“The clergy are facing many temptations, even many more than us… Our clergy have two legitimate spheres where they meet us: Confession and sermons… It is good that they differ from us even in their clothing. Their garments are beautiful and dignified. This makes sense: they are made in the image and likeness of the garments worn by the Savior Himself. It is necessary that even by wearing those very clothes they should carry with them an eternal reminder of Him Whose image they are to present to us, so that even for a moment they don’t forget and lose it among the gaiety and vain demands of society; because of them will be required a thousand times more than of any of us. They are to hear unceasingly that they are akin to a different kind of people, and are superior, as well.”
(Author Nikolai Gogol , ‘Selected Passages from Correspondence’)