The Dress Of The Sisters

[mercygate]

My mother used to sew habits for the sister’s of our parish, along with two older sister’s who had retired from teaching.
They were patched, shortened, lengthened, etc. as needed to defray the cost of new ones…recycling at it’s best !

It took many hours to sew a habit and the veils especially were very time consuming due to a lot of starched linen etc.

Many of the older sisters continued with the old habit after Vatican II, but eventually succomed to pressure from their peers to wear street clothes.

The change was difficult for many older sisters and some still wear a facsimile of a habit, with a short veil…but at least they LOOK like sisters !

Elizabeth Kuhns says in her book, The Habit, that when the switch to modified habits or lay clothing came about, some of the Sisters prayed for an early death so they would not have to make the change! I do not doubt it for a moment.

I believe habits are very important as markers for us to recognize the vocation, and as signs and objective garments of poverty, and I think I would have been a GREAT nun. For five minutes.

Those starched contraptions on the head: guimpe, corona, wimple – Aaaacccchhh! More penance than a mortal should have to endure.

 

[bpbasilphx]

**
Those starched contraptions on the head: guimpe, corona, wimple – Aaaacccchhh! More penance than a mortal should have to endure.**

**I understand that one order wore the full headgear only when they were exposed to the public. In the cloister itself they wore a simple headscarf.

This site will show the habits of Orthodox and traditional Romanian Catholic nuns:

hrmonline.org/FrMaximosatHolyTheophany**

 

[mercygate]

**
Those starched contraptions on the head: guimpe, corona, wimple – Aaaacccchhh! More penance than a mortal should have to endure.**

I understand that one order wore the full headgear only when they were exposed to the public. In the cloister itself they wore a simple headscarf.

This site will show the habits of Orthodox and traditional Romanian Catholic nuns:

hrmonline.org/FrMaximosatHolyTheophany

I am sure that is true. The community I had approached in my youth had a kind of cap that perched on top of the serre-tete – kind of like an Amish prayer covering. The veil was worn for chapel and for “outside”.

 

[BarbaraTherese]

One Order I know of do not wear a veil at all at home in the monastery, only for chapel and if out and about in the general community. The veil is modified nowadays, while the rest of the habit is the traditional with modestini for a collar.

I recall in my own monastic experience as a newbie residential, going to the bathroom one night, when I was totally startled on the way back to see one of the novices in a dressing gown probably heading for the bathroom also…with this very weird close fitting cap on her head - similar to a white bathing cap. They did wear a full traditional old style habit - old style veil too.

 

[Poor_Clare_tobe]

I believe habits are very important as markers for us to recognize the vocation, and as signs and objective garments of poverty, and I think I would have been a GREAT nun. [partial post shown]

While many orders have gone to street clothes for various reasons…I still believe just as mercy posted that habits whether modified or full still very useful as visible signs of vocations.
Just as a policeman or a fireman etc have uniforms…the habit really is a sign to others of approachability and yes calling, not to mention it really does remind one of ones vocation. I find many of todays Catholic and many youths seem to be searching for visible signs of consecrated lifestyles.I think this goes beyond mere nostalgia
Coming from a community that wore a modified habit,I found that the expense was minimal…we each had two habits two veils and multiple blouses.
My habits lasted the entire time I was in community and I found it no problem to teach preschool in it…[well maybe the jungle gym was a bit challenging.] While I have had to be out of religious life for almost 15 years the communities I am looking at still wear modified habits…as to expense…they last long and the sisters are still able to meet modern standards of hygiene.
Blessings all.

 

[Shoshana]

For those of you who have never seen McCarthy’s “Guide to Religious Orders of Women in the United States”, which used to cost hundreds of dollars on eBay, but was also available on CD, there is:

www.blessings-catalog.com, which sells dolls dressed up the habits of yore. Bessings tried to go out of business but is still going, I guess. Their dolls are expensive. Here are hundreds of dolls dressed in the old habits. The photos that the habits are based on are taken from McCarthy.

Check out:

blessings-catalog.com/specialorders/sp035.html

Grey Nuns of Montreal. I visited their huge motherhouse in Montreal several years ago and received a wonderful guide to the entire place by a former mother general. She said that nurse nuns had to change out of their get-up to go into the OR–there was no way that their habit could be clean enough to assist at surgery!

The Grey Nuns of Montreal is the order I joined back in '69. But the motherhouse was in Ottawa…a breakaway from Quebec. but we both shared the same foundress Ste Marguarite d’Youville. They were still in habit at the time, but a very modified one. There was veil and a shorter version of the habit. At that time, they were still traditional…very much so. But not today!

 

[Holly3278]

I don’t know how the different orders decide how to dress. However, I just wanted to say that I prefer orders that dress in habits. I don’t know why. I guess I’m just old fashioned.

