteenth century, 35 to 43 by the eighteenth. The full entry at New Advent has the detail.
Bishops still wear it. At a solemn pontifical Mass the bishop puts on a dalmatic under the chasuble, a sign that the fullness of orders includes the diaconate. It is usually a light, unlined version so that the two garments sit together at the shoulder.
When a deacon wears it
The Roman rule is short. GIRM 336 gives the alb to all ministers; GIRM 338 gives the dalmatic to the deacon, “worn over the alb and stole”, and permits its omission for necessity or lesser solemnity. GIRM 119, in the list of what should be laid out in the sacristy before Mass, names for the deacon the alb, the stole and the dalmatic. The USCCB text of GIRM chapter 6 is the source for all of these.
Two things follow. The dalmatic is the normal vestment for a deacon assisting at Mass, not an extra reserved for the bishop’s visit. And leaving it off is lawful; in many parishes it is the default at weekday Mass, in hot weather, or where the parish does not own one in the colour of the day. What GIRM does not provide for is a substitute: a deacon at Mass wears alb and stole, with or without dalmatic, and nothing else over them.
Outside Mass
The dalmatic is a Mass vestment. When a deacon presides at a baptism outside Mass, a wedding without Mass, a funeral liturgy outside Mass, a vigil or Evening Prayer, the usual vesture is alb and stole, with a cope added for more solemn celebrations. GIRM 341 mentions the cope for the priest in processions and other sacred actions; deacons use it in the same way where the rite allows. A dalmatic at a graveside looks, to anyone who knows the garments, like a chasuble at a committal: right colour, wrong kind.
Dalmatic, tunicle and chasuble compared
All three are garments put on over the head, but they belong to three different ministers and are shaped differently.
| Vestment | Worn by | Sleeves | Sides | Ornament | Rubric |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chasuble | Priest celebrant (and concelebrants) | None; the cloth falls over the arms | Open to the shoulder or nearly so | Pillar, cross or Y orphrey | GIRM 337 |
| Dalmatic | Deacon; bishop under the chasuble | Wide, elbow to wrist length | Open from hem, seamed near the underarm | Two vertical clavi, usually with one or two cross bands | GIRM 338 |
| Tunicle | Subdeacon in the 1962 Missal; now seen only in the Extraordinary Form and some Anglican parishes | Traditionally narrower | As the dalmatic | Traditionally plainer: clavi with a single cross band, or none | Not in the current GIRM |
The tunicle causes most of the confusion. It was the subdeacon’s vestment, and the subdiaconate left the Roman ordination sequence in 1972, so the current GIRM has no place for it. Where the older form of the Mass is celebrated, dalmatic and tunicle are both worn and the convention is that the tunicle is the plainer. Many sets, though, are made as a matching pair with no visible difference, and no rubric prescribes one.
The vestments explained guide sets each garment in its wider place, and what deacons wear covers the whole of a deacon’s wardrobe, inside the liturgy and out.
The stole underneath
GIRM 340 gives the deacon’s manner of wearing the stole: over the left shoulder, drawn diagonally across the chest to the right side, and fastened there. GIRM 338 puts the dalmatic over it, so on a fully vested deacon the stole is largely hidden. That is one reason a deacon’s stole is often plainer than a priest’s.
Two practical notes. The stole should be fastened at the right hip, not left to swing, or it will bunch under the dalmatic’s side seam. And it should be the same colour as the dalmatic. The diagonal itself, and how to get it to sit flat, is covered in how to wear a stole.
Colours, and matching the celebrant’s set
The dalmatic follows the colour of the day exactly as the chasuble does: white for the Christmas and Easter seasons and most feasts, red for Palm Sunday, Good Friday, Pentecost and martyrs, green in Ordinary Time, violet in Advent and Lent, with the same options for rose and for funerals (GIRM 346). A parish with a chasuble in every colour and a dalmatic in two will have its deacon in alb and stole most of the year, which is lawful but looks unfinished beside a fully vested priest.
The commonest request we get for a dalmatic is “to match a chasuble we already have”. It can be done, but it is never as good as ordering the two together. Cloth is dyed in batches, and a green cut this year will sit a shade off a green cut four years ago, especially under LED lighting. Braids are discontinued. Embroidery drawn for a chasuble’s pillar does not always scale to the narrower clavi. If the parish is buying a new celebrant’s set, the cheapest moment to add the dalmatic is that same order, from the same bolt.
If you are matching to an existing chasuble, send the maker a swatch cut from inside a seam allowance, or the chasuble itself; a photograph is not enough for colour. Our own practice is to send cloth swatches and a drawn proof before anything is cut, so the comparison is made in the sacristy under the parish’s own light. What a complete set contains is set out in what is in a vestment set. The dalmatics in the workroom’s range each come with the matching deacon’s stole, so at least those two pieces are settled.
