Convent

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A convent is a community of priests, religious brothers or religious sisters, or the building used by the community, particularly in the Roman Catholic Church and, to a lesser degree, in the Anglican Communion.

The term comes from the Latin convenire, to come together. It originally connoted an assembly of Roman citizens in the provinces for purposes of administration and justice.

Though in modern usage the term almost always refers to any community of religious sisters, properly speaking it may be used of any local community of priests, brothers or sisters.

Technically, a convent is a community of these in one of the "active orders" -- for instance, the priests and brothers under vows in one of the orders of friars (Dominicans, Augustinians, Franciscans and Carmelites), or the women in one of the societies of vowed sisters of apostolic life (for instance, teaching Dominican sisters, or nursing Carmelite sisters), as distinguished from a contemplative (that is, monastic) community, such as the Benedictines, Trappists/Trappistines, Carthusians or cloistered Carmelites or Dominicans.

The distinction is one of connotation: the purpose of a monastery is to serve as a retreat from the world for contemplative prayer, whereas the convent is meant to be the presence in the world of a group dedicated to charitable or preaching service.

The male members of a convent are fathers (priests) or brothers (men who are not priests, but who still take vows, usually of poverty, chastity and obedience, the evangelical counsels). Female members of a convent are, properly, sisters (or "religious sisters"), the female equivalent of vowed brothers -- though popularly called "nuns," nuns are, in fact, female monks.