Olivetan Benedictine Sisters - Arkansas

[Luigi]

This is a community of 35 or 40 sisters. They've had steady vocations - about one per year - for the last 10 or fifteen years. They have a variety of ministries, mostly in one location. And they have a nice newly-designed web page. It includes a list of all the community members and their roles in the monastery/convent.

http://www.olivben.org/

[Gabriela]

I'm confused. Why are their habits white? I thought "white Benedictines" were all Cistercians/Trappists.

[Nunsuch]

Et hey see themselves as an expression of the Benedictines of Mt. Olivet (men), who trace their origins to the 14th century. They also wore white habits. 

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11244c.htm

Edited May 13, 2016 by Nunsuch
Typo

[Luigi]

1 hour ago, Gabriela said:

I'm confused. Why are their habits white? I thought "white Benedictines" were all Cistercians/Trappists.

Benedictines have been "diverse" for centuries!

[NadaTeTurbe]

3 hours ago, Gabriela said:

I'm confused. Why are their habits white? I thought "white Benedictines" were all Cistercians/Trappists.

Cistercians are white and black, but the very first habits were black (Robert de Molesmes, the founder of the Cistercian order, is always shown in black) : 

[Gabriela]

4 minutes ago, NadaTeTurbe said:

Cistercians are white and black, but the very first habits were black (Robert de Molesmes, the founder of the Cistercian order, is always shown in black) : 

Wait. What?

[NadaTeTurbe]

And wait ! Benedictine monks in Africa wears white habits ! 

  (monks of Keur Moussa, in Sénégal, a Solesmes foundation)

[Starets]

Olivetans wear white as a representation of the purity of Mary

[DominicanHeart]

On May 13, 2016 at 3:27:00 AM, Gabriela said:

Wait. What?

[Maximilianus]

On 5/13/2016, 3:21:50, NadaTeTurbe said:

Cistercians are white and black, but the very first habits were black (Robert de Molesmes, the founder of the Cistercian order, is always shown in black) : 

 

On 5/13/2016, 1:42:32, Luigi said:

Benedictines have been "diverse" for centuries!

Indeed.

There is no prescribed color for the habit in the Rule but over the course of time black was specified, at least for OSB. The white for the Cistercians comes from the rejection of using more expensive dyed wool for the use of undyed wool. In the image posted by Nada they are wearing the cuculla, which professed wear in choir, and like their ordinary habits the OSB wear black and the Cistercians wear white. I read that St. Robert is depicted in a black habit because he was ordered back to Molesme to resume being abbot.

The Benedictine Camaldolese also use white habits. 

 

[Benedictus]

In some Benedictine congregations, where the norm is to where black, it is often customary for communities in hotter climates to wear white habits instead. However, I believe all Olivetans communities wear white.