Amid a growing trend in immodest dress and restrictions on traditional Catholic liturgy, a resurgence in the popularity of chapel veils and mantillas for women has been highlighted by secular media and described as a return to the “Biblical.”
A recent study published by The Free Press reported on observations made regarding the use of mantillas by women in churches. Titled “The Young Catholic Women Bringing Back Veils,” the report ‘did exactly what it says on the tin,’ namely, it shone a light on the growing trend amongst women of varying ages to use a veil when inside a church.
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But what exactly is the deeper meaning of using a veil in the first place?
Faith or Fashion?
Attendees of the traditional Latin Mass are more likely accustomed to the sight of uncovered heads for gentlemen in church, while ladies often don lace chapel veils or mantillas. As traditional Masses have rapidly grown in number from 2007 through 2021, so has the prevalence of the traditional custom of ladies’ head coverings.
However, this same practice has now spread outside the Latin Mass, as ladies adopt the veil to aid their devotions.
According to The Free Press’ Madeleine Kearns, “the veil boom is organic—occurring neither at the direction of, nor in defiance to, church authorities.”
Based on her conversations with several women, Kearns notes that the return of the mantillas is linked to a realization of what the liturgy is centered on, or rather, Who.
“People dress beautifully to go see the King or Queen, so it should be with the Lord,” one woman told Kearns.
Society and modern culture promote a variety of manners in which order, beauty and the traditional sense of decency are rejected—especially with regard to male and female dress. For men, wearing suits and properly ornate clothing is seen as archaic, and modest female attire is relentlessly attacked by progressives as restrictive or prudish. In spite of this, and perhaps even because of this, a return to veiling is now underway.
Veils in Early Catholic Tradition
Indeed, in previous decades, when head coverings for both sexes were a norm rather than today’s rarity, men would remove their hats while women would keep their heads covered in church. The Catholic practice has its roots in Apostolic times and Sacred Scripture. In Saint Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor 11: 2-16), he writes on the proper deportment for men and women when praying:
“Now I praise you, brethren, that in all things you are mindful of me: and keep my ordinances as I have delivered them to you. But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God. Every man praying or prophesying with his head covered, disgraceth his head. But every woman praying or prophesying with her head not covered, disgraceth her head: for it is all one as if she were shaven.”
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This passage has served as the basis for Catholic ecclesial tradition regarding the correct dress for men and women. It has also sparked commentaries from saints and scholars too many to count and of far greater theological depth than can be summarized in a few short lines.
Scriptural scholars have also commented that Saint Paul’s guidance on how men and women should cover themselves in church was firmly rooted in the proper societal norms for respectable, married couples and was not—as modern “feminist” activists argue—an attempt to belittle women as somehow second-class or intrinsically unclean.
The early Church Fathers especially provided an analysis of the passages from the Apostle. Saint John Chrysostom wrote extensively on the lines noting that a man must imitate Christ: “Not only, so he speaks, because he has Christ to be His Head ought he not to cover the head, but because also he rules over the woman.” Saint Chrysostom adds that a similar style applies to women: “For to her also is it a reproach, the not having the symbols of her subjection. But the woman is the glory of the man. Therefore the rule of the man is natural.”
Consistent Teaching
With the Scriptural passages and Church Fathers providing the solid ground for subsequent teaching, the practice of laymen removing their head coverings and women maintaining them in Church became one firmly practiced.
Building on this wealth of teaching, Saint Thomas Aquinas provided extensive commentary on the Pauline epistle. Succinctly summarizing his thought, the Angelic Doctor writes in part:
“This can be taken in two ways: first, because a veil put on the head designates the power of another over the head of a person existing in the order of nature. Therefore, the man existing under God should not have a covering over his head to show that he is immediately subject to God, but the woman should wear a covering to show that besides God, she is naturally subject to another. Hence, a stop is put to the objection about servant and subject because this subjection is not natural.”
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He adds that a second reason is “to show that the glory of God should not be concealed but revealed; but man’s glory is to be concealed. Hence it is said: not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to thy name give the glory (Ps 115:1).”
Indeed, the Church’s Code Canon Law of 1917 states in Canon 1262: “Men, in a church or outside a church, while they are assisting at sacred rites, shall be bareheaded, unless the approved mores of the people or peculiar circumstances of things determine otherwise; women, however, shall have a covered head and be modestly dressed, especially when they approach the table of the Lord.”
However, the 1983 Code made no mention of the requirement, and as a result, the practice declined in the surrounding and subsequent decades.
Resurgence
Though the practice of women veiling and men removing head coverings has undeniable roots in Apostolic Tradition, it is also undeniable that it has largely fallen away from use in recent decades with the rise of modernity, the sexual revolution and progressive revolutionaries working their craft on the liturgy.
However, the truly Catholic practice is returning, and the number of women choosing to veil themselves in church has correspondingly led to a huge uptick in the production of mantillas. The home-grown business Veils by Lily recently told The National Catholic Register that it is now filling 900 orders per month after having started in 2010 with just 30 to 60 orders per month. This huge growth has been experienced by a number of artisans producing mantillas.
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Women have described being drawn to use veils by the sense of reverence they add to the liturgy, by the ease with which one can pray, and by the beauty of continuing an Apostolic tradition in line with the Church’s practice of many centuries.
“I wear a veil because it is a way of showing extra respect to the Blessed Sacrament outside the actions that are normal, such as genuflecting,” one lady told this writer. “It helps me a lot as it helps me focus on being in church and in the Real Presence,” she added, describing it as a “personal act of respect towards the Blessed Sacrament.”
Another convert to wearing a veil recounted to this writer how she was unfamiliar with the practice, as “it wasn’t until my twenties when I was exposed to the Latin Mass when I saw women veiling their heads.”
“I remember asking a close friend ‘Why do women wear veils in the old mass,’ it was explained to me that the practice of veiling comes from Sacred Scripture, where we see that “holy things were veiled in order to preserve their proper mystery and to show that they are set apart,” she added. “I thought that was so beautiful, so I began to wear a veil.” The young lady recounted how the practice is “very practical,” as “it helped me not to get distracted from my surroundings, it gave me this tunnel vision to help me focus and keep my thoughts directed to what is happening on the altar.”
This sentiment is echoed by many women interviewed by The Free Press, who highlighted the “biblical” nature of veiling and how a chapel veil reminds the wearer that “Jesus is really present in the Blessed Sacrament.”
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Havens Howell, 26, of Virginia, says that donning the mantilla reminds her that she’s entering a sacred space, “with things that are holy and don’t happen anywhere else.”
As the Church’s moral teaching and ancient liturgy appear ever more under attack, the return to the practice of women veiling is a sign of hope for the future. It also calls upon men to reciprocate by being in conformity with Apostolic tradition and serving as leaders in the Catholic Faith, just as Saint Paul taught. With sin, impurity and ugliness placed on a pedestal in society, the response of women to veil out of reverence for the Sacred is a worthy response.
Photo Credit: Sarah Van Deventer – St. Veronica’s Veils