Surely everyone drew attention (at least in the movies) to the fact that some Catholic monks and priests shave their heads baldly. Why is such an action performed? Is it part of a tradition or ritual? When exactly did Catholic priests begin to get their hair cut this way? As is so often the case, everything is relatively simple.
The history of the Christian church is one of the most interesting pages of late antiquity, the Middle Ages and modern times. If only because there is an impressive set of rather strange traditions in the church, the meaning of which will be extremely difficult for a simple layman to understand. A striking example of one such mysterious tradition is the cutting of hair on the crown of the head by Catholic priests. A circle shaved on the head is called tonsura, which in translation from Latin (“tonsura”) means just “haircut”.
Interesting fact: in the Orthodox tradition, there is a similar haircut, which is called "gumenzo".
It is not known exactly when the monks and priests began to cut their heads. There is a popular version that this tonsure was officially introduced by the Catholic priest Pietro Pierleoni, who was an antipope under the name of Anaclet II and opposed Pope Innocent II. In the XII century. However, with a much greater probability tonsure appeared in Christianity much earlier and without an official mandate from the Pope.
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Much more important is the question of what exactly the tonsure was made for and what meaning it carried. Everything is quite simple here. Cutting off the hair on the head is an exclusively ritual, symbolic act that means the sacrifice of the penitent before God. There is reason to believe that tonsure could have become a symbolic haircut as a sign that Jesus Christ had to wear a crown of thorns on his head.
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However, tonsure is no longer used today. In Catholicism, it was officially abolished quite recently - in 1973 (from January 1) by the edict of Pope Paul VI.
Want to know even more interesting things? Then read about Why do Catholic priests wear a white collar? still.
A source: https://novate.ru/blogs/051019/51974/