Lentorama 2013: There's a Name for That

Day 11:  gremiale

This is pretty much an apron, which a bishop would have over their other vestments during certain points of a mass or during special occasions like distributing ashes on Ash Wednesday or anointing new priests when they take their orders. It really does just seem to be protection for the other vestments, and as such isn't blessed or held to have any specific meaning. They've been used since the Middle Ages, but there's not much known about their origin. I would half expect the church to have some 400 page treatise on them in a corner of the Vatican Library, though.