omophorion

plural omophorions · plural omophoria

1. A band of brocade originally of wool decorated with crosses and worn on the neck and around the shoulders as the distinguishing vestment of a bishop and the symbol of his spiritual and ecclesiastical authority in the Eastern Christian liturgical tradition, equivalent to the Western archepiscopal pallium.

   The bishop wears an omophorion, whose shape and manner of wearing are closer to the original pallium than either the stole or the epitrachelion.

   1998, Encyclopaedia Britannica CD 98 Multimedia Edition

   2 more examples

   a little band of marchers displays Greek Orthodox outfits, the rhason and sticharion, the epitrachelion and the epimanikia, the sakkos, the epigonation, the zone, the omophorion; they brandish icons and enkolpia, dikerotikera and dikanikion.

   1972, Robert Silverberg, “Thomas the Proclaimer”, in Sailing to Byzantium, Agberg Ltd., published September 2000, page 232.

   Although the bishop also wears - an epitrachelion, his distinctive sign of office is the omophorion-a long, broad strip arranged on the shoulders in such a way that one end descends in front and the other behind. The word 'omophorion' means "shoulder covering" and originally referred to a piece of sheepskin worn over the shoulders by the aged and in firm for warmth.

   2001, “The Symbolism of Vestments”, in Orthodox America, archived from the original on 21 Jan 2001