Blogum scribo
 Praise the Lord... my new habit. © Christopher Monk 2015. Once in a while an Anglo-Saxon monk needs a new habit. According to the Benedictine Rule, he's allowed both a winter-weight one and a summer version, which can actually be an old threadbare one. Not one for excess, I've finally got around to getting a new habit (and linen under tunic and trousers) after living forty plus years in my monastery. Admittedly, blessed readers, I have had a few changes of clothing in that time: you didn't expect me to still be in the clothes I had as a seven-year-old oblate, did you? Being a trans-historical monk, I managed to find a twenty-first century craftsman to produce my garb for me. So a great big thank you to Aidan Campbell for exercising one of his many talents in providing me with an excellent fitting outfit. Remarkably, he was able to work from only a set of measurements and a couple of manuscript images. Please enjoy, beloved, the results of his labours:  My instructions to Aidan Campbell. These did not appear on the original manuscript, which is from the eleventh-century Arundel Psalter: British Library, Arundel 155 (Canterbury, 1012-1023), fol. 10r. Image PUBLIC DOMAIN: click on it to go to source.
 The cameraman was rather shocked by this: apologies. © Christopher Monk 2015
7 Comments
Carol W
13/7/2015 12:33:34 pm
Absolutely Fabulous Darling !! So retro chic!! I suspect the linen undergarments protect against the scratchy wool- 10th century sheep wool I think may not have the "comfort" of 21st C fabric softeners- I've used "natural" wools - those produced by "traditional" methods - and it's like working with barbed wire sometimes! Certainly you are blessed for your brave penitential endurance of the mortification of the flesh!!
Chris *The Anglo-Saxon Mok
14/7/2015 06:11:21 am
Thanks, Carol. The linen certainly helps to counter the itching. There are worse things I could do as penance... perhaps SHOULD do! 23/7/2015 02:06:29 pm
Monkish, verily. I wonder if they ever had to put patches at their knees. I hope you're not going to go so far as to submit to the annual bleeding. (Did the Anglo-Saxons do that?)
Chris *The Anglo-Saxon Monk
24/7/2015 08:42:42 am
I'm sure there was plenty of patching that went on... and not just for knees. I bet there was some kind of moth/bug that enjoyed Anglo-Saxon wool too!
April
6/7/2022 03:08:28 am
I am searching for a pattern so I can make a fellow pastor a St Francis Habit. Is this similar to your habit?
Christopher Monk
6/7/2022 07:00:05 pm
Hello. Based on the contemporary portrait shown here in this Wikipedia entry on Franciscans https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franciscans#/media/File%3AStFrancis_part.jpg, I would suggest the cowl is detachable from the tunic, whereas it appears as part of the whole habit in Anglo-Saxon art work. I hope that helps.
L
8/8/2024 10:07:56 pm
Foolishly, I never realised medieval monks wore long underthings with their habits! Much more sanitary and less chilly. Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
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