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In point of material the alb must be made of linen (woven of flax or hemp); hence cotton or wool are forbidden.
It has been contended that in many cases such designations must be regarded as referring to the apparels with which the albs were adorned; also that the albs of silk, velvet, etc. were probably tunicles or dalmatics.
But there is a residue of cases which it is impossible to explain satisfactorily, and the prevalence at least of blue albs seems to be proved by the miniatures of early manuscripts.
Albs were originally quite plain, but about the 10th century the custom arose of ornamenting the borders and the cuffs of the sleeves with strips of embroidery, and this became common in the 12th century.
The equivalent of the alb in the ancient Churches of the East is the sticharion (art bpeov) of the Orthodox Church (Armenian shapik, Syrian Kutina, Coptic stoicharion or tuniah).
It is worn girdled by bishops and priests in all rites, by subdeacons in the Greek and Coptic rites.
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