Can a religious (not a nun) woman wear a habit?

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FYI - I know this is only one priest, but we had someone coming to Mass dressed up like a nun. My priest told her to stop, as it was confusing to people, who kept calling her “Sister.”
 
I really liked your post,very inspiring ( cause i used to think similar things)…what a great life you lead,not like me
 
SerraSemper said:
to wear a veil or hood is inappropriate because, again, a veil is bestowed by a Church authority.
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Lots of women these days are wearing some type of a veil or hood, either just to visit church or in some cases daily. Again, as long as it doesn’t look like the distinctive veil of a particular order, one can’t tell women that they aren’t allowed to wear any sort of generic veil or head covering.
 
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That’s incorrect. Canon law no longer penalizes people who wear cassocks and (by extension, habits), but in the Catholic Church, wearing a religious-like headcovering is morally forbidden because it is deceptive to the faithful. A religious veil is a sign of the woman being set apart by vows to God. It is also morallly forbidden because it goes against the virtue of modesty. Modesty requires people to dress in accordance with their station in life. A layperson dressing as a religious with religious insignia (the veil) is acting immodestly because it is not appropriate to their station in life. We are not Amish. We are Catholics.
 
While your post is useful from the standpoint of showing the OP what kinds of attitudes she might encounter by taking up a particular dress, this post is basically your own personal bias about headcovering. Like I said, Catholic women are wearing plenty of veils and headcoverings these days because they want to wear them, sometimes daily. I myself do not veil apart from TLM Mass, but I am seeing them on lots of other women who are not members of religious orders. The types of veils and headcoverings I see also do not resemble those of religious orders. There’s quite a variety out there to choose from and I am sure the OP could pick one that didn’t look like she was trying to pass herself off as a nun.

Head covering these days is a personal choice of the Catholic woman involved. If you don’t like the practice, that’s your opinion, but plenty of women disagree with you on the “modesty” point and the “appropriateness” point and are going to continue to veil.
 
Well, the reason why the Fathers of the Church wanted women to wear headcoverings out in public was because it was the custom of the time. And today, the custom of Catholic women in most developed countries it to eschew wearing headcoverings of any kind except in inclement weather or for specific secular purposes such as wearing a baseball cap of one’s team to the game. The virtue of modesty is for women to blend in with their culture for their social rank and situation. Thus, wearing something that makes one be mistaken for a religious sister is inappropriate and immodest for a woman who is not. Nobody, I think, mistakes women wearing a bandana or a lacy mantilla as a religious. You say I have a bias. Yes I do. What is so bad about the Church granting the right to wear a certain style of headcovering to some women or to certain men the right to wear (usually) black dresses with a white collar and reserving it to them and not the rest of the baptized people? Wearing a headcovering that imitates religious veils should be done for the right reasons. What is a correct reason for a lay woman wearing it that would trump the general reservation the church has for such veils? We don’t need headcoverings to pray. In temperate places we don’t need headcoverings to protect from the sun’s desert blaze or the artic’s fierce cold. So what makes it modest? Look especially to the lives of Catholic lay women in recent times who are canonized and beatified without wearing headcoverings!
 
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And why should she bother wear a headcovering to begin with? Why should a laywoman go out the door wearing a mantilla to go grocery shopping or to go to the post office? I have seen religious congregations of women without any veils or hoods. What exactly is the symbolism that is being aimed for in wearing a headcovering for a laywoman in public? The original question was whether a person can wear a habit who hasn’t been granted the habit by the Church. So any kind of headcoverings should be appropriate for the circumstances and avoid giving the impression of being a religious habit. I’m not against wearing headcoverings per se, I’m simply against wearing something that would trigger a person walking down the street to say “sister”.
 
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Thanks for sharing. Continue your good deed and don’t let others bother you. So long as you use it as a way to glorify God and not use it to harm others. Just the same no matter what you wear that does not make you sick due to exposure from elements that can human body. Anyway, that’s what the purpose why we wear clothes: to protect us from the harsh elements around. Remember even in the early days, people used to wear sack clothes instead of fine linens.
 
You are never to old to be a nun. You are living the life of on who has dedicated their whole life to God, you perform acts of mercy, you are praying many times for the souls and for the people of the world. I do not even think it would be wrong to have yourself addressed as Sister. Many woman have started like that and others joined them and a community was formed. God Bless you and guide your heart within His Merciful Heart. Remember me in your prayers as i will remember you.
 
There are certainly religious options for you that do not involve being a nun (nuns are cloistered). There are other types of religious.

We know a woman who took religious vows as a hermit, and she was in her 50s or 60s when she did so. She wore a denim habit she designed.

Here’s an article from Newsweek from 2005 about her. She lives with her son now as she is very elderly. But she lived as a professed hermit and painted icons to support herself until her arthritis prevented it. She is a real hoot, we love Sr.Agnes:

www.newsweek.com

LIFE IN SOLITARY

In the photo, Agnes Long looks drop-dead gorgeous. She's on vacation at the Jersey shore with her husband. He is tall, tan and trim; she wears a zebra-stripe bikini, a floppy hat and sunglasses.
www.newsweek.com www.newsweek.com
 
That’s so wonderful! Thank you so much for your response 🙂 God Bless.
 
heythere said:
I have no hair. scarf needed. wigs are terrible, for me.
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Wonderful that you sew. Online you can find very pretty and practical patterns for head scarves, some with brims - so nice for desert wear. 🌞🌵
 
