Nun's under-cassock

[Sarah Wagner-Wassen]

Hi all, I've got a semi-bizarre burning question, and I though all of you might be able to answer it, so I finally got around to registering here in order to ask all you fine people...

I was cassock shopping today (for my husband, for whom I pick out most of his clothes, including his vestments) and ran across at Istok a "Nun's Under Cassock" http://www.istok.net/product.php?productid=27021

It looks like a "normal" cassock, but it's not double-breasted. Given all the layers nun's wear when they are out and about, I suppose I never realized that their under cassock was cut differently than the "normal" cassock. I just assumed that when the literature says that "monks and nuns wear the same habit" it meant, well, that they wore the exact same thing, not the same kinds of things.

Istok has the same cut garment in white, listed as a "monastic tunic" and calls it a khiton http://www.istok.net/product.php?productid=27023. Best I know a khiton/chiton is simply the traditional Greek word for a floor-length tunic. I saw it mentioned somewhere that in Orthodox monasticism the chiton could be a "hair-shirt". Which may explain why I never saw a monastic, whether male or female, wearing, well, only this garment.

So is the "Nun's Under Cassock" actually the inner cassock worn by nun's?

Sorry if this is a bit obscure topic, I obviously need to spend more time with female monastics.

[Cyprian (Humphrey)]

Hi all, I've got a semi-bizarre burning question, and I though all of you might be able to answer it, so I finally got around to registering here in order to ask all you fine people...

I was cassock shopping today (for my husband, for whom I pick out most of his clothes, including his vestments) and ran across at Istok a "Nun's Under Cassock" http://www.istok.net/product.php?productid=27021

It looks like a "normal" cassock, but it's not double-breasted. Given all the layers nun's wear when they are out and about, I suppose I never realized that their under cassock was cut differently than the "normal" cassock. I just assumed that when the literature says that "monks and nuns wear the same habit" it meant, well, that they wore the exact same thing, not the same kinds of things.

Istok has the same cut garment in white, listed as a "monastic tunic" and calls it a khiton http://www.istok.net/product.php?productid=27023. Best I know a khiton/chiton is simply the traditional Greek word for a floor-length tunic. I saw it mentioned somewhere that in Orthodox monasticism the chiton could be a "hair-shirt". Which may explain why I never saw a monastic, whether male or female, wearing, well, only this garment.

So is the "Nun's Under Cassock" actually the inner cassock worn by nun's?

Sorry if this is a bit obscure topic, I obviously need to spend more time with female monastics.

Since no one truly knowledgeable about this has chimed in, I'll tell you what I was told when I asked about the very same thing. It is apparently a nun's slip. If that's what it is, then it's probably a good thing you've never seen anyone wearing just that. :)

It seems like their marketing a Khiton as a male version of a slip - which I find odd, but who knows?

[Rebecca Gabl]

From what I've observed in the Russian tradition, we just wear one cassock, similar to the male, but less fitted.

[Cyprian (Humphrey)]

Yes, less fitted likely for modesty's sake. :)

I suspect this item is some sort of proverbial ecclesiastical garment version of "snake oil", in that the only one suggesting that it is a routine part of the monastic habit is the same someone who is trying to sell it.

For example, have you ever noticed that the only people that really seem to push diamonds as a required part of marking levels of commitment and time in a relationship are the diamond companies? Hmmm... Seems likely that they might have a vested interest in flogging their wares.

I think istok.ca is doing the same thing here. Don't get me wrong though! They're still one of the cheapest and highest quality international suppliers I've seen! Just don't always go with their description of what you need.