Greyfriars Are Coming Home After a 500-Year-Long Exile [Oxford, UK]

The Oxford Times ^ | 5/17/14

[Biggirl]

I saw the picture and it looked like St. Francis was a small guy.

[Biggirl]

Last Sunday, I had watched and it was the first time in many months, because of my RCIA ministry which would have meetings on Sunday night, ETWN’s “Sunday Night Prime”and the two young Francisisians of the Renewel do wear gray habits. They interviewed a priest who is going to be be down the road a priest for the NYC Archdiocese and he is a retired NYC fire fighter. He did talked about his memories of 9/11.

[Tax-chick]

Yes, I remember seeing Father Groeschel in his gray habit. I was just thinking of Mexico and the Southwest instead.

[Biggirl]

Same here. We are used to seeing the brown habits.

[vladimir998]

Hey Tax-chick,

This website offered an interesting detail:

“Originally made of rough, unbleached, homespun wool, today it can be made of other types of material as well.”

If the wool was unbleached, it would probably look gray, right?

http://www.ofmqc.ca/eng/vocation/habit.htm

This website has some early portrayals of Franciscans - sometimes the robes look gray, sometimes brown: http://www.exurbe.com/?p=719

“The Friars of the Community, the Conventual Franciscans, from the standpoint of legislation by virtue of their Constitutions and Apostolic Statues, were still wearing a grey habit until 1932. The Conventual Franciscans were the Grey Friars.” http://www.conventualfranciscanfriars.org/GrayHabit.html

[Tax-chick]

If the wool was unbleached, it would probably look gray, right?

Yeah, kind of a dirty white. Even if the sheep were a "white" breed to start with, the wool isn't going to come clean without lots of hot water and good soap, neither of which were commonly available to the poor.

Whether it came out gray or brownish would depend on the soil of the area. In Oklahoma, which means "red earth," there are clothing companies that sell soil-dyed clothing, deep reddish-brown.