18th-century French manuscript sermon for nun’s investiture ceremony.
[Manuscript] / [Nuns]. Veture de Religieuse. S.l. [France]: s.n., s.a. [18th century]. Folio [24.3 x 16.9 cm], [12] ff., without final two blanks. Unbound, held together with an old stick pin. Minor edge toning, neatly written and perfectly legible throughout.
18th-century French manuscript concerning the “Vêture de Religieuse,” i.e., the ceremony of investiture in which a new nun first donned her habit upon entering the convent. There is no indication of authorship, but the voice here is that of a priest addressing the new nun: She is referred to frequently as “Ma très chère Soeur,” or the abbreviated “M ch Sr.”
It seems that text was designed as a sermon that would be read in conjunction with the ceremony. Liturgical books devoted to such ceremonies are well known and give us a quite precise sense of the ‘official’ parts of the ritual, but rarer are more personalized speeches like the one preserved in this manuscript.
The text is motivated by a quote from Isaiah 61:10 “Gaudens gaudebo in Domino … quia induit me vestimentis salutis, et indumento justitiae circumdedit me, quasi sponsum decoratum corona, et quasi sponsam…,” or, “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord … for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation: and with the robe of justice he hath covered me, as a bride…” (Douay-Rheims).
Themes here include fleeing the wilderness of worldliness & vices, “fighting against the things that give pleasure” (f. [5]r.), accepting solitude, the symbolism of the veil (like covering a sacrificial victim) (ff. [5]v-[6]r.), etc.