For nearly 800 years novices have been vested with the Dominican habit in a ceremony mostly unchanged.

 

The novices-elect arrange themselves in the main aisle and transept, petition for the habit, and prostrate themselves on the ground. One-by-one, they approach the sanctuary and receive the habit from the prior of St. Dominic’s, the novice master, and the prior provincial. They return once more to receive their name and which time the prior provincial lowers their hood.