Papal tiara tiara bearing three crowns. The papal tiara was never worn for liturgical celebrations, such as Mass. At such functions the Pope, like other bishops, wore a mitre. However, a tiara was worn during the solemn entrance and departure processions, and one or more could be placed on the altar during the elaborately ceremonial Pontifical High Mass. The tiara was thus worn in formal ceremonial processions, and on other occasions when the pope was carried on the "sedia gestatoria", a portable throne whose use was ended by Pope John Paul II immediately after his election in October 1978. His short-lived predecessor,
Litter (vehicle) habit must have proven quite persistent, for the Third Council of Braga in 675 AD saw the need to order that bishops, when carrying the relics of martyrs in procession, must walk to the church, and not be carried in a chair, or litter, by deacons clothed in white. In the Catholic Church, Popes were carried the same way in Sedia gestatoria, which was replaced later by the Popemobile. A palanquin is a covered litter, usually for one passenger. It is carried by an even number of bearers (between two and eight, but most commonly four) on their shoulders, by