Why do priests wear different colours?
Awaiting theological review
The simple answer
The colour of the priest's vestments changes with the time of year and the feast being celebrated, so that everyone can see at a glance what the Church is living. Green is for Ordinary Time, the weeks of growing in faith. Purple is for Advent and Lent, times of waiting and conversion. White is for Christmas, Easter, and feasts of Jesus, Mary and saints who were not martyrs. Red is for the Passion, Pentecost, the apostles and the martyrs. Rose can be worn on two Sundays of joy in the middle of Advent and Lent, and black may be used at funerals and on All Souls' Day.
In the Bible
In the Old Testament, God asks for special garments for the priests, made of gold, blue, purple and scarlet, for glory and for beauty.
Exodus 28:2–5At the Transfiguration, Jesus' clothes become dazzling white; in Revelation, the saints wear white robes washed in the blood of the Lamb.
Mark 9:3 · Revelation 7:9–14Ecclesiastes says there is a season for everything: a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.
Ecclesiastes 3:1–4Where it comes from
The first priestly vestments were the good clothes of the Roman world, worn with dignity for the Eucharist. For centuries there was no fixed system of colours, and customs differed from region to region.
Around 1200, a treatise by Lothar of Segni, later Pope Innocent III, described four main colours in use in Rome: white, red, black and green, with purple for times of penance.
The Roman Missal of 1570, after the Council of Trent, fixed the colours for the whole Latin Church. The Missal of 1970 kept them, adding some flexibility.
In Spain and some other places, blue vestments are allowed by special privilege for feasts of the Immaculate Conception. It is a local permission, not a general colour.
What the Church teaches
The diversity of colours in sacred vestments aims to express the particular character of the mysteries of faith being celebrated, and the sense of Christian life as it moves through the liturgical year.
General Instruction of the Roman Missal, 345 (number awaiting verification)(awaiting verification)The Missal sets out the use of white, red, green, purple, black and rose, and allows more festive or noble vestments, such as gold, on solemn days.
General Instruction of the Roman Missal, 346 (number awaiting verification)(awaiting verification)The Mass has kept the same fundamental structure since the earliest centuries; the colours dress that one celebration for each season.
CCC 1345–1346A common misunderstanding
The colours are just decoration, or the priest wears whatever he likes.
In fact
The colours are set by the Church's calendar, the same for every parish of the Latin rite on the same day. They are a teaching tool: a lesson about the faith you can see before a word is said.
Why it matters today
Next time you go to Mass, look at the colour first and ask yourself what time of the year it tells you, and what that time is asking of you: growth, waiting, joy or courage.
Bible passages
Exodus 28:2–5 · Mark 9:3 · Revelation 7:9–14 · John 19:2 · Acts of the Apostles 2:3 · Ecclesiastes 3:1–4Catechism
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General Instruction of the Roman Missal, 345-347 (numbers awaiting verification)awaiting verification
General Instruction of the Roman Missal, 345 (number awaiting verification)awaiting verification
General Instruction of the Roman Missal, 346 (number awaiting verification)awaiting verification