Veil Colors

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When I was growing up in the 50’s we wore hats or scarves (or a hanky or kleenex). In the early 60’s Jackie Kennedy started to wear a mantilla, and it became the rage. But “veiling” was reserved for sisters and nuns–no one ever said they “veiled”. I still think the term is not right for laywoman because of the association with taking vows. However, the colors chosen had nothing to do with being married or unmarried. It had to do with the season of the year. Black was for fall and winter, and white was for spring and summer. And if you find pictures of Jackie, you will see that is the choice she made for color. The round “chapel veil” came later.

However, when she became widowed, she chose a hat with a full veil covering her face, not a mantilla.

The use of mantillas prior to that was usually restricted to certain cultures, mostly Hispanic and Italian, but others (Polish, Slovaks and others from Eastern Europe) wore babushkas (headscarves) mostly.

I have only seen one or two ladies in church wearing a mantilla–one was a teenager of Hispanic descent who wore an elaborate mantilla (with her short shorts ) to Adoration, and another was last Sunday, a young woman had a big beige long one that was very distracting because she had a child and kept moving her head and it flashed in the corner of my eye. I ignored it, of course, because I feel that’s her choice, but every time she moved her head a lot it caught my eye. Not a criticism, just saying that they can be distracting at times.
 
Thank you everyone. Your enlightening and encouraging responses are very helpful to this convert of eight years. I shared some of your insights in an amiable conversation with my dear friend this morning. I encouraged her to stick with her cultural tradition if that was meaningful to her and informed her that in the future she may see me at mass wearing a brown or black mantilla!

Note: I chose the words “those who veil” only to be brief. In conversation, I refer to women who wear veils. I see now that the former may have a different connotation.

God bless you all 🙂
 
It always comes back to Jackie O.
Nevermind that every woman ay the Vatican was asked to wear a mantilla. :rolleyes:

I always say I’m not going to read these threads. I always regret it.:banghead:
 
This subject comes up every so often. I assume that the OP is a young woman. I am pushing 70 so I grew up before Vatican II. As one poster said “to take the veil” meant to become a nun. Lay people didn’t describe themselves in those terms. Growing up in America I never saw anyone wear a mantilla except in movies where the characters were in Spain or Mexico. Even my elderly Italian grandmother, born in 1881, didn’t wear one. We had little lace circles which we could carry in our purses so that we didn’t have to put a Kleenex on our head to make a visit to the Blessed Sacrament in warm weather. We wore hats to church. I did buy a beautiful pink and black mantilla to match a pink dress I had after I saw Jackie Kennedy wear her famous mantilla one Easter. At the death of the President, Jackie wore a veil which covered her face. I was always under the impression that a widow’s veil was not for modesty but to preserve her privacy while grieving. Maybe a historian of costume could comment on that. Today I wear a mantilla to the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, and either a fashion hat or nothing on my head to the OF.
 
Marysann said:
This subject comes up every so often. I assume that the OP is a young woman. I am pushing 70 so I grew up before Vatican II. As one poster said “to take the veil” meant to become a nun. Lay people didn’t describe themselves in those terms. Growing up in America I never saw anyone wear a mantilla except in movies where the characters were in Spain or Mexico. Even my elderly Italian grandmother, born in 1881, didn’t wear one. We had little lace circles which we could carry in our purses so that we didn’t have to put a Kleenex on our head to make a visit to the Blessed Sacrament in warm weather. We wore hats to church. I did buy a beautiful pink and black mantilla to match a pink dress I had after I saw Jackie Kennedy wear her famous mantilla one Easter. At the death of the President, Jackie wore a veil which covered her face. I was always under the impression that a widow’s veil was not for modesty but to preserve her privacy while grieving. Maybe a historian of costume could comment on that. Today I wear a mantilla to the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, and either a fashion hat or nothing on my head to the OF.
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:yup:

As a priest who lived through all of this…the modern phenomenon is very fascinating to me…especially when attributions are made that were very far from what we actually lived.

There were veils which indicated sacredness…
  • Tabernacles were habitually veiled
  • The chalice was veiled before the offertory and after Communion
  • The humeral veil was worn by the priest (not on his head!) for Benediction with the Blessed Sacrament
  • The mitre bearer and the crozier bearer wore veils – the vimpa – in order to hold the respective pontificals for the bishop/abbot
And Nuns and Sisters wore veils, which were emblematic that they were members of a Religious Order or Congregation.

That is why my mother would have had a very visceral reaction to a comment about her wearing a “veil” (which applied to a Sister or a Nun) or being “veiled” (which applied to the chalice or the tabernacle). It would be making an attribution to her that she would have rejected…and knowing her, would have thought the person commenting to be very odd and someone to be gotten away from. A woman of the 1930s, 1940s, or 1950s would have found the term, applied to her, very strange.

Back then, “veiled women” were something one either encountered in literature or in movies about exotic places. Questions such as “Do you veil?” or topics like “the spirituality of veiling” would have struck my mother as bizarre.

It all makes me think of my father, too. Being a man of that time, he would not have thought of going into Church without a jacket and tie. It was, however, no more an expression of spirituality for him than my mother putting on her hat was expressive of spirituality for her.

I am, of course, not saying women should not do it, if they want to wear something on their heads…I used to celebrate the vetus ordo Mass…but we should not pretend that this modern usage of the terms reflects what really was being said and done by people in the 1950s and before.
 
Don_Ruggero said:
:yup:

As a priest who lived through all of this…the modern phenomenon is very fascinating to me…especially when attributions are made that were very far from what we actually lived.

