Nuns

The word nun can conjure up images from traditional to irreverent in terms of gender. Those who call themselves nuns can range from feminine to masculine: a contemporary “sister,” who does not wear the traditional black habit, but rather modern women's clothing, perhaps a short veil or “wimple” and a small cross on a necklace; a traditionally dressed nun, whose habit is a full-length black gown and full veil, covering everything but her face and hands; or a man dressed as a nun in sexually suggestive female garb, a “drag queen nun.” Since the time of the creation of the category “nun,” established for the first order of female religious figures, the physical space of “nun” has expanded beyond the realm of gender.

Cloistered orders of women began in the 5th century, though the more liberated orders of “sisters” formed in the 16th century. The Encyclopedia of Catholicism lists approximately 12 Roman Catholic religious orders of sisters, or as they are commonly called, nuns. However, this terminology should be amended to allow for the difference between sisters, or non-cloistered orders, and nuns, or cloistered orders. Traditionally, the word nun has referred to Roman Catholic nuns, those who take solemn vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience and live cloistered lives of silence and prayerful meditation. Choir nuns, such as that of the famous convent headed by Hildegard de Bingen (a 1109-1179 German nun, mystic, and composer), chant the Liturgy of the Hours daily, consisting of a set order of readings and prayers, including morning, evening, daytime, and night prayers. Orders of Roman Catholic sisters, on the other hand, take the simple vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience but live in society, ministering to the [Page 615]needs of the people in the community, and do not live by the strict rules of the cloister. Those who call themselves nuns also exist outside the Roman Catholic religion, most notably in Buddhism but also among Eastern Christians, Anglicans, Jains, Lutherans, Taoists, and the aforementioned “drag queen” nuns or “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.”

Nonetheless, nuns are almost overwhelmingly female and live lives of service to God. (The male equivalent of a nun is a monk, as opposed to a priest.) Roman Catholic nuns do not perform the Catholic Sacraments of Mass and Confession, for example, but rather dedicate themselves to charitable service. Mother Teresa of Calcutta is perhaps the most notable example, founding the Missionaries of Charity in 1949 and being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.

The traditional black nun's habit, covering all but the hands and face, effectively obscures the evidence of female gender, thus making the “woman” disappear and the “nun”—a gender-free space—emerge. This has allowed women throughout history the space of “trans”-gendering the traditional role of “woman.” It allowed women to pursue charitable work in a way usually seen unfit for women—a life lived with other women and ministering in the streets of the world— rather than serving in the traditional home setting. Nuns or sisters have been called to every corner of the globe to minister to the poor, sick, and dying and have founded and dedicated themselves to systems of education, nursing, and social work throughout the world.

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