The Porziuncola Project
The Franciscan Habit
"And we were content with
one habit patched inside
and out."
"and the friars shall wear coarse garments, and they may mend them with sack-clothe..."
The Habit of Saint Francis
A story is told of a painter who was asked to paint an image of Saint Francis of Assisi. Being very familiar with the Franciscan Order, the painter wasn't sure which color or shape of the Habit to have Saint Francis wearing. You can imagine the surprise of the crowd when the painter unveiled a painting of Saint Francis sitting up in bed, looking at three different colored and shaped habits and wondering which he was going to wear that day.
If you know anything about Franciscans you know that our habits come in all different colors and shapes. There is the brown Capuchin and O.F.M. habit, then there is the black or grey Conventual habit. You may get fooled into thinking that a Third Order Regular Friar is a Conventual because of his black habit. We have the one piece long pointed hood Capuchin habit. The two piece over the shoulders capuche of the Conventual habit and the O.F.M. cut off at the shoulders capuche with the point reaching to the cord. With the recent increase of Franciscan reform movements it is even harder to tell who is who. So the question remains: Which is the habit of Saint Francis?
There is no question that Saint Francis wore a woolen habit with the long pointed hood attached. The Capuchin habit is in most conformity with the habit of Saint Francis. The color of Saint Francis'original habit, as you can see in the picture at the top of this page, was a an ash grey-brown. It was un-dyed wool and so yhe color depended upon the color of the sheep.
After Saint Francis left the Bishop's house, where he had stripped himself, until the feast of Saint Matthias In 1209, when he had attended Mass at the Portiunciola, Saint Francis was wearing a woolen tunic, a leather belt and sandals. He was dressed as a public penitent. After attending Mass he had asked the priest to explain the Gospel to him (Matthew Ch. 10, the sending of the apostles out in twos). After hearing the explanation Saint Francis lept up and shouted: "This is what I desire! This is what I long for!" He then put on a tunic with a long pointed hood attached to it. He removed his leather belt and girded himself with a rope with three knots for his vows. He kicked off his sandals and went barefoot. That became the Franciscan habit.
Several of Saint Francis' habits can be seen in various Franciscan churches throughout Italy. So there is no doubt as to the the original habit was a one piece tunic with a long pointed hood attached and the cord with three knots. There are also very early paintings of Francis and early writings that confirm this fact. In the Rule Saint Francis directs the brothers to have "one tunic with the hood".
As we look at Franciscan history we will see that the shape of the habit is no light matter for a Franciscan. The shape, color and texture of the habit will continuously by a signet flag for reform. We must always remember that Saint Francis was not a dualist. One wears on the outside what one carries on the interior of one's heart. The habit, as taught by Holy Mother Church, is an outward expression of an interior reality.
The Meaning of the Franciscan Habit
The Franciscan Habit has great significance. It was more than a robe of a poor man.
The Tunic with the Hood:
When the Franciscan habit is laid out on the ground, or when a Friar puts on his hood and extends his arms, it makes the form of the cross. When the Friars puts on his habit he is to remember that he is taking up his cross to follow Christ: "He who wishes to be my disciple must take up his cross daily and follow me."
The Cord:
Up until the time of Saint Francis monks and hermits wore either a leather belt or a woolen sash. Saint Francis decided he would use a cord, rope. The cord has often been a symbol of spiritual battle, girding oneself , pulling in the extra clothes, so one could fight more easily. Certainly, there is a serious connection to chastity and the continuous need to fight the battle to remain pure. Also, there is the daily spiritual battle to get holy and reach sanctity of life.
There is also one other significant image that is often overlooked. When Saint Peter had professed his three fold love for Jesus at the shore of Galilee, Jesus went for a walk with Peter and told him: "When you were young you went where you will. But when you are older they will put a rope around your waist and take you where you do not want to go." Saint Francis, a man of the Scriptures, could have easily seen the cord as a sign of obedience. As a pilgrims on this earth, and as Friars having no vow of stability (as all monks profess), it may have been a symbol of being willing to be taken wherever the Lord wants to lead.
