Cowl

Common card · No. 277950

A cowl is an item of clothing consisting of a long and wrinkled, hooded garment with extra-wide sleeves, worn by monks or nuns living in monastic orders. The cowl is traditionally bestowed upon the monk or the nun at the time of making a solemn vows. The cut of the garment is the same for men or women. The cowl should not be confused with the choir robe of some mendicant orders, which is given to members of these communities already upon investiture. The garment was developed during the Early Middle Ages and the term may have originally referred to the hooded portion of a cloak, though contemporary usage refers to an entire closed garment.

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