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Why is a nun’s habit called a “habit”?
Question from Jack …
Dear Sister Julie, Could you tell me why a Nun’s Habit is called a Habit, I cant seem to find the answer anywhere! Best wishes
I had to do a little searching for this one. First stop: Merriam-Webster.
Main Entry: hab·it archaic : clothing
Pronunciation: ˈha-bət
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin habitus condition, character, from habēre to have, hold
Date: 13th century
Next stop: Elizabeth Kuhns’ “popular history” book The Habit: A History of the Clothing of Catholic Nuns
- enigma
- tradition
- holiness
- conformity
- emblem
- charity
- courage
- explosion
- remnants
What I find most helpful in understanding why the habit is called a habit is to look at the symbolic meaning behind it. As M-W and Kuhns note, the word habit refers to “clothing”. Often times when persons go through a major change in life, especially in a religious context, it is symbolized by a change in clothing symbolically covering up the “old” person and expresing the “new person”. Sound familiar? It’s what we do at baptisms and funerals with the white robe or cloth which symbolizes our new life in Christ Jesus. And it’s not just Catholicism that does this. Many religions have special garb to designate a “new” personality or state in life. There’s an interesting discussion of “religious dress” at Encyclopedia Britannica.
Other thoughts on the origin of the word “habit”?
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{ 17 comments }
I love that “habit” comes from the Latin word for “to have and to hold”!
Habitus strikes me as interesting. Habitual, daily. Wearing a habit (or any sort of specialized dress — doctor’s lab coat, priest’s collar, judge’s robe) sets one apart for a specific duty (healer, minister, arbitrator). By that dress, one is recognized as belonging to a specialized profession/vocation, but it’s also an outward sign of the work of cultivating that profession/vocation. The work of cultivation requires that the practitioner make whatever he/she is doing a daily thing, not only when he/she wants. He/she must live out whatever the calling is, and if a form of dress makes it easier for the rest of the world to recognize him/her, very good. It also gives the practitioner a daily visible reminder of the vocation that has been accepted.
It may come from the French — like so many specialized terms in English — from the French word for to wear: s’habiller.
It is curious how modes of dress in the professions have loosened up in recent years. I think particularly of the nursing profession. Some professions, like that of the teacher or lawyer (in the USA, anyway), have no distinguishing uniform, but are exercised effectively nonetheless. There is what the French call a professional deformation — a twist in one’s psyche that comes about through the exercise of one’s profession. That is the real “habit” one wears.
Dear Sister Julie,
I have always had the idea that a nun’s habit is a non-verbal communication to Jesus, like it is for the laity to verbally communicate to a consecrated celibate sister, brother or priest; as Sister , Brother or Father. Do you wear a habit in everyday life? Do you have a habit? Can you wear a habit? How do you feel about orders that consistently wear habits? Are sisters treated differently by Catholics if they wear a habit? Are sister treated differently by non-Catholics if they wear a habit? If you do not wear a habit, could you see yourself wearing one all the time?
JMJ
Joe
Dear Joe, Thanks for writing … and for all the questions! I hadn’t quite heard a habit described the way you did. All that we do not only as nuns but as Christians communicates our relationship with Jesus. We Catholics are certainly known for, and cherish, the many “sacramental” ways we communicate and express our faith — kneeling in prayer, incensing the Gospels, dipping our fingers into the Baptismal font waters. All this communicates who we are, and whose we are. So it is in this sense that I understand the dress of religious folks.
I do not wear the traditional habit but rather dress in ordinary clothing typical of the culture within which I live. This is the “habit” of my congregation. I suppose I could wear a habit but because it is not the custom of my congregation, I would not ask to. If I were a member of a community that wore the traditional habit, then I would certainly embrace it. I sometimes wonder what it would be like to wear an immediately identifiable habit.
I’ve talked at length with sisters that wear a habit and/or veil and that do not about precisely the question you raised — Are sisters treated differently? The answer is yes. They are treated differently. It can swing all sorts of ways — some Catholics embrace the idea of the habit, others feel it distances themselves from religious. Just from anecdotes I’ve heard and experiences I’ve had, I find that non-Catholics are more neutral about the habit. They have an image that all nuns wear a habit and are often pleasantly surprised to find that there are nuns that also do not wear the habit. I don’t find a strong preference either way.
As to how I feel about orders that consistently wear habits? I think that is great, same as how I feel about orders that do not. There is a wonderfully rich diversity of Catholic religious life. We as a Church and as citizens of the world are fortunate to have so many ways to expres God’s call. Religious life was never meant to be a one-size-fits-all life. I believe strongly that there is a need for all manner of religious life and expressions of religious life.
Well put Sister Julie!
JMJ
Joe
I am greatly saddened by the fact that many nuns do not wear the traditional habit. I seems to me that they feel a need to “fit in” with the people around them more than the need to wear the clothing that shows the world that they serve God.
I have heard some nuns complain that the habit makes them way too hot in the summer and they like the “freedom” of getting to wear what they want to all the time. I thought nuns were suppose to be serving the Lord and not wasting time worrying about what to wear each day.
So sad…
Mrs. Moceri
Hi Mrs. Moceri, Thanks for writing. I’ve read a lot about the history of religious life, especially around Vatican II, and talked with many sisters who experienced the transition to a modified habit or to secular clothing. In all that sisters have said, I’ve never heard them express “a need to ‘fit in’”. The reasons for the switch are far more complex then that, although I’m sure there were individual sisters who felt that way and in the other ways that you described. But that’s not why decisions were made to not wear the traditional habit.
