Why Did Monks Have That Haircut? The Little-Known Meaning of Monastic Tonsure

[Michie]

Why did monks have that haircut?

Artistic depictions of saints like Saint Anthony of Padua, Saint Francis of Assisi, and even Saint Thomas Aquinas, show them with a similar haircut.

This style involved shaving the top of the head but leaving a circle or halo shape of hair around the head.

Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain
During medieval times, clerics in a few orders (most notably Dominicans and Franciscans) were marked by a haircut some today would refer to as bizarre.

The practice of tonsure has been recorded since the end of the fifth century. Pope Paul VI abolished the tonsure in 1972.

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia,

“Tonsure (Lat. tondere, “to shear”), a sacred rite instituted by the Church by which a baptized and confirmed Christian is received into the clerical order by the shearing of his hair and the investment with the surplice.”

"As to the monastic tonsure, some writers have distinguished three kinds: (1) the Roman, or that of St. Peter, when all the head is shaved except a circle of hair; (2) the Eastern, or St. Paul’s, when the entire head is denuded of hair; (3) the Celtic, or St. John’s, when only a crescent of hair is shaved from the front of the head.”

The encyclopedia also notes that it has been "passed out of use" for the most part, although some communities still wear them.

Continued below.

Why Did Monks Have That Haircut? The Little-Known Meaning of Monastic Tonsure

Why did monks have that haircut?

www.churchpop.com

 

[fide]

St. Paul (with God as the Primary Author) wrote this:

But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a woman is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.
Any man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head,
but any woman who prays or prophesies with her head unveiled dishonors her head—it is the same as if her head were shaven.
For if a woman will not veil herself, then she should cut off her hair; but if it is disgraceful for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her wear a veil.
For a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man.
(For man was not made from woman, but woman from man.
Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man.)
That is why a woman ought to have a veil on her head, because of the angels.
(Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man nor man of woman;
for as woman was made from man, so man is now born of woman. And all things are from God.)
Judge for yourselves; is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered?
Does not nature itself teach you that for a man to wear long hair is degrading to him,
but if a woman has long hair, it is her pride? For her hair is given to her for a covering.
If any one is disposed to be contentious, we recognize no other practice, nor do the churches of God.
(1 Cor 11:3-16)

And we can see - even despite the variations caused by the interior wounds in human "nature" caused by the Original Sin - that many, many men lose hair "naturally" on the "crown" of the head as they age - that is, as they mature in manhood. With women, most women do not "naturally lose their hair. Because:

• for women, "her hair is given to her for a covering"; thus she echoes thus truth with a headcovering, or veil, in her prayer - or in prayerful habit as she lives and strives to "pray constantly."
• for men, "a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God", thus his head becomes uncovered in baldness of the crown of his head in his maturity.

I'm sorry all women do not wear the veil habitually; and all men do not uncover their heads in prayer - but many do!