Above is the ad orientem scene in the chapel of Holy Souls Hermitage. Obviously, the color has been tweaked a bit in an attempt to get some sort of representation of the color “rosacea”, which is a color, even if a disease is also named after it!
It’s not red. It’s not purple. It’s not rose. It’s not “wine” or any other fancy name. It’s not pink. And, it needs to be said, it’s absolutely NOT hot pink! I failed in trying to get the color right in the picture above. Some years ago, Father Z put up a picture of a detail of a rosacea vestment.
As it is, Holy Souls Hermitage does not sport any Rosacea vestments. There are only worn as an option on Gaudete Sunday of Advent and Laetare Sunday of Lent, and perhaps on one or two other occasions. Many have offered to supply these, but I have declined, awaiting the time when the color is correct!
I opt out of using this color since almost no one in the entire universe knows what this color is. It seems to be a combination of Royal Purple, for the King who reigns from the Cross, and Blood Red, for Him who would pour out all His Blood for us, and Yellow, for the brilliance of the sun who is the Son of God. Rosacea’s brighter, yet somber color reflects the joy of anticipation of the great events of our salvation.
But I just fall back on using the Royal Purple. As it is, I have a set of vestments made for me by a great group of ladies in a parish North of Toulouse, when I was a chaplain in Lourdes. The embroidered “decal” of the Immaculate Conception surely came from discarded vestments from Lourdes when the glory of the liturgy there was downgraded some decades ago, awaiting a resurgence, which might be seen soon. The gold thread and embroidery suggest that this, as with so many vestments of old in Lourdes, was donated in honor of the Immaculate Conception during a pilgrimage. Was it donated by an Emperor, King, President, Bishop, or, as is often the case, a Bishop of Rome? Most probably.
When the majesty of the Liturgy is re-established in Lourdes, you can bet that there will be many more such vestments donated to the Shrines. We shall see what is in store with the next Roman Pontiff and the new Bishop of Tarbes-Lourdes.
Accompany me, Father George David Byers, S.S.L., S.T.D., as I begin life as a Catholic Priest-Hermit by choice. Holy Souls Hermitage is dedicated to the sanctification of my fellow priests, bishops, deacons & seminarians going through the purgatory of this life or the next. Prayer and sacrifice go up, of course, for both Benedict XVI and the next Successor of Saint Peter. 
I laugh when my pastor explains the vestment. He says, “It is NOT pink; I don’t wear pink!”
Here is the blog post and the photos of the vestments at Fr. Z’s
http://wdtprs.com/blog/2007/12/real-priests-wear-rosacea-or-what-color-is-liturgical-rose-fr-z-explains/
Our poor old Irish priest has a “rose” colored vestment that he wears just twice a year, and I know he dislikes it because it is bubble gum pink. Another priest who is no longer at our parish explained to a small group of us once that neither one of them liked that pink vestment, but a very kind lady parishioner had purchased it for them, so they had to wear it.
Jenna: Arrrgghhh!!! Nooooooo!!!
They didn’t have to wear it! What they should do is publicize rules for giving: Ask before you give!
It’s interesting that there wouldn’t be such discussions if the color was a somber rosacea, which is more like a red wine stain…
Nobody likes bubblegum pink.