• Starting today August 7th, 2024, in order to post in the Married Couples, Courting Couples, or Singles forums, you will not be allowed to post if you have your Marital status designated as private. Announcements will be made in the respective forums as well but please note that if yours is currently listed as Private, you will need to submit a ticket in the Support Area to have yours changed.

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

Michie

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
Feb 5, 2002
183,071
66,446
Woods
✟5,959,514.00
Country
United States
Gender
Female
Faith
Catholic
Marital Status
Married
Politics
US-Others
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.”
The encyclopedia also notes that it has been "passed out of use" for the most part, although some communities still wear them.

Continued below.
 
Reactions: Pioneer3mm

fide

Well-Known Member
Dec 9, 2012
1,671
902
✟187,284.00
Country
United States
Faith
Catholic
Marital Status
Married
St. Paul (with God as the Primary Author) wrote this:
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!
 
Upvote 0