The Habit: A History of the Clothing of Catholic Nuns: Kuhns, Elizabeth: 9780385505888: Amazon.com: Books

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Elizabeth Kuhns

The Habit: A History of the Clothing of Catholic Nuns Hardcover – October 21, 2003

by Elizabeth Kuhns (Author)

113

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Curiosity about nuns and their distinctive clothing is almost as old as Catholicism itself. The habit intrigues the religious and the nonreligious alike, from medieval maidens to contemporary schoolboys, to feminists and other social critics. The first book to explore the symbolism of this attire, The Habit presents a visual gallery of the diverse forms of religious clothing and explains the principles and traditions that inspired them. More than just an eye-opening study of the symbolic significance of starched wimples, dark dresses, and flowing veils, The Habit is an incisive, engaging portrait of the roles nuns have and do play in the Catholic Church and in ministering to the needs of society.

From the clothing seen in an eleventh-century monastery to the garb worn by nuns on picket lines during the 1960s, habits have always been designed to convey a specific image or ideal. The habits of the Benedictines and the Dominicans, for example, were specifically created to distinguish women who consecrated their lives to God; other habits reflected the sisters’ desire to blend in among the people they served. The brown Carmelite habit was rarely seen outside the monastery wall, while the Flying Nun turned the white winged cornette of the Daughters of Charity into a universally recognized icon. And when many religious abandoned habits in the 1960s and ’70s, it stirred a debate that continues today.

Drawing on archival research and personal interviews with nuns all over the United States, Elizabeth Kuhns examines some of the gender and identity issues behind the controversy and brings to light the paradoxes the habit represents. For some, it epitomizes oppression and obsolescence; for others, it embodies the ultimate beauty and dignity of the vocation.

Complete with extraordinary photographs, including images of the nineteenth century nuns’ silk bonnets to the simple gray dresses of the Sisters of Social Service, this evocative narrative explores the timeless symbolism of the habit and traces its evolution as a visual reflection of the changes in society.

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Print length

240 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Doubleday
Publication date

October 21, 2003
Dimensions

6.5 x 0.75 x 10.5 inches
ISBN-10

0385505884
ISBN-13

978-0385505888
See all details

John J. Fialka
55
Paperback
$23.32
$8.62 shipping

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Even though relatively few Catholic nuns actually wear the distinctive uniforms today, the habit still fascinates and disconcerts Catholics and non-Catholics alike. This "wearable sacramental" sums up much about Catholic spirituality and history, and Kuhns does a workmanlike job of taking readers back to the habit's early origins, through its myriad medieval variations and up to its conflicted present. Along the way we are reminded of the many roles that religious women have played in the development of Catholicism and of Western society, roles that were reflected in the clothing they wore, from peasant simplicity to elaborate creations of silk. Kuhns pays particular attention to the complex interplay between social class and the life of the cloister-different orders drew their membership from distinct social strata. Unfortunately, aside from a deftly written introductory chapter that examines the habit's contemporary fascination, much of the book sorts dutifully through too much history, without a clear story line to keep the reader's interest. [...] Kuhns is strangely neutral on the question, still hotly debated, of whether the habit is a liberating or oppressive force today. This inconclusive conclusion is something of a letdown in a book about Christianity's most dramatic and durable fashion statement.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"…Kuhns does a workman-like job of taking readers back to the habit's early origins, through its myriad medieval variations and up to its conflicted present."
--Publisher’s Weekly

"The author evenhandedly offers historical context and careful explanations . . . This readable overview is recommended for public and academic libraries."
--Library Journal

"A revelatory work that 'opens the nun’s closet doors for the first time,' then scans the contents for all their historical and symbolic associations."
--Kirkus Reviews

"…the door to the sister's closet has swung open..."
--Buffalo News

"…Elizabeth Kuhns' book about the history and culture of the habit is a sheer delight, wonderfully informative…."
--The Catholic Review

"An original, informative and engaging work…."
--The Catholic Advocate

"Fascinating details fill the book…."
--Our Sunday Visitor

"A welcome and important contribution to the literature on a sensitive subject that often inspires more heat than light."
--Margaret Susan Thompson, Professor of History, Syracuse University

"Elizabeth Kuhns’ readable account chronicles the development of the habit, while pointing to the important witness of the veil in the future.... Bravo."
--Raymond Arroyo, News Director, EWTNews

From the Inside Flap

"If you ever needed proof that clothes make the woman, here it is. The Habit reveals why these distinctive garments still possess a sense of mystery and awe for us in the post modern world. Elizabeth Kuhns readable account chronicles the development of the habit, while pointing to the important witness of the veil in the future. Ms. Kuhns may just be a fashion prophetess. Bravo." -Raymond Arroyo EWTNews Director

The Habit is both a history of Catholic religious garb and an analysis of the ongoing popular fascination with it. Drawing upon extensive research and numerous interviews, Elizabeth Kuhns has written a book that is at once useful to the scholar and accessible to the general reader. Her account is dispassionate and balanced, addressingbut not getting drawn intothe often fierce debates over the merits and drawbacks of distinctive dress for nuns. It is a welcome and important contribution to the literature on a sensitive subject that often inspires more heat than light.

