Who Knows Anything About Passionist Nuns?

[Sr Mary Catharine OP]

Well, I really, really loathe polyester double-knit and as I look back I'm not sure I could have worn a habit made of that stuff!

 

I grew up in the country and yes you are right. It seems all the moms were wearing jean jumpers.

 

I hate to tell you this but I wore jumpers, too! I had jersey jumpers and cotton jumpers. But the postulant jumper I did not like. First it WAS polyester double knit, second it was DARK navy blue and third, I thought it was ugly! It's still in the postulant closet!

 

It was a great motivation for receiving the habit! :bounce:

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

[DameAgnes]

Well, I really, really loathe polyester double-knit and as I look back I'm not sure I could have worn a habit made of that stuff!

 

I grew up in the country and yes you are right. It seems all the moms were wearing jean jumpers.

 

I hate to tell you this but I wore jumpers, too! I had jersey jumpers and cotton jumpers. But the postulant jumper I did not like. First it WAS polyester double knit, second it was DARK navy blue and third, I thought it was ugly! It's still in the postulant closet!

 

It was a great motivation for receiving the habit! :bounce:

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

 

I hope you soon have a bunch of postulants in those ugly blue jumpers, who are eager to get past them. :-)

[emma8201986]

When I enter (assuming I'm accepted) I'll wear whatever the community wants but I'll well over 15 and hope the community wants me to dress like an adult.  Doesn't have to be Prada, doesn't have to be pretty, just dignified and age appropriate.

[Comingback]

Well, I really, really loathe polyester double-knit and as I look back I'm not sure I could have worn a habit made of that stuff!

 

I grew up in the country and yes you are right. It seems all the moms were wearing jean jumpers.

 

I hate to tell you this but I wore jumpers, too! I had jersey jumpers and cotton jumpers. But the postulant jumper I did not like. First it WAS polyester double knit, second it was DARK navy blue and third, I thought it was ugly! It's still in the postulant closet!

 

It was a great motivation for receiving the habit! :bounce:

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

My Grandmother made most of my clothes and during my junior high years she made EVERYTHING out of polyester double-knit.  I had dresses (with scalloped bottoms--yeah, I know), pantsuits, jackets, etc.  I was always hot, plus I was teased because everybody else was in cotton and bell-bottoms.  I cannot abide polyester to this day. Something can have a little polyester but not much LOL.   When I cleaned out my Grandmother's house after she died I found whole bolts of PDK in very strange color combinations.   Other than her love for PDK, she was the best grandmother ever and I still miss her so much.

 

I love jumpers and I wish they would come back in (as long as they are cotton!).  Yes, I had several that were denim.  I am old. 

[brandelynmarie]

Double knit polyester *shudders*

[maximillion]

I have always wondered - just what does happen to all those ex-postulant jumpers?

 

Do they pass them on to the new lot (thought I saw comments from new candidates about making them ready for entry so maybe not) do they get sent to the thrift store?

Do they send them home to Mom?

 

Seems very wasteful to me for each new group of candidates to have new ones made.

[Feankie]

I remember Rev. Mother joking once that if I kept visiting them so much, she'd take me back to the closet where they kept all the postulant jumpers and veils and get me dressed!  And this was in 2009.  Apparently they had them in various sizes and the hems were such that the length could be modified to fit the wearer.  Also, I remember talking to a Postulant at the same visit who being clothed in the next few months and and she was sewing her own habit, veil, collar,  cap, and guimpe.

[Pia Jesu]

Yes, the jumpers generally "meet their end" in what Sr. Mary Catherine calls the postulant closet.  We could take one that fit--and use it for cleaning duties (a spare, so to speak).  The used ones were PDK and though hot in the summer, sure remained wrinkle-free! :hehe2:

 

Several years ago, I was greeted at a Carmel front door by a 62yr old postulant--in a brown jumper & white blouse.  She was so welcoming and kind that what might be considered a more juvenile dress--didn't matter!  She's still there as an extern...loving

Jesus and His people!

 

[Sr Mary Catharine OP]

I hope you soon have a bunch of postulants in those ugly blue jumpers, who are eager to get past them. :-)

 

Now they wear a cotton blend! And the blue is nicer! And the cut is nicer.... :saint2:

 

 

[Lil'Nun]

When I enter (assuming I'm accepted) I'll wear whatever the community wants but I'll well over 15 and hope the community wants me to dress like an adult.  Doesn't have to be Prada, doesn't have to be pretty, just dignified and age appropriate.

 

 

This. I think there is something rather strange about dressing grown women in, what looks like, school uniform. Here in the UK a lot of schools have a jumper and skirt as their uniform. I guess it harks back to a time when a lot of postulants came straight from High School. But times have changed. Age appropriate, dignified. modest and practical would be perfect.

