The Dominican Habit

A very interesting post from Moniales OP about the habit worn by the nuns at the Rosary Shrine in Summit.

I know a little something about them, having worn one many times.
(And no, I don't mean as a costume in productions of Sound of Music, although I have done that, too...)

When I was little, there were Holy Hours with processions in May and October, (with a crowning in May,) and besides the Third Order, in the procession were a dozen or so small children robed as Dominicans, in tiny, authentic habits.

The habits and robes were very beautiful, and very complicated -- it took quite some time for mothers and nuns (externs?) to pin and tie each of us apple-cheeked squirmers into our garb.

My, but we were funny and cute!

(I believe as a worldly and mean-as-a-snake 5 year old, I tried to convince my four-year old brother that they were going to have to save a bald spot in the middle of his head for the occasion. Since the OP priests we knew had no such tonsure, I don't know why he was so easy to convince, but logic never was his strong suit.

I'm spending a lot of time in Purgatory, I fear...)

Lovely bit of (disputed) information about veiling from the combox there, Fr. Martin Farrell,op tells us that the Veil:

... does NOT come from medieval fashion (as did the wimple), but rather is the common element found in all monastic dress, for both men and women, perhaps even as far back as the desert fathers!

The veil is takes its origin from Scripture, actually. It points to the moment in the Sinai Desert when Moses came down from the camp after one of his meetings with God. Proximity to God had so transformed Moses that even his physical appearance changed, and his countenance was so bright that, in order for the people to be able to look at him, he had to veil his head (a factoid referred to in the Transfiguration account in the Gospels).

Religious have always veiled their heads to remind themselves that, like Moses, they dwell in God's presence and are, therefore, to be transformed. So in the East, the veil, for both men and women, has been maintained; in the West, while Relgious women still wear it, for men it has been "replaced" by the hood.