Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 92, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 July 1903 — The Nun’s Headdress. [ARTICLE]

The Nun’s Headdress.

Very few persons, says a French paper, know the oftgin of the headdress wlitcli nuns wear and which fi)des so much of their faces. It was formerly the custom for convents to send nuns to the Various cities for the purpose of collecting alms, and, as a rule, two nuns, one old and the other young, went to each place. They wore small caps and were popularly known as “Swallows of Lent." On a certain Ash Wednesday two of them succeeded In obtaining admission to the king’s -palace in Paris, and, though the monarch and his courtiers were at dinner, they did not hesitate to solicit alms from them. One of the nuns was very pretty, and the young nobles who were feasting cast such bold glances at her that she blushed with shame, thereupon the king rose from the table and, taking his napkin, folded it In two and placed It on her head In such a manner that It concealed her blushes. Ever since that day, It is said, this kind of heacU dress has been worn by nuns.