I bought the movie on DVD a year ago and I noticed that on the cover it features four nuns wearing the long black habit that most nuns have stopped wearing since Vatican II but when I actually watched the show, the nuns only wear the full habit in 2 and a half episodes.
Does anyone wonder why also?
It's marketing. The image of nuns in the long black habit is somehow extremely interesting to people -- much more so than even modified habits. Think of Whoopi in the "Sister Act" movies. Most nuns haven't worn that type of habit since the mid-60's, yet there they are, in full regalia in the movie.
shareThe series was set at a time just before, during and after Vatican II so it is quite appropriate for the Nuns to be wearing the full 'old' Habit in the early episodes and the more modern Habit in the later scenes.
As the thrust of the series was dealing with the turmoil within the Catholic Church at the time of Vatican II it is quite appropriate for the cover of the DVD to feature the traditional Habit.
The four actresses were, left to right:
Josephine Byrnes (Sr. Catherine)
Brenda Fricker (Sr Agnes)
Sandy Gore (Mother Ambrose)
Lisa Hensley (Sr Paul)
The series was set during and after the Second Vatican Council. I can remember my Aunt, a teaching member of the Sisters of Charity, changing her name back from a saint's name to her real name and no longer wearing the long robe, wimple and crucifix. One of her friends was a "Mother" and she became just "Sister Mary".
The long robes were the way European women dressed when the orders were formed.