Do Priests Wear Skullcaps?

Q: Jewish rabbis wear a skullcap. But I have never noticed Catholic priests or bishops wear any. Do they? If so, did this come from the Jewish people?

A: Any Catholic priest may wear a skullcap. This head covering goes by different names. It is sometimes called a solideo, calotte, pilleolus or sub-mitrale. It is most often spoken of as a zucchetto.

Originally, it had a very practical purpose. Clerics wore a hairstyle called the tonsure. The hair on the crown of the head was cut and shaved. A skullcap was then often worn to keep the head warm.

While some priests may continue to use a skullcap for utilitarian reasons, members of the hierarchy must use the zucchetto as a liturgical vestment. Its color will tell you the person’s office.

The pope wears a white zucchetto; cardinals, red; bishops, purple; and abbots and other clergy, black. Prelates must remove the zucchetto from the Sanctus of Mass until after Communion and whenever the Blessed Sacrament is exposed.

According to James-Charles Noonan, Jr., in The Church Visible (Viking), the zucchetto did not develop from the Jewish yarmulke, but has a development all its own.