Hidden away in Piazza di Santa Chiara, just a few steps behind the Pantheon. The name “Ditta Annnibale Gammarelli” is well known to clergy throughout Italy and the world.
The story of Gammarelli’s began in 1798, during the pontificate of Pope Pius VI, when Giovanni Antonio Gammarelli first took up his role with the Roman clergy. For more than two centuries, six generations of artisans and entrepreneurs have continued to carry the legacy forward. Over the years, Gammarelli has served several pontiffs, from Pope Pius XI, Pope Pius XII, Saint John XXIII, the Blessed Paul VI, the venerable John Paul I, Saint John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.
In 2000, the shop was included in the list of Rome’s Historical Shops and is probably the oldest Roman craft enterprise still run by direct descendants of the founder. The sixth generation of the Gammarelli family who now holds the reins of the family business is very proud of this.
The Gammarelli tailors traditionally prepare three outfits — short, medium, and tall — to fit new pontiffs, whatever the size of the new pope may be. Lorenzo Gammarelli said last week his family-run tailors had been readying to make the three virgin cassocks, as per tradition, but was “told by the Vatican that they have taken care of it.”
He said he assumed the vestments for the new pope would “be those of the previous conclaves, because each time we made three robes and they used only one.”
The family has a system to best outfit the unknown successor, using data from their cardinal clients and sizing up cardinal candidates who are not.
“We consider who, in our opinion, could be elected,” Gammarelli said. “We pull out their measurements, and we make three cassocks that would more or less fit all of them.’’
For a pope’s first encounter with the flock, the basic garment is the hand-stitched white wool cassock with cape and wide silk sleeves. The cassock is fastened by silk buttons and worn with a silk brocade sash with gold fringe. All popes, until Francis, had this sash later embroidered with his papal seal. The papal garb is finished with a white “zucchetto”.
When they are called on to provide a conclave order, Gammarelli also provides shoes in an array of sizes so the new pope will be comfortable when presented to his flock. After that, Gammarelli said, “shoes are a very personal matter.” In keeping with the secrecy of the conclave, Gammarelli too keeps a secret in that they never reveal papal prices.
Gammarelli said they never imagined that Polish Cardinal Karol Wojtyla would become pope in October 1978. They had considered Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio a candidate in 2005 (when Benedict XVI was elected) but not in 2013, when Bergoglio became the church’s first Latin American pope.
Back in 1958, the portly John XXIII appeared on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica with safety pins holding together the back of his cassock, after a too-small size was mistakenly grabbed, forcing aides to open the back.
Gammarelli said that throughout Francis’ 12-year papacy he tried to persuade the pope to wear white pants under his cassock. But Pope Francis stuck with the black trousers of a priest, a reminder to himself and everyone that he was a pastor at heart.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from America Magazine
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