Why do nuns wear a veil?

Answer 1

Very few nuns or sisters wear any habit at all since the 1960s. But before that, most religious communities and orders (and there are a lot of these) had a distinctive habit that marked which community the sister or nun belonged to. Quite a few communities wore black habits and that goes back to the very early days of monastic life in the Church when most monks and nuns were members of the Benedictine order, founded by St. Benedict of Nursia in the fifth century AD. The Benedictines, who still exist and still form a large percentage of the monastic religious out there, were pretty much the only or at least the main thing going in religious life in the Church until the middle ages when groups like the Franciscans (St. Francis of Assisi) and Dominicans (St. Dominic) came along in the 13th century. So, for a long time, black, which was decreed by the Church for most Benedictines in the 8th century, was the main colour of all religious habits. But even the Benedictines didn't all wear black. A reform of their order, the Cistercians, wore and still wear, white. Some Benedictine monks and nuns wear white too. Some Franciscans wear black, but a lot of them wear brown or grey. Dominicans wear white with black capes and the nuns, when they are fully professed, wear black veils with white habits.

In more recent times, a lot of the religious that you saw in schools and hospitals wore black habits which were devised to look like the common dress of women from the era in which they were founded. In the later centuries of the Church, the colour of the habit held symbolic significance and black was considered a sign of having "died to the world", in other words, a complete break from the former life and total dedication to God.

But this was not always the case. We all remember the blue habits with the big white cornette of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul. There were a lot of other communities that had similar headdresses and a lot of "active" religious (the teaching and nursing kind, as opposed to the cloistered contemplative kind) wore blue as a symbol of their dedication to Our Lady, who is traditionally associated with the colour.

But although black, white, brown (for Carmelites) and grey are probably the most common, there are lots of communities that wear different colours.

The Holy Spirit adoration sisters, a strictly cloistered community that does Eucharistic adoration, wear PINK! and very lovely they look too.

The order of nuns founded by St. Alphonsus Liguori, the Redemptoristines, were possibly the most colourful wearing a combination of white, red, black and blue.

I was in Rome a few weeks ago, and we met some sisters coming out of a church wearing a beautiful habit of white and blood red.

There are lots of different symbolic reasons for the different kinds of habits.

And in my opinion, the sooner the religious return to wearing distinctive habits, the sooner we will see a resurgence of the religious life.

Answer 2

Nuns and sisters wear a habit as a sign of their consecration to God,to show their unity as a group and to demonstrate that fashion is nor important.

Not all nuns or sisters wear a habit. Canon law, which is the legislative authority within the Catholic Church, only states that they should wear a visible symbol of their consecration. Some nuns wear a lapel pin or a pendant.

The practice of wearing a habit comes from the idea that to avoid scandal or temptation they would wear clothes that avoid any display of human form. A coif (the large white starched linnen item worn by nuns across the chest) was to prevent the showing of the bustine.

Answer

In the middle ages, "clothes made the man." That is, one clothing revealed much about that person's station in life, one's profession, etc. This is still true in come countries today, but in the United States most people tend to dress pretty much the same. The difference would be in uniforms designating persons who fill certain tasks and are therefore given certain authority: police, airline pilots, etc.

A religious habit derives from the same motivation: to publicly show membership in a certain group. As noted above, that sign of membership may be as small as a pin or encompass one's whole wardrobe.

Answer 3

The outfits nuns wear varies according to their order and the type of vows they took when they entered monastic life. Complete habits are only worn by nuns who take full vows in the more conservative orders; other orders allow for abbreviated habits or more conventional forms of dress, and women who take the simple vows (technically called sisters of the order rather than nuns), may not wear any distinguishing garments at all.

Answer 4

Catholic AnswerAt one time, all married women wore veils, and the nun was considered a bride of Christ, thus the veil. Most traditional nun's habits are of truly ancient design are were originally from the time when all married women wore veils. It's association with virginity was later and accidental.

Answer 5

Not just a nun, but all religious brothers, monks, friars (with the sole exception of the Jesuits), and Sisters all wear a proper habit. It literally is from the Latin word habitus from habere to have and like a habit proper (an acquired discipline or modification to the soul) it is the clothing or uniform proper to each religious order and is the outward and visible sign of the undertaking of the religious life, hence the term "clothing" (the ceremony in which the habit is bestowed on the new religious.)

Answer 6

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Catholic AnswerVery few nuns wear all white habits, most of the all white habits you are used to are Sisters (nuns are cloistered in a monastery and are never seen outside), although Cistercian nuns wear an all white habit. Even Sisters who do wear all white (Dominicans are one Order that wear a white habit), will still wear a black veil for the fully professed, white veil for the novices. The only all-white habit, including the veil was in the missions, for instance Sisters who normally wear a black habit, but are nurses or work in the mission field would wear an all-white habit, including the veil. The color of the habit, outside of missions and nursing, is strictly traditional depending on what their founder set as their habit, and often what was the least expensive material in the area where they were founded.

Answer 7

No. Male religious (Monks and Friars) also wear habits of various color and design to denote their Religious Order. Although their habits differ from that of Nuns/Sisters.

Answer 8

They want to...