There were veils which indicated sacredness…
  • Tabernacles were habitually veiled
  • The chalice was veiled before the offertory and after Communion
  • The humeral veil was worn by the priest (not on his head!) for Benediction with the Blessed Sacrament
  • The mitre bearer and the crozier bearer wore veils – the vimpa – in order to hold the respective pontificals for the bishop/abbot
And Nuns and Sisters wore veils, which were emblematic that they were members of a Religious Order or Congregation.

That is why my mother would have had a very visceral reaction to a comment about her wearing a “veil” (which applied to a Sister or a Nun) or being “veiled” (which applied to the chalice or the tabernacle). It would be making an attribution to her that she would have rejected…and knowing her, would have thought the person commenting to be very odd and someone to be gotten away from. A woman of the 1930s, 1940s, or 1950s would have found the term, applied to her, very strange.

Back then, “veiled women” were something one either encountered in literature or in movies about exotic places. Questions such as “Do you veil?” or topics like “the spirituality of veiling” would have struck my mother as bizarre.

It all makes me think of my father, too. Being a man of that time, he would not have thought of going into Church without a jacket and tie. It was, however, no more an expression of spirituality for him than my mother putting on her hat was expressive of spirituality for her.

I am, of course, not saying women should not do it, if they want to wear something on their heads…I used to celebrate the vetus ordo Mass…but we should not pretend that this modern usage of the terms reflects what really was being said and done by people in the 1950s and before.
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Thank you so much for writing this, Father. I cringe a little whenever I hear the practice of covering one’s head called “veiling.” I always want to ask if the person attributes the same spiritual significance to wearing a straw hat or knit cap to church – because, in the days before VII, the significance would have been equivalent. We covered our heads – with a tissue if need be. That was it. Lay women who were not consecrated religious typically wore veils twice in their lives – for first Communion and their weddings. Mantillas were simply another kind of hat – they were never called veils.
 
I wear a mantilla. I began to want to do this while I went to a Novus Ordo parish, and I was too scared cause no one around me wore head coverings. Now I attend the Latin Mass mostly and have a long white mantilla. However I have a black one too. I’m not married though. I wear a short beige mantilla to the Novus Ordo when I happen to visit another parish.

I wondered if its OK for me to wear a black mantilla. I like it during times like Lent, early morning weekday Mass… Sometimes the white one just feels too festive.

I was wondering though… If a woman never plans to marry, like if she has decided to pursue the consecrated life, what colour mantilla is more appropriate, or does it not matter at all? What if she is a consecrated person in the world?
 
Monica4316 said:
I wear a mantilla. I began to want to do this while I went to a Novus Ordo parish, and I was too scared cause no one around me wore head coverings. Now I attend the Latin Mass mostly and have a long white mantilla. However I have a black one too. I’m not married though. I wear a short beige mantilla to the Novus Ordo when I happen to visit another parish.

I wondered if its OK for me to wear a black mantilla. I like it during times like Lent, early morning weekday Mass… Sometimes the white one just feels too festive.

I was wondering though… If a woman never plans to marry, like if she has decided to pursue the consecrated life, what colour mantilla is more appropriate, or does it not matter at all? What if she is a consecrated person in the world?
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See Don Ruggiero’s answer above – the mantilla is simply one choice of head covering. You can wear a black one, a white one, a purple one – it doesn’t matter what liturgical season it is or what state of life you are in. The mantilla itself has no more spiritual significance than a knit cap or a bandanna tied over the hair.
 
It’s never been called ‘veiling’ that seems to be a recent affectation. Cover your head if you wish but don’t create this new term it’s not our tradition. I saw hundreds of women in Spain wearing huge mantillas during Holy Week this year. Very impressive
 
PatrickKennedy said:
It’s never been called ‘veiling’ that seems to be a recent affectation. Cover your head if you wish but don’t create this new term it’s not our tradition. I saw hundreds of women in Spain wearing huge mantillas during Holy Week this year. Very impressive
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In 2011 Cardinal Raymond Burke, Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, answered a query on the use of the chapel veil, which is a specific form of head covering, and to head covering in general. It was not a sin to have no head covering, even though it was part of canon law of 1917, he said.

ewtn.com/expert/answers/head_coverings_in_church.htm
 
Vico said:
In 2011 Cardinal Raymond Burke, Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, answered a query on the use of the chapel veil, which is a specific form of head covering, and to head covering in general. It was not a sin to have no head covering, even though it was part of canon law of 1917, he said.

ewtn.com/expert/answers/head_coverings_in_church.htm
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‘Veiling’ is a neologism for Catholics apart from when referring to a woman becoming a nun. There are a number of people who use expressions such as ‘I am thinking of veiling’ or ‘is veiling necessary’ that use of the word is not in our tradition in fact frankly it’s more to do with Islam
 
AnnArbor said:
Thank you so much for writing this, Father. I cringe a little whenever I hear the practice of covering one’s head called “veiling.” I always want to ask if the person attributes the same spiritual significance to wearing a straw hat or knit cap to church – because, in the days before VII, the significance would have been equivalent. We covered our heads – with a tissue if need be. That was it. Lay women who were not consecrated religious typically wore veils twice in their lives – for first Communion and their weddings. Mantillas were simply another kind of hat – they were never called veils.
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👍

I did hear the term “veil” used for head coverings that were fashioned from a single flat piece of cloth, especially if the material was sheer and/or lacy. My mother had several “veils” but she really only used them for travel so as to save space. She normally wore hats or possibly a small round chapel veil.

I grew up associating mantillas and head scarves with certain ethnic groups or with the older women who would say their rosaries during Mass.
 
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