The Veil of Submission, the Crown and The Women of God

Many people in the Christian churches across the globe have gotten away from women wearing veils over their heads in churches. Maybe it is due the sexual revolution and the feminist movement that took place in the mid 1960’s. Where, women felt they were no longer subservient to their man, the home and to God. But for those who follow the scripture, it has never gone away. Many still follow this but it would seem that the Catholics were most prominent in women wearing veils. It is not only Catholicism way of life but is a Christian tradition and in scripture for reasons that I will explain.
Let me start off with, St. Jerome who translates this passage as “ideo debet mulier potestatem habere supra caput”. “Therefore the woman must wear the (symbol of the man’s) power over her head”]; we see that St. Jerome gave it a literal translation, and consequently did not further reveal its meaning. The Greek, according to Liddell and Scott, translates to “power” or “authority.”

This power, however, is not simply a strange way of saying “covering”; it means, quite literally, power or authority. The woman does not need a covering on her head in this verse; she needs authority over her head, “supra caput.” St. Paul is talking about authority being over the woman, just as God is in authority over mankind. The woman, therefore, needs “authority” over her head; the veil, the covering, represents that authority. St. Paul is setting up the veil as a sign of woman’s subjection to man.

1 Corinthians 11:10

The fruit of this doctrine of submission and covering is that simply by appearing with a covering on her head, the woman is giving testimony to many of Catholicism’s and Christians greatest truths. She proclaims simply by her head being covered that God is greater than man; that man is the leader within mankind; that woman is subjected to man. She is also proclaiming her personal submission to Jesus Christ, to her husband if she is married, and/or to her superiors if she is not. A mere garment declares all these things to a doubting world; woman is quite privileged to be able to wear it and not considered a burden. She stands out from the rest and makes a profound statement.
This analogy of Christ and mankind to man and woman also extends to the relationship of God to the Church. That is, man is to woman as Christ is to the Church. St. Paul himself makes this extension, telling us that “the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church.” So a woman who appears with a covered head is also proclaiming the submission of the Church to Christ, the covering on her head symbolizing the Church’s universal submission. Furthermore, by proclaiming one end of the analogy, she is also proclaiming the other. The covered woman is giving witness to the fact that “Christ also loved the Church, and delivered himself up for it.” She declares that her husband or man must love her just as Christ loves His Church, and that God lovingly watches over mankind just as — and much better than — her husband and/or man lovingly watches over her. This simple garment, when understood in this way, is a powerful witness to the Catholic and Christian faith; happy the sex that with so simple a gesture can proclaim such noble truths!

Ephesians 5:23-25

St. Paul illustrates this truth by referencing customs concerning hair. He argues that, men having short hair is the same as them keeping their heads uncovered; it symbolizes their authority over woman and the authority of Christ over the Church. Similarly, women having long hair are the same as them keeping their heads covered; it symbolizes their submission to man, and the submission of the Church to Christ. While this may seem like a local custom, St. Paul seems to hold otherwise, asking the Corinthians whether “nature itself” teaches “that a man indeed, if he nourish his hair, it is a shame unto him? But if a woman nourishes her hair, it is a glory to her; for her hair is given to her for a covering.” The custom of the veil, then, is reflected in nature; women grow their hair long because it is natural for their external appearance to reflect their submission, and men keep theirs short because it is natural for their external appearance to reflect their authority. The veil is how we perfect nature’s symbolism.

1 Corinthians 11:14–15

But does not St. Paul say that “her hair is given to her for a covering?” Why, then, does she need to wear a veil, when she is already covered? For the same reason that we wear wedding rings even though the Sacrament endures without them. Men require artificial signs of natural realities. One might as well ask why the priest wears vestments, when the very fact of offering the Mass is a sign of his authority. St. Paul requires women to cover their heads in addition to their long hair while “praying and prophesying,” saying that to do otherwise is like being shaven.