Each of our communities began through and inspiration of the Holy Spirit — our “charism” is that original, unique gift of the Spirit that is for both the Church and the world. When the Church called us to return to our founding charism, some communities realized that the habit (and all that it signifies) was not key to that original charism and to how God was continuing to call them. Though certainly important and something to be cherished in our history, the habit was not the focal point for our mission and calling from God. For other communities, the habit was reaffirmed and seen as directly related to their founding and mission. No community casually kept or left the habit. Much prayer, reflection, and consultation (including with the Church) went into this.
For those of us who do not wear a habit, I can assure you that a choice of dress each day does not in anyway diminish our sense of mission and call and our faithfulness to serving God.
Sister Julie, Thank you for your explanation of how the changes re: wearing the habit came to be. I can imagine sisters saying what Mrs. Moceri imagined – that they quit wearing the habit to “fit in” to local cutures but not for the usual self-esteem-related, adolescent-seeming reasons that we commonly use the statement “I want to fit in”.
“Fitting in” through the custom of local dress – in the sense that sisters might use it when speaking of this issue – would more likely be about a desire to signal that the sister can be approached; that she acknowledges and values local tradition; that she desires to live among them in THEIR lives, where she believes God can find them, however and whoever they are. That is a “fitting in” which represents a gift to other rather than an assuagement of one’s own psychological/social insecurities which the more common “I want to fit in” suggests.
I can imagine, too, sisters saying that traditional habits are physically uncomfortable at times and that it is fun to wear different things. Facts are, I *have* heard them say it. Plain old truth, right? That doesn’t mean it is an official stance or, as you indicate, the reason for the change. Those were simply casual statements to people they believed would allow them some of their God-given wiggle room to be human (think: Jesus asking God if the cup could pass from him in the Garden of Gesthemane).
My spiritual director – a young Cajun diocesan priest with an active parish and also director of a lay community – very often wears a beautiful classic cassock in the community. It is a rare and beautiful site, but certainly not required of him. My parish priest rarely leaves the private parts of his rectory with his clerical collar. But how often do we see priests and brothers and deacons these days in the community in clerical collars, habits, cassocks, any kind of religious clothing… and how often do we hear an outcry about this, a moral condemnation of these good men? I never have.
With all due repect to Mrs. Moceri and others, I think we Americans have become so accustomed to soundbite-sized experiences and conversations about complex and profoundly important issues in our collective lives that, even when we have the opportunity to interact more expansively and more intimately, we tend to engage on the level of the soundbite (whether image or words).
We’ve been trained to believe the whole story of the world can be captured and analyzed by FOX news and the default Yahoo or AOL or MSN website on our computers.
I think “the habit” is a soundbite-sized way to discuss
1) women’s role in the world and religion’s impact on that
2) women’s role in religion and the world’s impact on that
3) women’s role in religion and its impact on the world
4) women’s role in the world and its impact on religion.
How much easier to talk about what religious women wear!
Watch the movie “Doubt” the producer/writer explains that a grief stricken woman wore the garments after her husband died. She could not afford better clothing. She also started a missionary called the sisters of ?????? can’t remember the name. At any rate the women that joined mocked her dress style thus creating the “Habit” The woman wore that style of clothing until her death in the 1800′s. Very interesting, however that is what the producer/writer discovered in his research.
Nuns are practically invisible nowadays, even in my very Catholic area, which is probably part of the reason why more women are not becoming nuns and even do not realize that that is an option. Perhaps if more orders wore some sort of habit – not necessarily the full, traditional habit – to distinguish them, to make them visible to the public, more young people would answer a call to vocation?
Hi Hilary, Thanks for writing … I responded in my post Is the habit the answer to vocations recruitment?
My opinion is that sisters should wear an outward sign of their commitment to God, by means of a modified habit or full habit. I am a secular Francansican and wear a Tau cross as a reminder to me that as a follower of St. Francis I want to follow the gospel of Jesus Christ.
It is easy to get caught up in the “outside world” but true joy comes from God, our Lord and Redeemer
Dear Sister Julie,
I have a very old dated picture I am assuming from the early 1900′s of an aunt that was a nun. I do not any other information about her other than her name. Do you know how I can tell from which order she was from and possibly any information about her? She looks so happy and peaceful.
Thank you for any help you can provide,
Theresa
Hi Theresa, Some nuns can tell automatically by the habit which community she was part of. i’d suggest starting with religious communities in the area where you aunt lived. Many nuns didn’t go too far from their hometown to enter the convent. Also her hometown parish might have a record of which community she entered. Start with those and let me know how it goes. If you want, send me a scanned copy of the photo by email and I’ll see if the habit rings a bell. sister (AT symbol) anunslife (DOT symbol) org.
Greetings! It’s been so wonderful to be reading all the comments. Buy my personal point of view is that nuns should go back to wearing the habit. The habit divides them in the community. People will be able to distinguish them that they are religious. That’s one of the resonance why we are having s lot of scandals in our church. It’s the lack of who they are as religious. People easily get tempted with civilian clothing community.
Hi Vincent. I think you are right about the habit dividing people in the community … but that division is not always a good one. My personal opinion is that people should be know as Christians by how they interact, how they show kindness, etc., not by how they dress. Temptation to do evil comes not from what we wear but the dispostion of our hearts and minds.