The New Sisterhood: Traditional Orders are Booming

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Cloisters

Cloisters

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From the Catholic Herald out of the UK:

catholicherald.co.uk

The new Sisterhood: traditional orders are booming - Catholic Herald

The blue-and-white clad Sisters of the Community of Our Lady of Walsingham have recently acquired a new novitiate, a converted barn in Dereham, Norfolk, on a large stretch of land with another barn which they are turning into extra rooms for their youth work. The community is not large, but it’s...
catholicherald.co.uk catholicherald.co.uk

Traditional, in this sense, doesn’t mean the TLM, or more properly, the Old Roman Rite.

Blessings,
Mrs Cloisters OP
Lay Dominican
http://cloisters.tripod.com/
http://cloisters.tripod.com/charity/
http://cloisters.tripod.com/holyangels/id9.html/
 
“They are inspired by the centuries-old traditions of religious life, and take seriously Vatican II’s call for an authentic renewal that responds to the specific needs of our time. They are contemplative in spirit, energetic and good-humoured. They also tend to be big fans of St John Paul II and Benedict XVI, passionately loyal to the Church, very orthodox in their beliefs and devoted to the Blessed Sacrament.”

Not too long ago there was a retreat in the town I lived in and we had so many sisters walking around in their “new” traditional habits, it was awesome. The local Catholic high school brought in several “orthodox” sisters and not too long ago the sisters who run the large hospital near us went from short dresses, no head covering, back to their traditional habits along with other changes.

Not that what a sister wears says anything about their faith, but what I have seen is there is a tendancy among the new religious to return to more orthodox Catholicism and as the article says “centuries old traditions of religous life”.
 
I see quite a few IHM sisters (the order that teaches at the local schools here and other orders that wear a modified habit consisting of a simple knee-length dress, little veil and sensible shoes. Or sometimes they wear a top and skirt with the little veil. It works fine for daily tasks and they still look like Sisters when they’re walking around.
 
Sometimes uncovering what is “traditional” can be really difficult. For instance, SVP did not want the Daughters of Charity to wear a habit at all. They worn civilian dress. He hated the veil and scolded some of the daughters for wearing veils that got in the way while working at the hospitals. This is where their trademark Cornettes came from, and even those were also popular civilian dress for a time.

When Elizabeth Ann Seton created her order, they were also in civilian dress and worn bonnets as were popular at the time.

Bearing this in mind, there is a way to see that Vincentians who adopted civilian dress after V2 where responding to the call to return to tradition.

It’s a fascinating topic and an interesting article. Thank you!
 
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I’m not saying that a veil is mandatory, but wear something that shows you’re a Sister. It beats just walking around looking like a frumpy activist in a pantsuit or homely looking outfit. You are not going to blend in looking like you just threw something together off the Goodwill rack, especially coupled with the bad haircuts that many of them have had over the years, and some kind of simple habit is a great way to look composed and put together without having to fuss about fashion or spend a lot of money on clothes.

And if the idea is to set an example for young people who may want to join your order, then having everyone look neat and somewhat uniform in the public eye is generally appealing, vs. having people look frowsy, untidy or with no sense of a group identity when the whole point of joining a religious order is to become part of a disciplined, obedient group. Of course they can put on a pair of jeans when it’s time go take care of the barnyard animals, or a headgear that doesn’t get in the way of their daily work, but there are ways to be comfortable and practical while wearing the “uniform” in public, or most of the time.
 
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I don’t disagree with you, Bear. I’m just pointing out that when your founder has not given you a habit it becomes a bit more challenging to determine what you’ll wear when you “return to tradition”.

I do sometimes wonder what people thought of Mother Seton’s Sisters. For all intents and purposes, they were dressed like everyone else only they always wore black.
 
People in general had a “dress code” back then where they pretty much all wore similar clothing to go out in the public eye, and it was generally all of a reasonable similar quality level. The charity-worker Sisters did not stand out in their “normal” clothes. In fact, all habits started out as the “normal” clothes for a particular era and region.

Compare that to my high school where you had one sister who wore jeans, one who wore colorful flowered muu-muus, a couple in full habit, a couple in modified short habit, a couple in polyester dresses/ skirts/ blouses, a couple in pantsuits, a young one who was often in her gym suit because she ran. Other than the habited ones, they just looked like a mixed bag of laity. And they did stand out because they kind of looked like sisters trying to be lay. They were indistinguishable from the lay teachers, many of whom were former sisters. They didn’t even have a unifying factor of all wearing black. They were all supposed to wear a particular cross designating them as a Sister of St. Joseph, but it was pretty small. Other than the ones in habits, I just didn’t get a good sense of “order” from them.
 
