Belt/cincture on a nun

[GodsTinyFlower]

I have seen many different pictures on nuns/religious sisters who either wear a leather belt or a coloured rope around their waist. Can you tell me the significance of these please?

Also, where do they buy them? I’m just curious as I can’t imagine there is much call for coloured rope. Also are the belts just plain leather? Like you can buy in a shop? I’d love to see a nun buying rope or leather belts in bulk!

Excuse my ignorance. I’m just a little bit nosey on all this nun-stuff.

 

[scottywolf777]

I have seen many different pictures on nuns/religious sisters who either wear a leather belt or a coloured rope around their waist. Can you tell me the significance of these please?

Also, where do they buy them? I’m just curious as I can’t imagine there is much call for coloured rope. Also are the belts just plain leather? Like you can buy in a shop? I’d love to see a nun buying rope or leather belts in bulk!

Excuse my ignorance. I’m just a little bit nosey on all this nun-stuff.

I am not a nun but, I can speak for the brothers.
The belt or gird symbolises the rope that Judas hung himself with as a reminder as well as the scourge used to scourge Jesus. Scripture also says to gird your loins with truth. Ephesians 6:13-17. The use of a rope to gird your loins traces it origin to Saint Francis who when told that Matthew 10:9 in the Vulgate forbid wearing a belt replaced it with a rope. The number of knots will vary from community to community and even within the same order. The most common are 3 sybolizing poverty,chastity and obedience, 5 symbolising the 5 wounds of Christ (like mine) and 7 for the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the seven spirits of God etc.amoung some orders this may also stand for the 7 sorrows of Mary/or her 7 joys and the 7 joys/sorrows of St Joseph.
According to a Domincan novice i spoke to the belts they use are heavy duty men’s belts made of thick leather for long wear. He actually regrets that St Dominic didn’t cast off his heavy belt (originally used by pilgrims to the Holy Land to carry ones money) because he found it cumbersome. The cords are made by one of the brothers/sisters as mine was for me.
There is a place where you can order monks robes or nuns habits called Gothic Garments in San Francisco for the Renaissance faire.

 

[Cloisters]

Please feel free to join our religious habit yahoo group

groups.yahoo.com/group/thereligioushabit/

You can ask all kinds of questions there–we actually have some habit makers onboard.

Another number of knots on a cord cincture–10 for the virtues of Mary worn by the Annonciade Nuns of St Joan of Valois in France.

Blessings,
Cloisters

 

[roveau]

The Sisters of the Good Samaritan who taught me in 1959 (St Joseph’s Narrabeen, Sydney) wore a simple, leather belt which, yes, looked like a man’s belt. Attached to the belt was, what looked like, a leather money purse and three sets of black large rosary beads, two terminating in medals and one terminating in a medium/large crucifix. The Pater Noster beads had what appeared like owl faces carved on them.

As a school kid you could always tell without looking when a nun was approaching by the clank of the medals and crucifix.

Rove