Religious habit
Encyclopedia : R : RE : REL : Religious habit
A religious habit refers to the distinctive garment(s) worn by members of religious orders, e.g., for Catholic orders, it is normally comprised of a tunic, often covered by a scapular and cowl. For men the hood is part of the habit, for women the veil. Modern variations may not include all of the forementioned; and the remaining parts may be considerably simplified to make them better suited for modern living. After the postulancy with a particular religious community, the newcomer, having declared the intention of wishing to undergo a formal novitiate and been accepted by the community, strips off the secular clothes worn hitherto and gets dressed by the superior in the habit of the community – a special ceremony called "the clothing" or "investiture".
External links
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.