-- Margaret Susan Thompson, PhD

Professor of History, Syracuse University

About the Author

Elizabeth Kuhns writes on Catholic traditions for a variety of publications. She is a regular contributor to Faith & Family: The Magazine of Catholic Living, and has previously worked for the Book-of-the-Month Club and the New Hampshire Humanities Council.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

CHAPTER 1

Enigma

A Catholic sister wearing religious garb can board a city bus and not be surprised if the bus driver places his hand over the fare box, insisting she ride free of charge. Respect for the habit remains universal--nun imposters who panhandle in city subways bank on wearing it to collect as much as $600 per day. It also can be an easy target for lampooning--consider the popular "Fighting Nun" puppet or the "Nunzilla" windup toy.1

The nun's habit is one of the most widely known and recognizable religious symbols of our time, an icon deeply embedded in our cultural consciousness. Perhaps the habit has continued to fascinate us because of its unique blend of associations. As memoirist Mary Gordon recently wrote, "The image, the idea, of a nun brings together three powerful elements: God, women, and sex."

At the same time that the habit serves to shroud the body and to mask the individual, it also dramatically announces its wearer to the world. The habit has the glamour of fashion while being antifashion; it is the antithesis of extravagance and sexual allure, yet it impresses and arouses. The sighting of a nun in habit remains for most of us a notable event, because what the habit proclaims is something so counterculture and so radical, we cannot help but to react with awe and reverence or with suspicion and disdain. From this clothing, we immediately recognize a woman who has decided to commit her life fully to God, to renounce the possibility of bearing children, and to work within the boundaries of a community for some specific sacred purpose, frequently in neglected or controversial areas. She seems both less than female but greater than human--it was not unusual for schoolchildren of only a generation ago to believe that Sister had no hair, no legs, and no biological parents, for example.

Habit scholar Rebecca Sullivan notes that although the habit might seem like a static uniform, it has reacted to social and moral changes throughout history. It is a creative and imaginative clothing carefully constructed to impart meanings to its observers. It has also been used to instill unquestioning conformity and an identity that absorbs the self into a collective whole. Sometimes the habit replicated the clothing of the foundress of the community. It might have been designed by a bishop, or revealed in a mystical vision, or simply evolved from the peasant garb of the times. The habit embodied the mission of an order, joining together groups of women across the globe and across centuries in a common creative purpose.2

Today many people may not realize that sisters in North America who wear the habit are an exception rather than the norm. Most nuns say they have chosen to move to secular dress to serve their constituency better. But for some it has been a matter of personal autonomy, an emergence of the individual, and a reshaping of religious life. These sisters believe that secular clothing allows them to be approached as a "who" rather than a "what." Although public identifiability has long been a practice and law of the Church, they feel that the benefits gained from shedding the habit more than justify the change of attire. Some women religious have retained a symbolic ring or pendant, while others appear quite indistinguishable from laywomen, lipstick and jewelry included. But while it may seem that these sisters have become "invisible" on the streets and in parishes, they believe their actions are speaking louder than any physical symbols. And one nun notes, "They can still tell who we are. Our hair is too short, our skirts are too long, our shoes are too flat."3

It is this particular image to which many in the laity object. They do not want to see their cherished sisters as dumpy or unattractive--their plainness seems too close to the ordinary. Bonds formed with nuns in past generations were intensely visual and are not given up easily. Catholics cling to black-and-white memories of swishing skirts and tinkling rosary beads in the classroom and the kindly faces framed in fluted linen in hospital rooms. One contemporary Englishwoman reminisces, "I still have fond memories of the Faithful Companions of Jesus, at my old school, setting out in the sun and wearing floral sunbonnets over their black ones." She remembers the clothing long after she has lost connection to the person.

