Barefooted Monks and Nuns

BAREFOOTED MONKS AND NUNS: The popular name for members of various religious orders who go without any foot-covering whatever or with sandals in place of shoes. They are also called “discalced" (Lat. discalceati, “unshod"), but this name is more properly restricted to those who wear sandals and is used especially of the “discalced Carmelites.” It is said that the custom was introduced in the West by St. Francis of Assisi, who, with his companions, in 1209 discarded 484 shoes in supposed obedience to Matt. x, 10, and thenceforth went wholly barefoot. There have been barefooted or discalced members of many orders, the Clarenines, Recollects, Capuchins, Poor Clares, Minimites, Augustinians, Camaldolites, Servites, Carmelites, Cistercians (Feuillants), Trinitarians, Passionists, and others. It is usually the stricter divisions of the order who adopt the practise.