“Garments of Salvation”: Representations of Monastic Clothing in Late Antiquity

This article examines descriptions of the clothing of male and female monks that abound in late antique monastic literature. These accounts sought to create a monastic “uniform” that would set the boundaries and establish the values of monastic life. Despite this attempt at standardization, I argue, contradictions appeared between worn, drab clothes and shining garments as the proper monastic attire, between the authority of male dress and female dress, between acceptable and unacceptable nakedness. These incongruities express the central tension of monasticism between sinful human and transcendent angelic identity. Ancient authors were aware of this paradox and so too possible misperceptions of monastic clothing and its meaning.