Revelation to St. Bridget says no makeup?x

[christismylord]

“Wherefore, know that two sins, which I now name to you, are being practiced and that they draw after them other sins that all seem as if venial. But because the people delight in them with the intention of persevering, they are therefore made mortal. . .

The first of the two sins is that the faces of rational human creatures are being painted with the various colors with which insensible images and statues of idols are colored so that to others, these faces may seem more beautiful than I made them. The second sin is that the bodies of men and women are being deformed from their natural state by the unseemly forms of clothing that the people are using.”

Our Lord Jesus Christ, ‘The Revelations of St. Bridget of Sweden’

 

[Mythicalbio]

It is a private revelation, you don’t have to follow it. If you do follow them, then don’t wear it or buy it for others or otherwise participate in it. I myself avoid such things, but it is not intrinsically part of the faith.

St. Bridget pray for us

 

[EloyCraft]

Make-up enhances the bodies display of arousal and fertility. The traits looked for in a partner to spread genes more effectively or the signs that the body displays when a partner is willing.

I can see why it might be trashed in the end.

 

[HomeschoolDad]

I find it refreshing when a woman chooses not to wear makeup, but as noted above, this is a private revelation, and one may believe and follow it, or not. No harm either way.

I was watching an old episode of The Dick Cavett Show the other night and he was interviewing Janis Joplin. She didn’t wear a stick of makeup, and her unique beauty came shining through. Very nice. Too bad she got involved in the things she did, and died so young.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Janis most likely was wearing makeup if she were on TV because otherwise, she would have been completely washed out and unnatural looking under the lights. Dick Cavett and everyone else on camera would also have been made up before going before the camera, for the same reasons.

Janis did go for a natural look though.

 

[Hawkeye916]

I was watching an old episode of The Dick Cavett Show the other night and he was interviewing Janis Joplin. She didn’t wear a stick of makeup, and her unique beauty came shining through.

If she was being interviewed, I can almost guarantee she was wearing makeup. There are a lot of “natural” looks that are not immediately noticeable. But if it was for a TV show, she was wearing makeup.

 

[JSRG]

Well, this was a private revelation as others have noted. I am not sure they were ever officially approved. However, I have actually recently discovered there were quite a number of notable Christian writers in the past that spoke rather harshly about make-up. For example:

Clement of Alexandria (The Instructor, 3.11): “Nor are the women to smear their faces with the ensnaring devices of wily cunning.”

Tertullian (On the Apparel of Women, Chapter 5): “There must be no overstepping of that line to which simple and sufficient refinements limit their desires — that line which is pleasing to God. For they who rub their skin with medicaments, stain their cheeks with rouge, make their eyes prominent with antimony, sin against Him.”

Augustine (Letter 245): “As to the use of pigments by women in coloring the face, in order to have a ruddier or a fairer complexion, this is a dishonest artifice, by which I am sure that even their own husbands do not wish to be deceived; and it is only for their own husbands that women ought to be permitted to adorn themselves, according to the toleration, not the injunction, of Scripture.”

Cyprian wrote (Treatise 2.15, “On the Dress of Virgins”) “And indeed in that very matter, for the sake of the fear which faith suggests to me, for the sake of the love which brotherhood requires, I think that not virgins only and widows, but married women also, and all of the sex alike, should be admonished, that the work of God and His fashioning and formation ought in no manner to be adulterated, either with the application of yellow color, or with black dust or rouge, or with any kind of medicament which can corrupt the native lineaments.”

[All of the above quotes can be found in the translations of the above works on newadvent.org]

Thomas Aquinas in Summa Theologica (Second Part of the Second Part, Question 169, Article 2) writes that women painting themselves “is a kind of falsification, which cannot be devoid of sin.” (he cites the aforementioned Cyprian and Augustine quotes) He does add that “such painting does not always involve a mortal sin, but only when it is done for the sake of sensuous pleasure or in contempt of God, and it is to like cases that Cyprian refers.” So using makeup to make yourself look better is not a mortal sin unless it is being done specifically to make others lust after you, but even then it is still venial. Well, Aquinas does make one exception, which is when makeup is used to hide a disfigurement of some kind (“It must, however, be observed that it is one thing to counterfeit a beauty one has not, and another to hide a disfigurement arising from some cause such as sickness or the like.”)

