Editing Subdeacon (section)

====The Western Rites====
In the [[Western Rite Orthodoxy|Western Rite]], the subdeacon's role is essentially as an assistant to the deacon in performing their diaconal role. This perhaps more clearly reflects the origins of the subdiaconate than in the Byzantine Rite, where, rather than the subdeacon assisting the deacon, many formerly diaconal functions have, over time, come to be seen as properly belonging to the subdeacon in their own right. In the Western Rite, the subdeacon is charged with reading the [[epistle]] at a High Mass (the most solemn and elaborate form of the western Eucharist) – a role that may be performed by a priest or reader at a simpler form of the mass, and with assisting the deacon with the preparation of the oblations and with carrying them to the altar, (in those western rites that retain the Offertory Procession). They also assist the deacon during the reading of the Gospel by carrying the Gospel book to and from (depending on the rite used) the place of proclamation, and by acting as a support for the book while the Gospel is read. At pontifical liturgies (at which a pontiff or bishop is present and presiding), the subdeacon also assists the deacon in the vesting of the bishop.

The usual street-wear of the subdeacon is the cassock. (There is no distinction between an inner and outer cassock in the Western Rite, and all clergy wear one cassock only).

During liturgies, the subdeacon vests in an [[alb]], over which they wear the [[maniple (vestment)|maniple]], the [[cincture]], and the [[tunicle]]. Unlike his brother subdeacons in the Byzantine Rite who wear the ''orarion'', the subdeacon does not wear its western equivalent - the stole - which is reserved for deacons, priests, and bishops.