Listening to Catholic Answers Live last night (featuring the bearded Jimmy Akin) I heard that the Catholic Answers website has now incorporated the entire original Catholic Encyclopedia. Tons of articles, references and links.
One of the articles is a very informative and fascinating short history of the Catholic beard. Really. Unlike our brothers in the Eastern churches, who have nearly always promoted beard growth, the relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and facial hair has been, well, rather scraggly and uneven.
The official attitude of the Western Church to beards (especially for clergy and religious) has waxed and waned and been influenced by all sorts of factors both inside and outside the Church. It was often a response to trends in contemporary society, as when clergy were discouraged from "aping the fashions of military folk". Do read it if you get the chance.
One cool thing about digging into an encyclopedia is that you can catch yourself browsing and learn all kinds of things you hadn't intended to. I enjoy doing this with the Online Etymology Dictionary, too.
The Catholic Encyclopedia article on beards is, of course, sandwiched between two other articles arranged in alphabetical order by topic. Did you know that Art Nouveau illustrator Aubrey Beardsley died at the age of 25? Tuberculosis. I had forgotten, I suppose. He was also " ...always a man of deep religious feeling and became a Catholic at the close of his life". Not bearded, though. Quite the opposite of bearded, actually.
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