Do Brothers and Priests wear the same habits?

  • Thread starter Thread starter lak611
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
L

lak611

Guest
Do men who are in religious orders have the same or different habits if they are brothers or priests? If I met a Franciscan or Benedictine, would there be any way that I could tell whether to call him “Father” or “Brother” based on his habit?
 
lak611 said:
Do men who are in religious orders have the same or different habits if they are brothers or priests? If I met a Franciscan or Benedictine, would there be any way that I could tell whether to call him “Father” or “Brother” based on his habit?
Click to expand...
No, the orders who wear habits have the same for both the ordained members and the lay members.

In the Carmelites, as well as most others I think, we consider ourselves brothers to each other no matter the in a state of ordination or not. But you will find many who are ordained will not wear the habit in public but will wear clerics instead. That is for those groups where the wearing of the habit is optional.
 
ByzCath said:
No, the orders who wear habits have the same for both the ordained members and the lay members.

In the Carmelites, as well as most others I think, we consider ourselves brothers to each other no matter the in a state of ordination or not. But you will find many who are ordained will not wear the habit in public but will wear clerics instead. That is for those groups where the wearing of the habit is optional.
Click to expand...
Thank you! 🙂
 
lak611 said:
Do men who are in religious orders have the same or different habits if they are brothers or priests? If I met a Franciscan or Benedictine, would there be any way that I could tell whether to call him “Father” or “Brother” based on his habit?
Click to expand...
In the case of Franciscans, it is not improper to refer to either priests or brothers as “friar”, (which technically means brother.)
 
Really depends on the order. While most orders of brothers (ie. Marists, CFC etc) have their own habits, they can also be seen wearing general clericals. The Marist brothers at my school do wear their black soutanes, but they also wear clerical shirts with Roman collar sometimes
 
ozmatt said:
Really depends on the order. While most orders of brothers (ie. Marists, CFC etc) have their own habits, they can also be seen wearing general clericals. The Marist brothers at my school do wear their black soutanes, but they also wear clerical shirts with Roman collar sometimes
Click to expand...
What is a soutane?
 
no problems… i guess soutane has fallen into disuse a bit. It’s actually the french name for cassock but the two are interchangeable 🙂
 
ozmatt said:
no problems… i guess soutane has fallen into disuse a bit. It’s actually the french name for cassock but the two are interchangeable 🙂
Click to expand...
I saw that from the link you gave. I never heard the term at all before you mentioned it, so it must not be popular around here.
 
I think I call it soutane because my exposure to those wearing it has been in French religious orders: both Marist brothers and marist fathers are historically french orders, and the brothers I am taught by (even though this is australia and they are australian) refer to it as a soutane, probably through the traditions of the order. 🙂
 
ozmatt said:
I think I call it soutane because my exposure to those wearing it has been in French religious orders: both Marist brothers and marist fathers are historically french orders, and the brothers I am taught by (even though this is australia and they are australian) refer to it as a soutane, probably through the traditions of the order. 🙂
Click to expand...
French is not popular here in the USA. Spanish is the language most popular after English. I actually took 3 years of Spanish in high school, so I know a bit of that language.
 
I didn’t learn french either, and none of our brothers speak it haha!
I think the founder of the brothers (S. Marcellin Champagnat) and the early brothers wouldve called in soutane, referred to it as soutane and wrote about it as soutane. Hope that clears it up!
 
ozmatt said:
I didn’t learn french either, and none of our brothers speak it haha!
I think the founder of the brothers (S. Marcellin Champagnat) and the early brothers wouldve called in soutane, referred to it as soutane and wrote about it as soutane. Hope that clears it up!
Click to expand...
Thanks! 🙂
 
Dominican friars used to wear different habits depending on whether they were ordained–the priests wore white scapulars, while the brothers wore black scapulars. For example, St. Martin de Porres (who was a brother) is depicted wearing a black scapular.

Today, however, all Dominican friars wear white scapulars, as far as I know.
 
Unexpected_Dawn said:
Dominican friars used to wear different habits depending on whether they were ordained–the priests wore white scapulars, while the brothers wore black scapulars. For example, St. Martin de Porres (who was a brother) is depicted wearing a black scapular.

Today, however, all Dominican friars wear white scapulars, as far as I know.
Click to expand...
Could this have just been a difference in the Dominican provinces rather than a distinction between ordained and lay friars?

There are Carmelites who wear white habits because they live in a tropical climate and the traditional brown habits get a bit warm.
 
ByzCath said:
Could this have just been a difference in the Dominican provinces rather than a distinction between ordained and lay friars?

There are Carmelites who wear white habits because they live in a tropical climate and the traditional brown habits get a bit warm.
Click to expand...
Among the Dominicans, it was a distinction between ordained and lay friars, until 1962 (according to this site). There may be some variation according to place and climate; my experience is limited to the U.S. I imagine that the black cappas are more common in colder places than they are here in the south!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top