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Veils......


maximillion

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TheLordsSouljah

Just going off the original topic... :P Pretty sure the SOL veils are a rectangle made out of a double square. That's the extent of my knowledge!! :)

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AveMariaPurissima

I actually did have a bit of a hard time adjusting to having my ears covered.  I kept inadvertently asking, "What's that?" at dinner when I could not make out the conversation!  Needless to say I adjusted after a time, and also learned to refrain from asking in such a unrefined fashion!  

I had a hard time getting used to having my ears covered too...the feeling reminded me of having earmuffs on, and so whenever I went inside it felt strange...I got used to it, though.

 

Sometimes I miss my veil!

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After looking at what feels like a bizillion different communities... My still all time favorite and number one pick for style of veil is.. Mother Angelica's Poor Clare's of Hancesville Ab!!

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I am a fan of full face and obviously the square stiff style! The style of veil that sit behind the ears and show hair ...to me, just seem more casual.. (No offense intended for my choice of word) Having in the past talked to a seamstress who makes habits and veils...she uses industrial size plastic tie downs. Which can be cut down to the desired length. (Minus the part that it used to slide the end through that locks it in place)

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I am a fan of full face and obviously the square stiff style! The style of veil that sit behind the ears and show hair ...to me, just seem more casual.. (No offense intended for my choice of word) Having in the past talked to a seamstress who makes habits and veils...she uses industrial size plastic tie downs. Which can be cut down to the desired length. (Minus the part that it used to slide the end through that locks it in place)

 

Those look so uncomfortable to me.  I wouldn't want something sitting that close to my neck.  If I can't stand turtlenecks, I don't think I could get used to a stiff wimple and a plastic crown. 

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I don't like the crown type either.........wonderful that there are so many communities with so many different styles - not that I am implying we choose to enter where they have the habit that most suits our tastes....er...... :hehe2:  :saint2:

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After looking at what feels like a bizillion different communities... My still all time favorite and number one pick for style of veil is.. Mother Angelica's Poor Clare's of Hancesville Ab!!

 

I can tell you the veils have 3 or 4 little snaps that snap onto the cap.  A friend of mine who is a PCPA, though not in Hanceville, showed me one afternoon when I asked her how she kept the veil on so perfectly.  I guess nuns/sisters have their own little "tricks" to keep things neat and tidy  :hehe2: 

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It seems like they do and now we are finally finding out!

 

 

Questions answered here I have been curious about for YEARS!

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Interesting posts!  The Franciscan community I was with initially fastened their veils to a cut-up bleach bottle (mentioned earlier).  Later, they purchased commercially-made mesh caps that many orders use today.  My favorite veil of all, however, belongs to the traditional Carmelite nuns...the habit of St. Teresa of Avila and St. Therese of Lisieux.  It's hard for me to understand why several Carmelite communities choose to wear a modified (with some hair showing) veil--some of which are attached to the same headache-producing, jaw clasping plastic head band that I wore! :nun:

 

As far as convent haircuts, mine was often done with a pair of sewing scissors!  When viewing the "results,"  I felt compelled to pray to St. Joan of Arc for strength!  According to the historical record,

she chose to crop her hair very short (into a type of bob)--knowing quite well that it was a death  sentence in the English courts!

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I remember seeing a picture of nuns a while back that had this awful veil that almost completely obscured their faces.  All you could see was the portion of the eyes, nose, and mouth.  No part of the lower chin, outer cheeks, or upper forehead were visible.  I can't imagine how cumbersome that would be.  I just know, with my claustrophobia, I wouldn't have tolerated it at all.  I'd feel like a horse with blinders on.  If I can find the picture, I'll post it.  I'm looking for it now.

Edited by MaterMisericordiae
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A New York Sister of Charity told me that their old bonnets (you may remember them from the play/film "Doubt") were molded with a kind of steel headband to make them retain their shape. When the sisters were given the option of going to a modified habit or secular clothing, several sisters had permanent indentations in the sides of their heads, above their ears, from where the steel band had pinched them. I think my tendencies to migraines would have forced me out of this group (whom I otherwise love) in the "old days."

 

In Sister Madeleva Wolff's autobiography (My First Seventy Years--definitely worth reading!), she said that when she first saw the "sunflower headdress" of the Sisters of the Holy Cross, she absolutely hated it.  She said she never really liked it.  Still, she was in the community and wore it happily for over 50 years....

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Yes, Linnie--she was president of a CSC college that was there for a time, until she was named President of St. Mary's Notre Dame, where (among other things) she started what was then the first PhD program in Catholic theology that was open to women. [She herself was a poet with a PhD in English from University of California-Berkeley.]  There is at least a chapter on her Salt Lake City experiences in the autobiography I referred to.  You should read it! 

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OMGoodness, some of those veils......and I thought at times our habit was penitential!

 

Have to admit to not particularly liking those that make one look variously like a duck, a goose, a sunburst or a crowned head of state.

 

We had little strings in our caps that pulled them in, kept the cap and veil on more securely and hair in place (not showing).

It was common for newly clothed novices to pull the cap strings far too tight, and wear a rather puckered expression as a result. NM was forever helping the newly clothed to 'adjust their bonnet strings'.

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