(cont. next post)

 

[JSRG]

(cont. from previous post)

Alphonsus Liguori appears to take the same consideration: “[We] excuse from mortal sin those who because of a local custom expose their breasts, or use makeup, pigments or fake hair, so long as they are doing it only to appear more beautiful, not out of a lascivious motive, or with some other mortally sinful intent, or if there is a particular law prohibiting something in particular under pain of mortal sin.” (Moral Theology, Book 2, Treatise 3, On Charity, Chapter 2.54, trans. Mark K. Spencer) I have not verified that quote as I have the others I mentioned, but it was cited in this article. Again he seems to only regard it as mortal when it is done with goal of inciting lust, but still regards it as venial when done with the goal of making yourself look better.

So I don’t really know. I have to acknowledge it’s easy for me, a man, to suggest that make-up should be avoided, as men aren’t expected to wear it anyway. But I do have some concerns about it based on seeing these kinds of comments from Christians/Catholics that are held up as such great thinkers. If nothing else, it would seem that makeup should be used in moderation, and should never be used with intention of causing lust in another.

 

[Truth2.0]

I found the book “The Prophecies and Revelations of Saint Bridget (Birgitta) of Sweden” on saintsbooks dot net (Sorry I can’t post a direct link). I can’t find the quote within it. Where is this quote from?
Thanks!

 

[HomeschoolDad]

Janis most likely was wearing makeup if she were on TV because otherwise, she would have been completely washed out and unnatural looking under the lights. Dick Cavett and everyone else on camera would also have been made up before going before the camera, for the same reasons.

Janis did go for a natural look though.

If she was being interviewed, I can almost guarantee she was wearing makeup. There are a lot of “natural” looks that are not immediately noticeable. But if it was for a TV show, she was wearing makeup.

You are both quite correct. Television studio production, by its very nature, requires makeup that allows the lighting to do what it’s designed to do.

I was referring to cosmetic makeup that unnaturally enhances the eyes, lips, and possibly other facial features, and that is worn by women in the course of a day, or as a glamour and fashion statement. Janis wasn’t wearing any of that.

 

[JSRG]

I found the book “The Prophecies and Revelations of Saint Bridget (Birgitta) of Sweden” on saintsbooks dot net (Sorry I can’t post a direct link). I can’t find the quote within it. Where is this quote from?
Thanks!

Book 7, Chapter 27.

 

[Irishmom2]

Make-up enhances the bodies display of arousal and fertility.

No, it makes me look like I have eyes behind my glasses, and like my skin is not pale and sickly. It has nothing to do with arousal and fertility to most people.

 

[kapp19]

St. Thomas is helpful as usual - the key is proportion to the circumstance… simply trying to look presentable is different from trying to seduce. Painting the face to create unnatural beauty is essentially lying (not always with respect to using cameras, which can create an unnaturally harsh image with certain lights, or with theater where character is trying to be conveyed from afar).

 

[Tis_Bearself]

When reading saints’ words we also need to take into account the culture the saint was living in. In St. Bridget’s time and place, makeup, like fashionable clothes, was something typically worn only by the idle rich and perhaps by women in illicit professions like prostitute, entertainer etc. Its purpose was seen as trying to make women sexually attractive. Some theologians and church leaders thought this was okay if a woman was just trying to look good for her husband, but bad if she was also showing herself around other men.
Your average non-rich woman worked outside all day and would not have been making up her face to go out and sweat in the hot sun, so it was a non-issue for her.

Nowadays we are less likely to view makeup as a way to seduce men and in fact a lot of the men I meet don’t even like it or will say that it’s not a big deal to them because they are going to end up seeing their wife or girlfriend without it at some point. People of all social classes wear it, and it’s considered more a tool of good grooming and/or something worn to be fashionable or to have fun. So the issue is really one of an individual person’s intent and moderation.

 

[tuffsmurf]

Are coloured eyelids and long dark eyelashes signs of arousal and fertility?

 

[tuffsmurf]

An interesting thing I have noticed is that many men say they prefer women with no makeup, but at the same time they mistakenly believe that many women are bare-faced when they actually do have makeup, just “natural look makeup”.

 

[DaveBj]

However, I have actually recently discovered there were quite a number of notable Christian writers in the past that spoke rather harshly about make-up.

