In Rome’s St. Peter’s Basilica four new princes of the church, clad in magnificent scarlet robes, knelt last week to receive from Pope John their red hats, symbolic of their elevation to the College of Cardinals. Besides their rank and faith, the new cardinals had something else in common: the same tailor. Every stitch of their elaborate garments, from scarlet silk stockings to matching skullcap, came from Bonaventura Gammarelli, 61, the most prestigious name in the Roman Catholic cloak and soutane trade. From his small shop in the shadow of Rome’s ancient Pantheon, Gammarelli sends out the robes and capes to Catholic clergy the world over; New York’s Cardinal Spellman is a regular customer.
The Gammarelli family has been sewing for the Catholic clergy ever since Bonaventura’s great-great-grandfather opened a shop in Rome in 1798 to make outfits for Rome’s many priests. Gammarelli still likes to serve curates as well as princes of the church, is just as pleased over selling a cassock at $40 as a cardinal’s attire for $2,000. It is only good business, since many of his customers get ahead. “Over 70% of the cardinals we now serve,” he says, “started coming to us when they were only monsignori.”
After the death of Pius XII, a rush order came from the Vatican to make three papal soutanes, one for a large man, one medium, one small. When the cardinals were locked in conclave to elect a new Pope, the outfits were locked up with them. “It is difficult to cut without anyone specific in mind,” says Gammarelli. A shrewd papal handicapper, he felt that in case of a deadlock the compromise candidate might be an old customer of his, Venice’s Cardinal Roncalli, and cut the garments for the large man with him in mind. Bonaventura’s hunch was right: when Pope John XXIII appeared on the balcony overlooking St. Peter’s Square to give his first public blessing, he was dressed in the perfectly fitting white soutane Gammarelli had made.
A wave of new cardinals always means brisk business for Gammarelli; once his five seamstresses and one cutter, who work in two cramped rooms above the store, turned out 18 cardinal vestments at one time. To make sure all the garments conform to the church’s centuries-old traditions, Gammarelli uses only the finest materials, carefully oversees the work. As a double check, he continually refers to a pattern book hand-painted in watercolors by his sister Maria.
From his trade Gammarelli earns a comfortable living. But his real reward comes from the praise of his customers. He treasures a leather-bound volume, prefaced with an autographed picture of Pope John, which reads like a Who’s Who of the Roman Catholic hierarchy. One of his favorite endorsements came from a Texas bishop, who wrote simply: “We Texans like to deal with people who know their business.”
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