With their rapid disappearance, images of habit-clothed nuns have become more idealized and romanticized than ever. They are often used in the media and entertainment industries to grab attention and to sell products. Nuns in habit are irresistible subjects for journalists and advertisers, and this representation has become both piously saccharine and crassly kitsch at the same time. Cultural historian Jessica Matthews notes, "Items that can be found in specialty gift shops include nun squeaky toys, nun candles, nun puppets, nun lunchboxes, nun Halloween costumes, windup jumping nuns, strings of nun lights, postcards, comic books (Warrior Nun Areala), dolls, bookends, and coffee mugs that say 'It's a bad HABIT.' "4 Additionally, the Internet teems with pornographic nun-related merchandise.

Most women religious--those who wear the habit and those who don't--are not happy about this phenomenon, which either perpetuates negative and inaccurate stereotypes or denigrates the sacred. The image of the cranky old nun in habit is one often utilized by cartoonists in the secular media, but its continued appearance in diocesan newspapers boggles sisters' minds. In September 2001 The New World, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Chicago, ran an ad featuring a cartoon nun wielding a ruler. Many sisters protested, resulting in the subsequent printing of a halfhearted apology from the editor. On the other hand, some Catholic newspapers revere the habit so seriously that they refuse to feature photographs of sisters wearing secular clothing. This rankles women religious across the board.

These phenomena are not limited to religious publications. Bridget Brewster, director of Communication and Development for the Sisters of St. Joseph of Tipton, Indiana, tells of an experience with her local media:

Following up a press release, the local newspaper sent a writer to do a story about the Sisters and particularly about St. Joseph Center and its use as a conference center and home for lay residents as well as Sisters. As is customary, a photographer was dispatched. I talked with the photographer at length. . . . "Please be respectful as you photograph individuals. It is my sincere hope that your photos will be an accurate and honest portrayal of the Sisters. These women are all about justice issues as well as their various ministries. Yes, they do gather for prayer daily as well as for Mass, however, that does not define them. Only two Sisters still wear a modified habit and veil and are not an accurate reflection of the Congregation. Please don't let me open the Sunday paper to find an 'icon of a nun in prayer.' " . . . The photographer understood and agreed. Well, as you have guessed, the large photo on the front page was one of the two Sisters in habit with a crucifix in the background! It is just too easy to convey a message with a veil and crucifix! . . . People simply do not want to let go of the image of the silly, innocent, naive, pure, helpless nun that is seen through the habit.

The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights was founded in 1973 by the late Father Virgil C. Blum, SJ. The Catholic League defends the right of Catholics--lay and clergy alike--to participate in American public life without defamation or discrimination. The League believes that Catholic-bashing has become commonplace in American society and regularly tracks negative images of nuns and the habit. For instance, in 1997 a coffeehouse in Nashville, Tennessee, sold a cinnamon bun designed to bear a likeness of Mother Teresa, called the "Nunbun," along with other products bearing her image. After protest from the League, the line was discontinued. In 1999 Late Night with Conan O'Brien kicked off the New Year with the host approaching an actress dressed as a Catholic nun and punching her in the face. That same year the League cited a Saturday Night Live episode featuring Rosie O'Donnell and Penny Marshall playing buffoon nuns in habit, with Marshall drinking liquor from a flask.

One of the most egregious objects of the League's protests is the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a group of habit-dressed gay male political activists and performers. Established in the heart of San Francisco's Castro neighborhood in 1979, the male "sisters" commit as individuals to vows of community service and strive to "promulgate universal joy and expiate stigmatic guilt through habitual manifestation." League president William Donohue has petitioned the Internal Revenue Service to revoke the tax-exempt status of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, explaining that: "If a group of anti-Semites were to dress as Shylock and mocked Jews, no one would excuse them because a small part of what they do is to contribute a pittance to selective charities."5 The "sisters' " response to those who ask them why they "make fun of nuns" is that "We are nuns, who continue the essential work of traditional sisters in nontraditional ways."

The habit was an object of satire in secular art and literature even in medieval times. Today, however, no portrayal of nuns frustrates Catholic sisters more than those in the 1992 film Sister Act. In the film, Whoopi Goldberg plays a Reno singer on the run from her gangster boyfriend. She hides in an urban convent, disguised as a habit-clad nun. The juxtaposition of a lounge performer and a convent is a formula that propelled Sister Act into becoming one of the hundred top-grossing films in the United States of all time. It greatly offended many nuns, not so much because of Goldberg's character but beca...