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St Louise didn’t wear the cornette. She caught a terrible cold after doing so, and the doctor said she needed a regular veil. Hence her not being shown in the cornette in hagiography.

The Council of Trent had just cloistered all women religious, hence SVPs aversion to externals. However, he did insist on a motherhouse, referred to as the house of the superior. The DCs were to receive that which they needed from the same place.

Mother Seton wore widow’s weeds. I believe the Grey Nuns in Canada wore a version of widow’s weeds, as well.

I’ve been wearing distinctive garb for nearly ten years now. We just last year found ankle-length skirts, so I started wearing one. One young man intercepted me after Mass one Sunday, and asked if I was really a sister. I explained my situation, and he nearly literally jumped for joy on the spot.

Sacramentals can be persons, places, or things, hence our attachment to convents, habits, and religious. A well-ordered convent leads to families doing the same.
 
mrsdizzyd said:
I do sometimes wonder what people thought of Mother Seton’s Sisters. For all intents and purposes, they were dressed like everyone else only they always wore black.
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I believe Mother Seton chose mourning attire for her state as a widow, also she didn’t want to alienate herself from her children, and her sisters out of respect dressed the same. As others have said, they still had that uniformity and that attire became their habit.
 
MagdalenaRita said:
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mrsdizzyd:
I do sometimes wonder what people thought of Mother Seton’s Sisters. For all intents and purposes, they were dressed like everyone else only they always wore black.
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I believe Mother Seton chose mourning attire for her state as a widow, also she didn’t want to alienate herself from her children, and her sisters out of respect dressed the same.
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Yes, that seems to be the Vincentian way. One of the things I admire about that family is their practicality. Out of that practicality comes order. St. Louise was quite adept at that skill. Her spiritual daughters, like Mother Seton, carry that legacy forward.
 
One of our local orders is the Canossians and their traditional head wear was a kind of head wrap.

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The original Sisters of St. Joseph did not wear habits. They wore the clothing of the poor. It seems to me that getting clothing from Goodwill, St. Vincent de Paul, or Walmart is exactly the modern equivalent.

Many sisters have told me that their traditional habits were violations of poverty, as they were expensive both to make and to maintain.
 
it may be a modern equivalent, but a flowery muu muu or running shorts gave an odd impression of the order to us high school girls. It’s important that you command respect in that environment. You don’t have to be wearing anything expensive or elaborate to do that.

Like I said, the schools where I am now have a lot of IHM sisters working. Their clothes are simple, modern, and inexpensive, but fairly uniform and they look well put together. I think the Sisters of St. Joseph in the 70s could have done the same easily (some of the older ones who didn’t wear habits had a similar look to the IHM). I do not know what they all wear now as the ones I knew have all passed away a long time back.
 
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As an IHM Associate, I appreciate your admiration for our cousins (I’m an associate of a different congregation). However, I also think it is respectful to allow adult women to determine for themselves what they deem appropriate to wear. There seems a general misconception that those who wear secular clothing decided to do so on a whim., and without any prayer, discernment, or communal dialogue. That is manifestly not the case.

As for running shorts, you may appreciate reading “Inner Marathon,” by Sister Joan Sauro, CSJ. She is a poet, spiritual director, long-time teacher, and long-distance runner who writes about how her running contributes to her contemplation.
 
That’s awesome that you’re IHM. I have greatly enjoyed the IHM sisters I’ve had contact with through the adult activities here, such as prayer groups (one of them leads the adult group as well as teaching the kids’ groups), fellowship activities, pro-life marches etc.

I think all I can say on the clothing issue is that the 70s were not a great time for secular clothing. It may also be a personal taste thing but I have been very happy to see some forms of modified habits coming back in the last decade or so, including on the very young sisters. I also like the old school black shirts and trousers, or even cassocks, on priests. I feel the same way about these things as I do about the uniform on a police officer or the white coat on a doctor or the regalia (old or new) on the Knights of Columbus. It gives me more of a sense of order.

Perhaps others find it less important or would perceive something disturbing in women not choosing their own clothing, within reason. Fortunately, the world is now providing for a little bit of both.
 
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