Discalced Carmelites Habits and Vow of Poverty

[JesuXPIPassio]

I recently watched a miniseries on Saint Teresa of Avila, and Saint Teresa was so devoted to the Vow of Poverty for her order, that her sisters don’t have anything more than they need.

I was wondering, is each sister given more than one habit? Or are they just given one that they have to wear all the time?

 

[Allen537]

I think it depends on the convent, but in my experience the nuns have more than one habit. Typically they have a dress habit (one they keep nice for formal events) and two for everyday use (one to wear and one in the wash).

I hope this helps,

In Carmel,

Br. Allen

 

[Apologist78]

I recently watched a miniseries on Saint Teresa of Avila, and Saint Teresa was so devoted to the Vow of Poverty for her order, that her sisters don’t have anything more than they need.

I was wondering, is each sister given more than one habit? Or are they just given one that they have to wear all the time?

The vow of poverty is lived only by religious orders. Diocesean priests do not take a vow of poverty.

The essence of the vow of poverty is that all property is held in common. This means whatever property one has when entering becomes property of the community.

The vow itself is lived very radically in some places, others live a vow of poverty, but not as radically as the example you cite. It may that in the example you cite the sisters have two habits, but it would be difficult to say. Some orders however do only permit to articles of clothing, and some even wash the cloathing by hand.

 

[Gertabelle]

I was in a Benedictine monastery for a couple years, and granted, the Benedictines do not have as strict an interpretation of poverty as the Carmelites. As a previous poster said, we had one “dress” habit (for solemnities and the like) and two “regular habits” for the rest of the time. Because we also engaged in much physical labor (we had a working farm with crops and many animals) we also had our “blues” which were shorter habits (just above the ankle) made in varying shades of blue (whatever fabric was donated and available at the time they were made).

Come to think of it, we wore our blues during all work times, unless we were working with the guests. I remember wearing the blues when I was doing embroidery or other “dainty” work.

Those of us who worked on the farm also each had a pair of jeans and a couple of long-sleeved shirts/sweatshirts for driving tractors, or working the “lift” that lifted our haybales to the top of our very large stack. Those full skirts of the habits would have been dangerous in those circumstances.

Gertie