Thanks, you saved me the trouble.

I’m not going to tell anyone what to do or what not to do, but the Church Fathers did say what they did say on this subject. The only thing that I will say is that any woman (or man – there are a few) who spends more time “putting on his/her face” than reading the Scriptures or praying has his/her priorities misplaced.

D

 

[Lea101]

An interesting thing I have noticed is that many men say they prefer women with no makeup, but at the same time they mistakenly believe that many women are bare-faced when they actually do have makeup, just “natural look makeup”.

Exactly. My brothers have seen me without makeup my whole life yet they still can’t tell when I have makeup on, when the rest of my female friends can instantly point out the products I’m using

 

[Lea101]

But I do have some concerns about it based on seeing these kinds of comments from Christians/Catholics that are held up as such great thinkers. If nothing else, it would seem that makeup should be used in moderation, and should never be used with intention of causing lust in another.

Tbh I noticed that such comments usually always reflect the man’s personal view of makeup rather than actual logical reasoning. E.g. You can wear natural makeup, not heavy. Or You can wear makeup to hide a disfigurement, but not to make yourself look better because I don’t want to be fooled.

Maybe I’m a little salty. These past comments just seem pretty typical of their culture. Beautiful women were seen as temptresses and their beauty was often regulated to preserve men’s virtues. People also get married quicker, so it’s not like like these men would get the chance to see a woman’s bare face before getting hitched.

Unlike now when women use makeup for all sorts of reasons. Relationships are often longer and intimate and men get to see their girlfriends’ bare faces at some point. Our opinions begin to change.

I don’t think makeup has to be used in ‘moderation’, if one is talking about quantity and not an obsessive need for makeup. One can wear as much makeup as a drag queen if she wants as long as her intentions aren’t to send a man with a drag fetish to hell, lol.

 

[TominAdelaide]

Apologist at Catholic Answers, Fr Grondin, answered a similar question here:

Is makeup permissible ? Ask an Apologist

I’m wondering if it is ok for women to wear makeup and nail polish etc.?Im scared that it might be offensive to God because He created us in His image and it seems like we are trying to improve His creation.Im in need of help please.

Fr Callan and Fr McHugh also talk about this in their work “Moral Theology” (the work has the nihil obstat and imprimatur):

Modesty in Style of Living and Dress. (a) The Virtue .—External goods, such as dwellings and clothing, are necessary for body and soul, as a protection to health and decency; others, such as furnishings, decorations, ornaments, cars, radios, entertainments for guests, etc., are useful for convenience, beauty and the maintenance of one’s station. But one may be immoderate in the use of these goods, and hence there is need of a virtue to regulate their use, so that it may truthfully be in keeping with one’s position and be not offensive to others.

(b) The Sin of Excess.—This is committed when one’s style is extravagant according to the standards of the community, or when like Dives, clothed in purple and fine linen, one aims only at display or sensual gratification, or when one is too much preoccupied with externals (e.g., when too much time is spent before the mirror or too much money at the dressmaker’s). Dignitaries and the ministers of the altar are not guilty of excess in the pomp and splendor which the Church sanctions, since the honor is intended for their station and the divine worship they perform.

(c) The Sin of Defect.—This is committed when one’s mode of life is not up to the reasonable standard of one’s community, especially if this is due to negligence or itch for notoriety or disregard for decency. Examples are those who through carelessness go about unwashed or unshaven, who keep their quarters in a filthy and disorderly state, or who wear their clothing untidily; … nudists who appear undressed in public places, and cynics who scorn the conventions of refined society. It is not sinful, however, but a virtuous act of temperance, to wear simpler and poorer garments from the spirit of mortification and humility (Heb., xi. 37). The clergy and religious, since they should be models of the penitential spirit, are to be praised, therefore, when they give an example of plainness and simplicity in personal style and dress.

Morality of Self-Beautification.—Is it wrong to beautify oneself in order to improve one’s looks or to win admiration?

(a) In itself there is no harm, especially for females, in using means to improve one’s looks, such as remedies for deformities, facial paints, powders and cosmetics, hair waves and dyes, and the like. But accidentally there could be sin (e.g., deception). A poor man would be a deceiver if he lived in great style to make a woman believe he was wealthy, and likewise a woman would be a deceiver if she used an artificial beauty to deceive a man about her age.

continued….