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Doubleday; 1st edition (October 21, 2003)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 240 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0385505884
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0385505888
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.04 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 0.75 x 10.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #907,043 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #6,477 in Women's Studies (Books)
- #7,656 in Catholicism (Books)

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4.3 out of 5

113 global ratings

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Living in Paradox

Reviewed in the United States on November 4, 2020

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The cover photo of this book so enchanted me I'd have paid the price just for this.
Its substance is equal to the image. Elizabeth Kuhns is the perfect author for this unique and
sensitive subject - what nuns wore and wear. For this reader, raised by Catholic parents and
taught by nuns; in love with the accoutrements of the church environment and its ceremonies
and rituals but oblivious of its teachings, as I knew everything coming in - this book is a deepening
of understanding that carries spiritual emotion as it informs. It plunges me into Right and Wrong and out
again, into a garden of paradox where opposites each have their place. For instance, the sometimes dubious motivations of patriarchal authorities in their decisions concerning women of the Church.

The writing has beauty, depth, fine research, and I can just see the holy women at their tasks
which could not have been accomplished without the vows. It is almost incomprehensible that these women existed and lived such lives. How comfortable and weak we have become with our endless neurological illnesses and preventable cancers!

Although everything is now under scrutiny, and the baby carelessly, ignorantly thrown out with
the bathwater, I bless the timing of my birth at the tail-end, so to speak! of conventional nuns
and the sincerity of priests, nuns and the faithful for the most part.
I enthusiastically recommend this work of art for readers of intelligence, feeling, and whose psyches are awakened to the ineffable.

The photos inside are not of the quality or power of the cover, and I would have liked to see more
orders shown, but this is negligible compared to the overall wonder of this book.
Gratitude to Ms Kuhns for recognizing the seriousness of the gap in literature, and for filling it with such interest, wisdom and compassionate integrity.

2 people found this helpful

Pictures are way too small.

Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2023

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What a fun book except the photos are small and some of the photos are rather dark.

Reviewed in the United States on June 13, 2011

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The book, THE HABIT by Elizabeth Kuhns is enormously interesting. It is heavily documented plus has a glossary of terms that unless you knew by living this or that Habit, you wouldn't know what they meant. The role of Bishops and priests in dictating what nuns and Sisters should wear was fascinating.

All this being said, I object to the Habit of the Daughter of Charity on the cover and to the limited information about this particular Habit within the book. Abut the Habit on the cover: it is not done right. That collar is poorly starched, almost wrinkly. As one who wore that exact same Habit for six years until we changed it, I know of what I speak. The hatpiece, called cornette, is poorly put on. (We called it 'pulled on'.) It has what we called 'pockets' by the ears. In short, no real Daughter of Charity wore a Habit that way.

The limited information on that specific Habit annoys me no end. That Habit didn't begin that way; it grew over 400 years to become that way. In the beginning, Vincent and Louise had a revolutionary idea for girls who were poor themselves, but who wanted to help others, as to how they could do this. The Daughters are not nuns, per se. They are an apostolic association. To put the Daughters' Habit on the cover is totally misdirecting the education of who the Daughters of Charity are.

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7 people found this helpful

A Very Interesting Book!

Reviewed in the United States on June 4, 2006

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Religious communities in America (i.e., Catholic Religious communities) have struggled to find their identity for the last 2 decades; but of course, imitating modern culture in so many other ways, to arrive at such a point of confusion, they first threw out anything old, including wearing religious garb. I only wish that the religious sisters of today (the new, "improved" nuns) who threw out their habits would read this book. No, the habit itself does not make a sister a sister. No more than black clothes and a white collar make a priest a good priest. But when there's nearly 2,000 years of tradition involved... just maybe they should have "looked before they leaped." I thought this was a good book. Well-researched, easy to read, full of interesting points, and a good argument for nuns to put their habits back on (though the author doesn't go out of her way to make this point or beat anybody over the head with it). Regardless of what side of the debate people are on, I think the average Catholic should find this a fascinating, good book.

17 people found this helpful

Great History of Women Religious Through Their Garb

Reviewed in the United States on February 4, 2014

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This is a wonderfully researched book about the history of religious habits worn by consecrated women in the Catholic Church. Starting with the early Church "Mothers" and their attire, this book delves into the evolution of the religious garb most people, Catholic and non-Catholic alike, were accustomed to still seeing in the 19th and 20th century.

It also goes into detail about the trend towards not wearing what had become an outmoded way of dress (as some have felt) to identify themselves as women religious in the later part of the 20th century. It is obviously a discussion with pros and cons but this book gives a solid historic background to the issue.

A great addition to today's growing collection of books being written about women religious.

5 people found this helpful

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J. ANNE HARRIS

fascinating reading!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 30, 2013

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I ordered this as although a Methodist I was educated at an all girls Convent Grammar School in the 1970's and have a great interest of anything to do with Nuns as remember my time at school with fondness. The book is well written and presented and a joy to own. I really would recommend this as an interesting read to everyone.

Amazon Customer

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 18, 2018

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Interesting little publication

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