# Convent > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Convent > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Convent.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convent > Source revision: 1356203505 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) For other uses, see [Convent (disambiguation)](/source/Convent_(disambiguation)). A **convent** is an enclosed community of [monks](/source/Monk), [nuns](/source/Nun), [friars](/source/Friar) or [religious sisters](/source/Religious_sister). Those residing in a convent are *conventuals*. A convent is also the building used by the community, especially in [Catholic](/source/Catholic_Church), [Lutheran](/source/Lutheranism), and [Anglican](/source/Anglican_Communion) traditions.[1] ## Etymology and usage The term *convent* derives via Old French from Latin *conventus*, perfect participle of the verb *convenio*, meaning "to convene, to come together". It was first used in this sense when the eremitical life began to be combined with the cenobitical. The original reference was to the gathering of mendicants who spent much of their time travelling. Technically, a [monastery](/source/Monastery) is a secluded community of monastics, whereas a friary or convent is a community of [mendicants](/source/Mendicant_orders) (which, by contrast, might be located in a city), and a [canonry](/source/Canonry) is a community of [canons regular](/source/Canon_regular). The terms [abbey](/source/Abbey) and [priory](/source/Priory) can be applied to both monasteries and canonries; an abbey is headed by an [abbot](/source/Abbot) or an [abbess](/source/Abbess), and a priory is a lesser dependent house headed by a [prior](/source/Prior_(ecclesiastical)) or a prioress. In the [Middle Ages](/source/Middle_Ages), convents often provided to women a way to excel, as they were considered inferior to men.[2] In convents, women were educated and were able to write books and publish works on gardening or musicology[2] or on religion and philosophy. The abbess of a convent was often also involved in decisions of secular life and interacted with politicians and businessmen.[2] Unlike an [abbey](/source/Abbey), a convent is not placed under the responsibility of an abbot or an abbess, but of a superior or prior. In modern English usage, since about the 19th century, the term *convent* almost invariably refers to a community of women,[3] while monastery and [friary](/source/Friary) are used for communities of men. In historical usage they are often interchangeable, with *convent* especially likely to be used for a friary. When applied to religious houses in [Eastern Orthodoxy](/source/Eastern_Orthodoxy) and [Buddhism](/source/Buddhism), English refers to all houses of male religious as monasteries and of female religious as convents. ## History The [mendicant orders](/source/Mendicant_orders) appeared at the beginning of the 13th century with the growth of cities; they include in particular the [Dominicans](/source/Dominican_Order), the [Franciscans](/source/Franciscans), the [Carmelites](/source/Carmelites), and the [Augustinians](/source/Augustinians). While the [Benedictine](/source/Benedictine) monks and their various variants devoted themselves to their agricultural properties, the [mendicant friars](/source/Mendicant_friars) settled from the start in the cities, or in the suburbs thereof, preferably in the poorer and more densely populated districts. They therefore had to adapt their buildings to these new constraints. Mary Kenny noted in a 2004 article that as a result of the "[renewal and adaptation of religious life](/source/Perfectae_Caritatis)" instituted by the [Second Vatican Council](/source/Second_Vatican_Council), many religious sisters no longer live in "convents" but in smaller communities or even alone.[4] ## See also - [Christian monasticism](/source/Christian_monasticism) - [Enclosed religious orders](/source/Enclosed_religious_orders) ## References 1. Evangelisti, Silvia (2008). *Nuns: A History of Convent Life, 1450–1700*. [Oxford University Press](/source/Oxford_University_Press). pp. 38–39. ISBN 9780199532056. Finally, irrespective of religious beliefs, convents remained a possible model for women—Catholic as well as Protestant—to pursue. In Protestant Germany, forms of female religious associative life did not die out, but instead survived in the shape of Protestant convents. These could be governed by a Lutheran abbess, and inhabited by Lutheran nuns in religious habits who claimed membership of a monastic order, paradoxical though this may seem. 1. Hunt, Julie (21 July 2020). ["Nuns: powerful women of the Middle Ages"](https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/multimedia/monastic-life-_nuns--powerful-women-of-the-middle-ages/45905498). *[Swissinfo](/source/Swissinfo)*. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20230716183152/https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/multimedia/monastic-life-_nuns--powerful-women-of-the-middle-ages/45905498) 2023-07-16 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2022-09-26. 1. See [Etym on line](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=convent) 1. Kenny, M., [Renewal in Religious Life](https://www.jstor.org/stable/27664988), *[The Furrow](/source/The_Furrow)*, Volume 55, No. 7/8 (July-August 2004), p. 405, accessed on 10 February 2026 ## External links - [Carmelite Monastery of the Sacred Hearts](http://www.sistersofcarmel.org/) — an example of a modern-day convent --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Convent](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convent) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convent?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.