Different ranks of Catholic clergy wear different colors. Most people know that priests wear black with a white collar. They also wear solid black cassocks.  Those priests who have been given the honorary title of monsignor wear magenta or magenta-piped black cassocks.  A bishop wears an “amaranth red” or what we would call fuchsia or a fuchsia-piped cassock.  The magenta and the fuchsia are very similar colors so one way to tell the difference between a monsignor and a bishop is that the bishop also wears a fuchsia zucchetto, the small skullcap at the back of the head, and a pectoral cross.  Cardinals wear a scarlet or scarlet-piped black cassock with a scarlet zucchetto and a pectoral cross. When Archbishop Patrick O’Boyle was elevated to cardinal, he had to change his entire wardrobe.  

On June 28, 1967, Cardinal Patrick O’Boyle knelt before Pope Paul VI and received the scarlet biretta of his new office.  As an archbishop, he had a biretta and zucchetto, but they were fuchsia in color not scarlet.   The change in color from fuchsia to scarlet in what he wore as a cardinal went from his head, where his zucchetto and biretta were placed, to the color of the cassock he wore which went to the tops of his feet.  

As a cardinal, he was also able to wear other items that had not been available to him before. One such piece was the saturno or cappello romano (Roman Hat).  Cardinals were allowed to wear the red hat until 1969 when Pope Paul VI changed the rule.  He declared at that time that cardinals had to wear a black saturno like priests.  

In the Archdiocesan Archives we have a red saturno, which Cardinal O’Boyle would have worn during his trips to Rome between 1967 and 1969.  We also have a photo of him wearing it.  Though the color has faded on the photo in the last 60 years, it is clear he is wearing the same hat that is in the Archives collection.  

The archives also has a black saturno, which he would have worn after 1969 when Pope Paul VI declared that cardinals should no longer wear the red.   You will note that his is not plain black but has a gold and red pompom and tassel design that still indicated his office of cardinal.  Cardinal O’Boyle would not have sported this attire in Washington, but he would have worn it regularly when he was in Rome as it was the custom there.  

(Dr. Jacobe serves as the director of the Archives for the Archdiocese of Washington.)