The Three Knots in the Cord:
The three knots in the Franciscan cord stand for the three vows of Poverty, Chastity and Obedience. These are called the Evangelical Counsels. Our Lord did not demand that all Christians take vows to be poor, chaste and obedient. But he did counsel those who could accept it to accept it.
Poverty: "If you wish to be perfect, go, sell all you have and give it to the poor. Then come and follow me."
Obedience: "He who wishes to be my disciple must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me."
Chastity: "There are those who choose it [being eunuchs-spiritually speaking] for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let those who can receive it, receive it."
Some Friars have followed the example of Saint Maximilian Mary Kolbe and have taken a fourth vow of Total Consecration to Mary. For this reason you may see some Franciscan with a fourth knot in their cords.
The Tonsure:
Up until the 1960's the Franciscans have always worn the tonsure. This is that ring of hair around the head as seen in most statues of Saint Francis. The tonsure was a symbol that the tonsured person is consecrated to God. It also marked the person as one vowed to chastity. This is drawn from Saint Paul who shaved his head as a sign that he himself had made a vow of chastity.
In the last thirty years there has been a movement among Franciscan reformers to return to some form of the tonsure. Some reform groups in Italy where the tonsure as worn by Saint Francis. Most have simply adopted the practice of shaving their heads completely. In both cases these Friars are seeking to cast off the vanity of the worldliness of being overly concerned about their hair and hair styles.
The Beard:
In the early days of the Franciscan Order all the Friars wore a beard. There was no other purpose or reason other than they were poor and unconcerned about their appearance. Over time, maybe a hundred or so years after Saint Francis (maybe more), Franciscans became overly concerned about their looks and their hair. Friars began shaving their beards or trimming them to keep up with the modern styles. It reached its climax in the sixteenth century with the dawn of the Renaissance when facial hair was considered ...rude.
The Capuchin reform returned to the wearing of the beard as a way of casting off the worldliness of the time and returning to the early days of poverty and simplicity. In their Constitutions they say that they wear the beard because Christ and Saint Francis wore the beard. And they wear it because it is "manly, despised and austere". Today, excepting certain Franciscan reform movements, it is up to the individual if they would want to wear the beard.
Sandals:
Technically speaking, sandals are not part of the Franciscan habit. Saint Francis directs the Friars to go barefoot, those who can't, he says, "may wear shoes". This has often been interpreted as "sandals". It could either way, sandals or shoes. Due to the controversies that arose over the years about the living of the Rule strictly or moderately, there seems to have arisen a consensus that sandals were most appropriate and more appropriate over shoes, which could be more expensive. However, the Rule clearly states that the Friars go barefoot unless their is necessity to do otherwise.
Going barefoot for Saint Francis was a way of remaining faithful to the Gospel; call he received on the feast of Saint Matthias. In Matthew Chapter 10 the apostles are sent out by Jesus without shoes. This was probably a proclamation that all the ground was now holy because the Son of God has walked upon it and "the kingdom of God is at hand." We can imagine that Saint Francis would have considered the sacredness of the earth upon which Christ spilled His Sacred Blood.
Saint Francis understood that weather conditions, safety and peoples health could be necessary reasons to wear footwear. Since in one account of the apostles being sent out they are allowed to wear shoes, Saint Francis permitted those with necessity to wear shoes.
The Rosary:
As far as we know Saint Francis did not wear the Rosary on his cord. There is the Franciscan Crown Rosary, seven decades, that the Franciscans always prayed (sometimes known as the Office of the Blessed Mother). But this did not become tradition until a couple of years after the death of Saint Francis. Most Franciscans still wear the Rosary on their left side. It is a tradition that is almost eight hundred years old. It also signifies a Friars unwavering fidelity, love and commitment to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The History of the Franciscan Habit
The original design of the Franciscan habit came a hundred years after the death of Saint Francis. In the early fourteenth century there was a movement among the Friars to change the habit to be more like the Dominican habit. To do so they cut a out a tunic without a hood. Then they created a small hood that would have a cape like design to it, often called a capuche. The front of it came down and rounded across the top of the abdomen. The back circled around down to a point at the start of the cord. This became known as the "Conventual Habit"
In the fifteenth century came the great Observant reformers; Saint John of Capistrano, Saint Bernadine of Sienna, Saint James of the March and Blessed James of Sterap. These men, along with the thousands that swelled their ranks, began a movement to return to the literal adherence to the Rule of Saint Francis. As part of their reform they were to return to a more simpler form of the habit. Keeping the two piece style, the Observants cut the capuche so that it rested at the top of the shoulders and came to a point in the back, reaching down to the cord. The Friars returned to using the brown colored habit. They say that some of the reformers, when seeing a Conventual Friars, would hold the Conventual Friars down and cut his capuche into the Observant style.
