Do the clothes make the monk?

Jagat · December 29, 2001

<h1>Do the clothes make the monk?</h1>

Friars defend tunics as useful update of plain brown gown

By NICOLE WINFIELD

Associated Press

Thursday, December 27, 2001

ASSISI, ITALY -- St. Francis founded his order of "poor friars" in this hillside town nearly 800 years ago, dedicating himself to a life of poverty that was defined by the plain brown robe he chose to wear.

Today, Franciscan monks in similar outfits are recognizable around the world. But one branch has decided to buy some fancy new habits, and not everyone is pleased.

The Third Order Regular in Assisi, a small order compared to the three main branches of Franciscan monks, has commissioned the habits from a Milan fashion designer to update their look.

"We needed a new gown, in style with the principles of our founding father, but more practical to face our everyday needs," said Rev. Lino Temperini, head of the 50-member Third Order Regular here.

He turned to Elisabetta Bianchetti, a 39-year-old designer of religious garments, who after months of research and trial fittings produced two prototypes for the monks. Made of fine, grey wool, they cost $220 apiece.

The lightweight, 100-per-cent wool habits come with two front pockets -- for cellphones or anything else -- as well as the traditional rope belt tied at the waist and knotted three times to symbolize the three vocational rules of the order: poverty, obedience and chastity.

The purchase has struck a nerve with some Italians, as well as some members of the order who feel the new look betrays the simple aesthetic envisioned by St. Francis.

"Many don't agree with the experiment to change the habit," Rev. Waldemar Barszcz, a top official of the order, told the newspaper Il Giornale. "That's why the order to Miss Bianchetti will be 30, not 3,000!"

The Vatican has not commented, but the Italian media have weighed in.

"Even the Franciscans have given in to the fascination with ready-to-wear," the Milan daily Corriere della Sera wrote.

Father Temperini argues the designs are perfectly in line with what St. Francis intended for his followers, and he has published a booklet to make his case.

It documents the varied dress of Franciscans through the ages in sketches, diagrams, photos and footnotes. It quotes St. Francis himself as having said monks could dress as circumstances and climate require.

Father Temperini hopes that once the order's approximately 50 monks in Assisi are outfitted, the look will catch on with its few hundred members elsewhere in Italy and other countries.

There's no indication the 25,000 monks in other Franciscan orders around the world are about to change.

Rev. Enzo Fortunato, a spokesman for the Conventual Franciscans, one of the larger three Franciscan orders, said the decision was the Third Order Regular's alone. But, he added, "It certainly doesn't mean they are abandoning our message of poverty and simplicity."

Some residents of Assisi are not so sure. They say the monks' new clothes -- commissioned from a European fashion capital -- are another indication the order is straying from its spiritual foundation.

Some cited the booming business that Franciscan friars conduct at the souvenir shop attached to the Basilica of St. Francis, a pilgrimage site for Roman Catholics. On a recent rainy day, when the rest of Assisi was nearly deserted, the little shop overflowed with tour groups.

"I'm a Catholic, but these people think more about commercial things than spiritual things," said Valentina Castagnoli, a shopkeeper who herself sells carved wood St. Francis figurines -- in brown habits -- and other religious souvenirs.

Titti Bufalini, a mother of two, said she understands monks have to earn a living and need new clothes as everyone else does.

But she said St. Francis founded the order for monks to live a life of complete poverty, as a way to return to the primitive beginnings of Christianity.

"The spirit of St. Francis is like this. Either you follow it or you don't," she said. Monks are supposed to be examples for the faithful, so "they should be the first to sacrifice," she said.

Father Temperini bristles at such criticism.

He said the new robes are hardly indulgent and are based on a 15th-century version of the Franciscan habit.

"We really don't understand where all the fuss came from," he said.

"People accuse us of being too aesthetic-conscious. It is ridiculous."