1 Corinthians 11:5

If he were referring only to the woman’s long hair, then to pray and prophesy uncovered would actually be praying and prophesying shaven and the analogy of uncovered to shaven would be superfluous. So St. Paul was definitely speaking of an actual covering over the woman’s head over and above her natural covering, at least while praying and prophesying. At other times, it seems, the hair alone is sufficient symbol of her submission to her husband and/or man.
This, at least, is what seems to me to be the only coherent interpretation of the text before hearing the words of the Church on the subject. What has the Church taught concerning these passages? The Church has not taught anything infallibly regarding their interpretation. However, many great thinkers have approached these verses, including Fathers and Doctors of the Church. I will examine their opinions of their meaning.

Any Catholic or Christian at all familiar with the Scriptures has run across 1 Corinthians 11, the chapter in which St. Paul discusses hair, veils, and hats. This chapter gives us a number of clues about the Christian tradition of the veil and the head-covering in general from a number of different avenues. First I will quote the text in its entirety, both to refresh the reader’s memory and to put the focus of the discussion on the table as simply as possible.

The Veil Text in Scripture

The Scriptural text, which I shall refer to as “the Veil Text,” upon which the whole Christian theology of the veil is based, is surprisingly lengthy, considering the treatment which other subjects receive in its context. It reads: (KJV)
“Be ye followers of me, as I also am of Christ. Now I praise you, brethren, that in all things you are mindful of me: and keep my ordinances as I have delivered them to you. But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God. Every man praying or prophesying with his head covered, disgraces his head. But every woman praying or prophesying with her head not covered, disgrace her head: for it is all one as if she were shaven. For if a woman be not covered, let her be shorn. But if it be a shame to a woman to be shorn or made bald, let her cover her head. The man indeed ought not to cover his head, because he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of man. For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man. For the man was not created for the woman, but the woman for the man.
"Therefore ought the woman to have a power over her head, because of the angels. But yet neither is the man without the woman, nor the woman without the man, in the Lord. For as the woman is of the man, so also is the man by the woman: but all things of God.
You yourselves judge: doth it become a woman, to pray unto God uncovered? Doth not even nature itself teach you, that a man indeed, if he nourish his hair, it is a shame unto him? But if a woman nourish her hair, it is a glory to her; for her hair is given to her for a covering. But if any man seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor the church of God.” (1)

For now I wish simply to lay out a surface interpretation of the text, an interpretation which merely takes St. Paul’s words and gives them their facial meaning. Essentially, St. Paul is saying that the veil — from the Latin velare, to cover — is necessitated by the tripartite relationship of God, man, and woman.

This simple reading is entirely clear. St. Paul begins by explaining that “the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.” Here he is drawing an analogy, a classic analogy that has been used throughout the History of the Church, particularly in explaining the Sacrament of Matrimony: that man is to woman as Christ is to the Church. The head of man, St. Paul tells us, is Christ; the head of woman is man. He further tells us that man “is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of man.” Also, he observes that “the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man.” The analogy of God and man to man and woman is clear, and definitely not alien to St. Paul.

1 Corinthians 11:3-11

Indeed, St. Paul is most hated by modern feminists and within homes of Matriarchs because of his formulation of this very theory in his Epistle to the Ephesians. There St. Paul makes the analogy much more explicitly, but it can easily be recognized as the same analogy all the same:
“Let women be subject to their husbands, as to the Lord: Because the husband/man is the head of the wife/woman, as Christ is the head of the church, He is the savior of his body. Therefore as the church is subject to Christ, so also let the wives/woman is to their husbands/man in all things. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the church, and delivered himself up for it.”

Ephesians 5:22–25

The similarities between the passages are clear: the Veil Text and this text from Ephesians are expressing the same analogy. Indeed, the Douay-Rheims even makes a cross-reference to Ephesians 5 in I Corinthians 11, and vice versa. So, incidentally, do some newer translations, including the Catholic Edition of the Revised Standard Version — although that version neglects a cross-reference from Ephesians back to I Corinthians, it recognizes the tie between the two by referencing Ephesians from I Corinthians. The conclusion that St. Paul is drawing the same analogy in both passages is inescapable.