[brandelynmarie]

Wait....are jumpers in the UK what we call sweaters in the US? Jumpers in the US are well, um dresses that have shoulder straps & are usually worn over blouses :blush:


(either way, still not fond of polyester! :hehe:)

[Sponsa-Christi]

Yes, a jumper in the UK or Ireland is what we would call a sweater in the United States. (And I think an American jumper would be called a pinafore in the UK or Ireland.)

 

I had quite a shock once when an Irish seminarian friend was telling me a story and recounted: "So we were invited to this nice dinner, and we put on our best woolly jumpers..."

 

I was like: "WHAT??!!! Why on earth were you wearing a jumper?" My friend was equally confused at my confusion, but eventually we both figured out the different usage of the same word.

 

Nothing like being divided by a common language! :) 

[maximillion]

Re-reading and saw 'the postulant closet', and boy, I am back there.

 

It had it's own particular odour, I can smell it now, partly laundered linens, partly beeswax polish, partly the odour of sanctity.

 

(Okay, so maybe that last one was wishful thinking!) :saint2:

Edited November 30, 2013 by maximillion

[beatitude]

Wait....are jumpers in the UK what we call sweaters in the US? Jumpers in the US are well, um dresses that have shoulder straps & are usually worn over blouses :blush:


(either way, still not fond of polyester! :hehe:)

 

Yes. A jumper is what we say for sweater in the UK.

 

What you call a jumper, we call a pinafore or a pinafore dress, which is sometimes shortened to 'pinny'.

Edited November 30, 2013 by beatitude

[Lil'Nun]

Yup. Jumpers are sweaters here. We tend to call what you guys call jumpers "pinafore dresses".  They are often school uniform here.  Looks great on kids. Maybe not so great on a 45 year-old. :)

Edited November 30, 2013 by Lil'Nun

[Pia Jesu]

Re-reading and saw 'the postulant closet', and boy, I am back there.

 

It had it's own particular odour, I can smell it now, partly laundered linens, partly beeswax polish, partly the odour of sanctity.

 

(Okay, so maybe that last one was wishful thinking!) :saint2:

 

Your comment on the "odor of sanctity" is hilarious, Maximillion--yet when I re-visited my former mother- house, it was the unique, wonderful smell (which I had forgotten) of the place that brought back a flood of memories.
 

[Freedom]

There are two in Kentucky the one in Whitesville does not pray communal rosary.

[maximillion]

History[edit]

In the "Life of St. Paul of the Cross" by Vincent Strambi, we have evidence of his design from the beginning of the Congregation of the Passion to found an institute in which women, consecrated to the service of God, should devote themselves to prayer and meditation on our Lord's Passion. It was not until towards the end of his life that he wrote the rules of the institute which were approved by the brief of Clement XIV in 1770.

St. Paul had as cooperatrix in the foundation of the Passionist nuns, a religious, known as Mother Mary of Jesus Crucified, whose secular name was Faustina Gertrude Constantini. She was born at Corneto, 18 August 1713. In youth she placed herself under the direction of St. Paul of the Cross, and became a Benedictine nun in her native city, awaiting the establishment of a Passionist convent. Through the generosity of her relatives, Dominic Costantini, Nicolas his brother, and Lucia his wife, a site was obtained for the first convent of the new institute in Corneto, and a suitable house and chapel were built.

On the Feast of the Holy Cross, 1771, Mother Mary of Jesus Crucified, with the permission of Clement XIV, with ten postulants, was clothed in the habit of the Passion and entered the first convent of Passionist nuns, solemnly opened by the vicar capitular of the diocese. St. Paul, detained by illness, was represented by the first consultor general of the order, Father John Mary. Mary of Jesus Crucified became the first mother superior of her order and remained so until her death in 1787.

The spirit of the institute and its distinctive character is devotion to the Passion of Christ, to which the sisters bind themselves by vows. Their life is austere, but in no way injurious to health. Postulants seeking admission must have a dowry. Their convents are strictly enclosed. The sisters chant or recite the Divine Office in common and spend the greater part of the day in prayer and other duties of piety. They attend to the domestic work of the convent, and occupy themselves in their cells with needlework, making vestments etc.

With the approbation of Pius IX a house was established at Mamers in the Diocese of Le Mans, France, in 1872, and continued to flourish until suppressed with other religious communities in 1903 by the government. There is also a Passionist convent at Lucca whose foundation was predicted by Gemma Galgani, a mystic. On 5 May 1910, five Passionist nuns from Italy arrived inPittsburgh to make the first foundation of their institute in the United States.