The feminine monastic dress in Egypt (4th-6th centuries)

Abstract

The present contribution aims at an analysis of female monastic garments, their use and symbology in the fourth to sixth centuries in Egypt. This was the period of the greatest development and prosperity of ascetic and monastic life in all its variants. The nuns, living in their houses or in monasteries, dressed special garments, which acquired in the course of time a special symbology in the monastic environment and in society. Literary, juridical, papyrological and iconographical evidence show the elements which constituted female monastic garments, their evolution and importance.