 

[HOLYHEARTS]

Another point that could be mentioned here & which I think is
rather important is that even though the founders & or
foundresses decided to use some form of dress from the
period they lived in, ALL the members of that given
community wore the SAME STYLE of dress down to its
most minute details. They were therefore not only identi-
fiable as Religious, but as Religious of the SAME identi-
fiable Order or Congregation. Each one did NOT wear
her own version of womens clothes of that time period.

 

[ellammcg]

I was thrilled to find out this morning that one of our K-8 Catholic schools has a new principal and 2 new teachers from a more traditionally habited order (Salesian Sisters of St. John Bosco)http://i.ytimg.com/vi/ygcMa5oHFa8/default.jpg. I didn’t send my son to that school when we first arrived here because I didn’t care for the Sister who was running it. She did not wear a habit but it was more than that-she just didn’t seem to enforce the rules as much as I would like and I just didn’t seem to “mesh” well with her. I enrolled my son in a different school run by the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (and yes, the principal does wear a habit, a more modern style)http://www.ascjus.org/u_s_province/Images/SH-Tall07-08.jpgbecause of how impressed I was by the enforcement of the dress code and other rules and with what a great person Sister Elizabeth is. We were very happy with that school until my son graduated 8th grade and had to move on to high school.

 

[BarbaraTherese]

Anyone know if religious orders have retained or restored uniform or habit type apparel for postulants including type of veil? Any pictures?

 

[angczo]

I think it is important to remember that habit doesn’t make a monk. They are many congregations in the world which actually were founded “without habit” to be the voice of Christ in places where preaching the Gospel was forbidden.

 

[Aizi]

The Sister at my church does not wear a habit. She is quite strict when it comes to the Church, (notoriously so, when I was little we were all afraid of her since she would often have to ‘crack the whip’ where the rest of our parent volunteer catechists wouldn’t), but once you talk to her her heart was always very warm. My Great Aunt is a Sister, and also doesn’t wear a habit. I’ve never ever known a Sister in real life who does wear a habit, to be honest. I think it just depends on the traditions of the Order as well as whoever is in charge, their mission, etc.

I am discerning my own religious life and I am trying not to let style of dress bother me at all. To me, it is secondary, though I think if I EVERYTHING else was held equal (identical prayer life, mission, and community) I would like a light habit which doesn’t get too unwieldy in terms of the heat or in movement (I want to be an active sister), but does provide that feeling of community, which is always nice to have.

However, I know for some Catholics they treat the religious dress as if that has to do with your heart. I’ve seen a lot of ugly comments like “Oh this seems like a good order but their habit is modified, what a shame they must be liberals” or something weird like that. Women who minister around the world, who teach, etc, are not loyal just because of their clothes? Some of the comments I have even heard from my fellow discerners! It made me nervous on two levels: if I choose a non-habited order what if I am judged badly by some, and if I choose a habited order, what if I am surrounded by women will I be amongst those who make those types of comments? Which would be more unpleasant, I wonder? Thankfully God helped put those types of anxieties at ease: I need to take it as it comes.

 

[wannabe_sister]

I have always thought that the veil was important, to show piety. I think it is still very important as a symbol of the vows they have taken. I know, I would wear one if (and when) I become a nun. I think it is so important, especially being seen out with it. It allows people to be reminded of our religion and maybe they will get the urge to go back to church. It is not only for the sisters, it is for the community…

I feel, that it is a good “habit”, lol

 

[cara1]

The Sister at my church does not wear a habit. She is quite strict when it comes to the Church, (notoriously so, when I was little we were all afraid of her since she would often have to ‘crack the whip’ where the rest of our parent volunteer catechists wouldn’t), but once you talk to her her heart was always very warm. My Great Aunt is a Sister, and also doesn’t wear a habit. I’ve never ever known a Sister in real life who does wear a habit, to be honest. I think it just depends on the traditions of the Order as well as whoever is in charge, their mission, etc.

I am discerning my own religious life and I am trying not to let style of dress bother me at all. To me, it is secondary, though I think if I EVERYTHING else was held equal (identical prayer life, mission, and community) I would like a light habit which doesn’t get too unwieldy in terms of the heat or in movement (I want to be an active sister), but does provide that feeling of community, which is always nice to have.

However, I know for some Catholics they treat the religious dress as if that has to do with your heart. I’ve seen a lot of ugly comments like “Oh this seems like a good order but their habit is modified, what a shame they must be liberals” or something weird like that. Women who minister around the world, who teach, etc, are not loyal just because of their clothes? Some of the comments I have even heard from my fellow discerners! It made me nervous on two levels: if I choose a non-habited order what if I am judged badly by some, and if I choose a habited order, what if I am surrounded by women will I be amongst those who make those types of comments? Which would be more unpleasant, I wonder? Thankfully God helped put those types of anxieties at ease: I need to take it as it comes.

I was horrified to read the posts of one sister who took a class with fully habited sisters, who spoke ill of her and the other sisters who wore a modified habit. She also sat next to a sister who completely ignored her. This was fairly recent, I think on phatmass.