Orarium. The name that was formerly given to a piece of religious clothing worn by priests and deacons that nowadays we call a stole. One would wear a stole over one’s tunic or dalmatic, but Bollandist priests remark that this word does not always mean the same thing, and that it sometimes denotes a rochet or short burlap garment that bishops wear, and sometimes a cloth that is used to wipe one’s mouth. The Fourth Council of Toledo, canon 40, decreed that deacons shall wear a single orarium or stole, and that it will be white and without gold. However, all this has changed, because the orarium , formerly made of simple cloth, has for a long time now been made solely from fine material. Does this word come from the Latin ora , meaning the hem of a piece of clothing, or from os , oris , meaning mouth, or from another etymological origin altogether? We do not know for sure, but it does not matter very much.