It was not long after the Observant Reform movement began that the Capuchin Friars began their own reform. Not believing that the Observant life was as it was in the days of Saint Francis they established a form of life that called for the radical return to the primitive life. Part of their radical return to the days of old, was the return to the original Franciscan habit as Saint Francis had worn it. They sowed the long pointed hood reaching down to the cord back on to the tunic and used un-dyed wool, which is why sometimes it was grey and other times brown. Today it is commonly brown in color. Some have wrongly conjectured that the Capuchins got the long pointed hood idea from the Camaldolese hermits. But this is easily proven false when one reads the history of the oOrder and sees that long before Matteo da Bascio or Ludavico da Fossombrone (the two leaders of the Reform) had ever encountered the Camaldolese, they had already changed their habits.
With the incredible amount of Franciscan Reform movements out there today you are sure to see various renditions of these traditional Franciscan styles. Some will throw a scapular over it and call it semi-Carmelite. Others have used linen, some denim, others polyester and some have returned to the wool. You will see brown, black, grey, blue and tan habits running around. The most important part of the habit is it's meaning and significance. It would be impressive to see all Friars return to the habit of Saint Francis and it would be even more impressive to see the habit being worn again, at all times, as Saint Francis decreed in the Rule.
The Religious Habit Today
It has become quite normal for most of us to see religious without their habits, in secular clothing. When we question them we are told that it was the decision of the Second Vatican Council that religious no longer had to wear their habits. We tend to accept this reason and simply wish that they would, once again, wear their habits. Without too much argument we accept that the Second Vatican Council indeed decreed that the habit did not have to be worn.
Nothing could be farther from the truth! In almost every document, during and after the Council, the Church has repeatedly told religious that they are to wear the habit of their community. No wear does it tell religious that they can pick and choose when and where they will wear their habits. The documents do mention the adaptation of a habit if the particular habit is overly burdensome and no longer significant (we think of the winged veils of the Daughters of Charity. They couldn't drive with those veils, never mind get on a bus). However, most habits, particularly the Franciscan Habit was perfectly suited for our present culture.
In the United Sates, which spread elsewhere, prior to the Second Vatican Council, men religious had already stopped wearing their habits when out and about. In the 1800's there were people persecuting the Church in the United States. In order to lessen the pressure, the Bishop's Council in Baltimore asked male religious that, when outside of their religious houses, they are to wear the Roman Collar like the Diocesan Priests. Religious, being obedient, stopped wearing their habits when they were traveling or outside their religious houses.
There is a funny story of a couple of Capuchins traveling on a train. They were wearing their diocesan priest clothes; black trench coat along with their skull caps (which are a version of the yamaka). Because their beards covered their white tab collars, they were mistaken for Jews. The people on the train were anti-Jewish. So they were harassed for being Jews, not because they were Catholic.
After the Second Vatican Council, when it became popular for diocesan priests to go out in secular clothes, religious priests followed suite. And so it began that male religious stopped wearing their habits all together, except for liturgical functions and at other times when they feel so inclined.
It is the direction of the Church for religious to wear the habit. As Franciscans it is written into our very Rule that we are to wear the habit. It is part and parcel with our vow of poverty. It is the primitive inspiration of our founder that we should have one habit with a hood and another, for those who wish, one without a hood and some under clothes. Saint Francis wanted us to be living and clothed in the cross. Even some our Franciscan reform groups have yet to embrace the habit as Saint Francis wanted of us.