“The work is very intricate,” he said, stressing that the embroidery “should be like a painting, but a painting in 3D.” His team of four artisan embroiderers hand-stitch the design. The feedback from the Vatican? “‘Bellissimo!'” (‘very beautiful,’ in Italian), Bou Tanous relayed, beaming.īou Tanous designs and sketches the vestments. Especially, because it’s for the pope, it’s a big responsibility,” the designer said.
It’s like taking an exam and waiting for the result. “Pope Francis prefers to check it before the event,” Bou Tanous said. 1, but the miter has already been delivered to the Vatican. It is the Lebanese designer’s fourth project for Pope Francis the first was the vestments for the pope’s Easter Monday Mass in 2016.īou Tanous was to personally carry the vestment robe and cap to Cyprus from Lebanon Dec. Maronite Catholic officials from Cyprus contacted Bou Tanous with the request to design Pope Francis’ vestments for the Dec. He prefers simple things, simple embroidery,” he explained. “It’s a simple, plain fabric,” he said, unlike damask and brocade from which vestments often are designed.
The designer chose silk crepe from Morocco for the vestments. On the back of the vestment, the “open hands” surround an image of a lamb on the Bible, symbolizing Pope Francis as the disciple of Christ, Bou Tanous said. “For me, the cross symbolizes the island of Cyprus in the middle of the sea,” Bou Tanous said. In the center of the “open hands” on the front stands the cross, alone. The half-moon shape, Bou Tanous explained to Catholic News Service, represents “open hands to receive all people, from the East and the West.” Copper thread replaces the gold thread typically used for vestments. The intertwining of olives branches and shafts of wheat in Bou Tanous’ design form a half-moon shape on the front and back of Pope Francis’ vestments for the Dec. Cyprus was once a noted producer of copper. In his research on Cyprus for the design of the papal vestments, Maged Bou Tanous discovered that olives, wheat and copper figured prominently. BEIRUT (CNS) - The Lebanese designer for Pope Francis’ vestments for Mass in Cyprus chose simple fabric and symbols that figure prominently in the island nation.
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