Cornette - Use By The Daughters of Charity

Use By The Daughters of Charity

The cornette was retained however as a distinctive piece of clothing into modern times by the Roman Catholic society of apostolic life of the Daughters of Charity, founded by St. Vincent de Paul. The founder wanted to have the sisters of this new type of religious congregation of women, that tended to the sick poor and were not required to remain in their cloister, resemble ordinary middle-class women as much as possible in their clothing - this was the reason why the cornette was adopted.

After the cornette generally fell into disuse, it became a distinctive feature of the Daughters of Charity, making theirs one of the most widely recognised religious habit. Because of the cornette, they were known in Ireland as the "butterfly nuns". They abandoned the cornette on 20 September 1964.