Makes sense. A very practical reason that is secular and appropriate. 🙂
 
Blessings,
Thank you for your life of prayer and cloister. I’m sure you’d be welcomed in a convent. Being a hermit is a calling.,You are to be under a priests counsel. I think. It’s important someone knows you are alive or sick, etc.
I’m sure you can make your own comfortable style of dress for the desert. Design as you see fit. Hermits of old wore animal skins and ate locusts and honey.
Feel God’s love around you. Jeremiah 29/11. Ephesians 3: 17-21.
May God let His presence be known to your Dad. May he be surrounded w angels.
In Jesus name
Tweedlealice
 
Tis_Bearself said:
While your post is useful from the standpoint of showing the OP what kinds of attitudes she might encounter by taking up a particular dress, this post is basically your own personal bias about headcovering.
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Since the author you are quoting is herself in [1] Consecrated Life and [2] writing her JCD dissertation in this field, it shows much more than attitudes the original poster might encounter but rather the opposition from Church officials that such behaviour would be met with. And for reason.

The diocese maintains a directory of the Religious communities that are erected in the diocese. Beyond that, we have Religious who are externs, in the diocese for a time, who may be doing a course of study, caring for an aged parent, on sabbatical and so forth – but they are known to the chancery.

A woman who presents herself in one of the churches as a woman Religious, wearing the habit and veil, will draw inquiry. Whether you are in a parish or the cathedral itself, a Religious in veil stands out to the Presider, and particularly when the person is not familiar – by the second week, I would inquiring if the Sister did not initiate a conversation with me.

It would draw the same attention as a man who showed up in a clerical shirt. Obviously, for my own diocese, I am going to know every man who could conceivably wear it. We have specific directives about the use of the clerical shirt. We are certainly respectful of externs who are visiting and following the norms of their own diocese/institute of perfection…but not of lay people who take up wearing it out of some misguided concept.
Tis_Bearself said:
Lots of women these days are wearing some type of a veil or hood, either just to visit church or in some cases daily. Again, as long as it doesn’t look like the distinctive veil of a particular order, one can’t tell women that they aren’t allowed to wear any sort of generic veil or head covering.
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This is precisely the point: veil, in consecrated life, has a specific meaning even if its colour and extent and fabric and other elements may vary significantly. A mantilla is a mantilla but a Religious veil is a veil for women Religious. The same is true for the monastic cowl. I can recognise instantly the distinction between Camaldolese and Cistercian and Benedictine, for example…and someone wearing one who is not Camaldolese, Cistercian or Benedictine is every bit as offensive as a lay person walking into the parish church and sitting down in the front pew while wearing a chasuble or dalmatic or wearing a mitre, for that matter. It is grossly and wildly inappropriate.
 
Fauken said:
Whether the OP meant legal or moral, my point is at least for the Dominicans, it would be courteous not to wear it as a non-Dominican.
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A habit is not self-assumed. You did not give it to yourself. It is given by one who has the authority to grant it, by the Church.
 
po18guy said:
However: many orders have ‘third order lay faithful.’ Some of them may very well be allowed a 3rd order habit. In that case, it would be genuine, fruitful, and a blessing.
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This has become, in fact, an exceedingly rare occurrence – precisely to indicate that a vocation as a tertiary or as an oblate is a secular reality. The closest comes really with Dominican Laity who are professed and who wear – internal to their gatherings – a quite large version of the Dominican scapular over lay clothing. Carmelites will often have a smaller version of a large scapular they use as well. But in both instances, certainly not in parish functions or other situations where they interact with people external to that Third Order

Many tertiaries and oblates still have the privilege of being buried in the habit – but not using it in daily life. And I know a number of monasteries among the Benedictines are withdrawing that privilege for burial.

A refusal to comply with that norm would be cause to expel the person for wont of obedience to the rule of life/constitutions/customary of the Third Order chapter or oblature implicated.

Having said that, I have certainly worked with women who were tertiaries and who wanted to adopt a form of dress that reflected their commitment to the charism of the Religious family they had adopted but rather they did so without straying into an inappropriate area.

It really is not that hard. Typically, it used elements that were clearly and definitely and distinctly secular…a dress or blouse, skirt and jacket ensemble or so forth, that one would find in a department store as opposed to an ecclesiastical tailor or manufacturer of Religious habits. No scapular. No veil. Perhaps using a thin belt but no cord or monastic style cincture. No rosary dangling at the waist. Utilizing a colour scheme that was based on the Order…white and black for Dominicans or Cistercians…white for Camaldolese…black for Benedictines, brown for Carmelites, grey for Conventual Franciscans, and so forth.

Variations in garments being worn so that the clothing did not look like an invariable uniform but that there was a variety in the wardrobe. Use of a medal or pendant…such as the Dominican Cross, the Carmelite shield, the Cross of San Damiano, the medal of Saint Benedict, etc.

I never had a situation where we came to an impasse in working the matter out for those desiring, as tertiaries or oblates, to have a wardrobe that was reflective of their commitment and marked by simplicity but that complied fully with the directives and prohibitions of their chapter or oblature and also that raised no concern for the chancery.

A lay man may choose to wear a black turtle neck shirt, black trousers, a black jacket, black coat. But a man who is not a cleric or a seminarian should not be wearing a clerical shirt or a black shirt with a white collar.

Men and women who are not in an institute of consecrated life should not be wearing the garb that is particular to any institute of consecrated life to which they do not belong.
 
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