habit

religious dress

Learn about this topic in these articles:

Roman Catholicism

  • St. Peter's Basilica
    In Roman Catholicism: The priesthood

    …clerical identity, symbolized by clerical garb, which sets priests as a class apart from lay Catholics. The priesthood is also set apart by gender; only men may become Catholic priests. The most striking feature of this class, celibacy, has stirred up considerable dissatisfaction in the modern church. Many priests and…

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symbolic identification

  • Buddhist monk
    In religious dress

    In many traditions, habits serve to identify monastic groups. Indeed, in the latter case, the function of religious dress is more akin to heraldry as a form of symbolic identification than to liturgy with its ritualistic symbolic motifs.

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