St. John Chrysostom, St. Ambrose and St. Augustine –believed very strongly that God designed the world in a particular way, and that each person or thing has its appointed place, women not excepted. The veil was a visible reminder of woman’s place in the world, as the representative of the Church in the divine analogy in which all men participate. To remove the veil was to symbolically remove woman from her proper place, the place for which God made her and the only place in which she can really be happy and fulfill her end. Thus, removing the veil is not liberating, but enslaving, in the same way in which Satan’s rebellion was enslaving: one cannot attempt to gain a place other than that which is appointed. Only by remaining what she is, the truly glorious thing that she is, can woman become what God made her to be.

Perhaps St. John Chrysostom, such an ardent defender of the veil, stated it best:
“But if any say, ‘Nay, how can this be a shame to the woman, if [by removing the veil] she mount up to the glory of the man?’ we might make this answer: ‘She doth not mount up, but rather falls from her own proper honor.’ Since not to abide within our own limits and the law ordained of God, but to go beyond, is not an addition but a diminution. For as he that desireth other men’s goods and seizeth what is not his own, hath not gained anything more, but is diminished, having lost even that which he had (which kind of thing also happened in Paradise); so likewise the woman acquireth not the man’s dignity, but loseth even the woman’s decency which she had. And not from hence only is her shame and reproach, but also on account of her covetousness.” (7)

It is not that the Fathers wished to degrade the woman; they wished to raise her up from the muck of the fall and place her on the glorious throne which God has prepared for her. The veil removed from the
Woman’s head does not liberate her, rather it enslaves her and she loses the crown and glory not only to man but to God. One must understand the symbolism of the veil.

I have visited many Christian churches and I was the only one who wore a veil over my head. Modern times has allowed it for the woman to remove the veil but does this new modern ideology that is not backed by the Christian churches hurting the woman more than praising her? I believe so in my personal opinion.

By not making this rule within the modern day churches and leaving it up to the woman whether she wishes to wear a veil or not, should at least inform all the women of the church congregation of why it is a good thing to wear a veil during worshipping or prophesying to the people. That if it not be a church doctrine then at least inform the woman of what is at hand and what it is said in scripture and then leave it up to her to make her own decision. That is as close to appeasing the feminist who balk at anything in the Bible because of how the woman is placed and her status role within scripture. Things have changed indeed, especially during the mid 1960’s. Yes, I remember, I was there.

By the turn of the twentieth century, the ornate bonnets of the nineteenth century had given way to ladies= hats. Until the mid-century, women in Europe and America typically wore a hat or scarf in public, but they were simply following tradition and fashion without realizing that there was originally a spiritual reason behind the practice. Similarly, until about 1960, western women wore hats when in church. But the meaning behind the hat was lost. Basically the churches did not inform the woman of its significance, purpose and symbolism.

Today, Christian women in eastern churches still cover their heads in church. Some of them cover their heads all of the time. In the west, some Plymouth Brethren women still wear the prayer veil in church, as do many black women. But usually these sisters do not wear a head covering at other times.
Generally speaking, in the west today, only the Mennonite, Amish, Brethren and Hutterite women still practice wearing a head covering at all times. However, in recent years, they have been joined by thousands of Christian women from house churches and other independent congregations who have re-discovered this New Testament practice.
I feel once women get a better understanding of their role in the church and how they are looked at, that many more women will once again start wearing veils in and out of church.

In Conclusion: I have been guilty as well in staying away from the veil in and out of church. But, when I started working towards my Doctorate I did some research and started to re-think the ideology of the veil. I now wear it in church but I am also contemplating on wearing it at anytime that I do any sort of Ministerial duties. It not only sets me apart and that they know I am a Reverend but also allow me to set an example as to why the veil was important for the woman to wear. Many today still say that it is a Catholic thing and I disagree wholeheartedly because it is written in the Holy Bible and the Bible is not Catholic rather, Christian. These scriptures are not in the old testament as many would say that it would not apply, but in the New Testament and written not just once but several times over in the Bible.

So I am also adjusting and maybe some time in the near future I will wear a veil all the time as it is originally written. But for now, I will wear it always in church and really considering whenever I do ministerial work.
As you read, it will be my submission to God, the Church and Man. It will be my crown for all to see, that I am a woman of God.




God Bless,

Rev. Dr. Gale Candice Revilla
aka Reverend/Mother Candice
www.galerevilla.com/MorningStarMinistry