Fit: the four measurements
A dalmatic is forgiving because it does not fit the body, but it can still be wrong in four places. The figures below are typical ranges for an adult of average height; they are a guide to what the finished garment usually measures, not a rule.
| Measurement | What it controls | Typical finished range | Common fault |
|---|---|---|---|
| Length, shoulder to hem | Where the hem falls against the alb | Typically 105–120 cm (41–47 in), finishing between mid-calf and just below the knee | Too long, so it hides the alb and drags on steps; too short, so it reads as a cotta |
| Body width | Ease over alb and stole; how the sides hang | Typically 65–75 cm (26–30 in) across the front at the chest, flat | Too narrow, pulling across the chest and dragging the side openings forward |
| Sleeve length | How much alb sleeve shows | Typically 40–55 cm (16–22 in) from shoulder seam, ending between elbow and mid-forearm | Sleeves to the wrist trap the alb cuff and get into the chalice |
| Shoulder to side-seam depth | Freedom to raise the arms | Typically the side is closed only in the top 20–30 cm (8–12 in) below the underarm | Seamed too far down, so the deacon cannot lift the Book of the Gospels |
Length is what most often goes wrong when a dalmatic is bought off the peg; a deacon of 165 cm and one of 190 cm cannot wear the same one well. The test we use in the workroom is simple. Stand in alb and stole, put the dalmatic on, and raise both arms to shoulder height as if holding the Gospel book. The side seams should not pull, and the alb should still show below the hem when the arms come down. The measurements to send are height, chest over the alb, and the alb’s own hem and sleeve length; how to measure for vestments explains how to take each one.
Weight matters more than in a chasuble, because the garment is lifted through two sleeves every time the deacon raises his arms. A lining helps the hang; a stiffening board is not needed.
Anglican, Lutheran and Methodist deacons
The Roman rubrics above bind Roman Catholic deacons. Other traditions have the garment without the rule.
The Episcopal Church’s own glossary describes the dalmatic as the distinctive vestment of deacons in the Western church, which “may be worn at any liturgy in any season”. The same entry notes that many Episcopal deacons have set aside the short medieval form for a full-length white or off-white tunic, plain and functional, worn over an alb or as a single cassock-alb-dalmatic garment, with the stole over the left shoulder. Both forms are in use; neither is prescribed.
The Church of England’s Common Worship rules suggest colours for seasons and say nothing about which garments a deacon must wear; parish custom decides, and a coloured dalmatic is found chiefly where the Eucharist is celebrated in the fuller Western manner. Lutheran and United Methodist deacons generally wear an alb with the stole worn diagonally; a dalmatic is seen, but it is a choice, not a rubric. The buying advice is the same as for a Roman Catholic deacon: match the celebrant’s set if the parish has one, and get the length right.
Common questions
Can a deacon wear a chasuble?
No. GIRM 337 makes the chasuble the vestment proper to the priest celebrant, and GIRM 338 gives the deacon the dalmatic. A deacon at Mass wears alb and stole, with the dalmatic over them or omitted.
Does a deacon wear a dalmatic at a funeral?
At a funeral Mass, yes, in the colour the parish is using: violet, or in the United States black or white (GIRM 346 d and e). At a funeral liturgy outside Mass, a vigil or the committal, the deacon presides in alb and stole, with a cope if the parish has one; the dalmatic is a Mass vestment and stays in the sacristy.
What is the difference between a dalmatic and a tunicle?
The dalmatic is the deacon’s vestment and the tunicle was the subdeacon’s, so the tunicle now appears only in the Extraordinary Form and some Anglican parishes. In form they are nearly identical; by convention the tunicle is plainer, with a single cross band or none, and slightly narrower in the sleeve, but many sets make them the same.
Do bishops wear a dalmatic?
Yes, under the chasuble at a solemn pontifical Mass, as a sign that the bishop holds the fullness of orders including the diaconate. It is usually a light, unlined dalmatic so that the two garments sit together at the shoulder.
What does a permanent deacon need to own?
An alb and cincture, and stoles in the colours he will actually serve in: for most parish deacons green, white, violet and red, in roughly that order of use. A dalmatic is the next purchase, and the sensible first one is in the colour where the parish’s chasuble set is strongest. Families buying for an ordination often choose the red dalmatic with the Holy Spirit dove, which serves Pentecost, Confirmation and the martyrs’ feasts; a green dalmatic is the one that will be worn most weeks.
Before you order
Find out what the parish already owns, in which colours, and whether the celebrant’s chasubles were made as a set or gathered over the years. If a new set is being bought, add the dalmatic to that order. If not, choose the colour the deacon will wear most, send the maker his height and chest over the alb, and ask for a swatch to hold against the existing chasuble before anything is cut. Made to measure costs nothing extra in our workroom, production is five to seven days, and the garment is altered if the length is wrong.
If the dalmatic is a gift for an ordination, the ordination gift guide covers timing, sizing and what to ask the ordinand’s family, and the ordination gifts collection gathers the pieces that are most often given.
