How often do you see nuns in full habit in a public place?

11 comments

1. For me, about once or twice a week. I work in a local supermarket and about once or twice a week, a nun dressed in full habit comes in to do some grocery shopping. Never spoken to her but, she seems nice and just goes about her business

2. Spent a few months at a Catholic school, never even saw one there

3. In my 58 years I’ve never seen a nun in habit in person.

4. Maybe once every 30 years.

5. In the U.S., the population of nuns has been rapidly declining over the past few decades. There are fewer than 42,000 nuns (in a country of 332 million people). Different orders of nuns have different dress codes. Some orders don’t wear habits at all. Few orders wear full habits. So your chances of seeing a nun in full habit in the U.S. aren’t high, unless you happen to be near a convent where there happen to be nuns of an order that still wears full habits. I’ve seen women in full burqas far more often than I’ve seen nuns in full habit.

6. I never have.

7. I think I saw one in an airport once. The only people I know personally who regularly see nuns are ultra devout Catholics who go to like church conferences and stuff like that.

8. Haven’t seen one since the early 70’s

9. I pretty much only see them on college campuses or places of worship.

10. A lot of nuns don’t wear a full habit often or at all. I went to a Catholic university and had a few nuns as teachers. They would wear a polo shirt with a cardigan to class. So you might have seen some nuns and not known it.

11. Rarely. Sometimes I’ve seen them traveling somewhere together on the road, or at a rest stop off the highway or something.