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Abstract
Les congrégations religieuses féminines vieillissent. Elles adoptent diverses stratégies pour faire face à ce phénomène, dont la transformation de parties de couvent en maisons de retraite médicalisées. Soutenu par des photos, l’accent est mis ici sur l’habit et le linge, indices de ce qui perdure autant que des impermanences. Signes d’une vie communautaire, porteurs de la mémoire et de l’intime, l’habit et le linge révèlent la vieillesse, la dépendance, le corps jusque-là davantage soustrait aux regards. Mais, malgré le grand âge et ses effets, l’habit religieux agit aussi comme marqueur d’une identité conservée. Son port rend compte d’une résistance aux injonctions de discipline du corps faites prioritairement aux femmes âgées. Témoin incorporé du temps qui passe, il permet également de garder une prise sur le monde, d’autant qu’il est partagé et porté par la congrégation. Néanmoins, aux yeux des soignantes en charge des religieuses aujourd’hui, il reste l’empreinte d’un temps qui n’aurait plus cours.
“Aging in convent, from the habit to laundry : weft and wrap”. Women's religious communities are aging. They adopt various strategies to cope with this phenomenon, including the transformation of parts of their convents into nursing homes for the elderly. Using photos as analytic tools, this article focuses on the habit, on clothes and on laundry as clues or hints of what persists and what vanishes. Signs of community life, holders of memory and witnesses to intimacy, the habit, clothes and laundry reveal old age, dependency and bodies that are usually concealed. Despite age and its effects, the religious dress also acts as a marker of a preserved identity. The wearing of the habit represents a form of resistance to the injunctions of bodily discipline primarily directed at elderly women. Incorporated witnesses of the passing of time, it enables a grip on the world, especially since it is shared and carried by the congregation. However, in the eyes of the health caregivers in charge of the nuns today, the religious dress remains an imprint of a time that no longer exists.
“Aging in convent, from the habit to laundry : weft and wrap”. Women's religious communities are aging. They adopt various strategies to cope with this phenomenon, including the transformation of parts of their convents into nursing homes for the elderly. Using photos as analytic tools, this article focuses on the habit, on clothes and on laundry as clues or hints of what persists and what vanishes. Signs of community life, holders of memory and witnesses to intimacy, the habit, clothes and laundry reveal old age, dependency and bodies that are usually concealed. Despite age and its effects, the religious dress also acts as a marker of a preserved identity. The wearing of the habit represents a form of resistance to the injunctions of bodily discipline primarily directed at elderly women. Incorporated witnesses of the passing of time, it enables a grip on the world, especially since it is shared and carried by the congregation. However, in the eyes of the health caregivers in charge of the nuns today, the religious dress remains an imprint of a time that no longer exists.