Enclosed religious orders

An enclosed nun.

Enclosed religious orders of the Christian church have solemn vows with a strict separation from the affairs of the external world. The term cloistered is synonymous with enclosed. The "enclosure" is regulated by Catholic church law^[1][2]. Rather strictly enforced in the past, it has taken nowadays a more a symbolic value of separation from the world. The stated purpose for such enclosure is to prevent distraction from prayer and the religious life.

Enclosed religious orders of men include the Cistercians, Trappists, Carthusians and some Carmelite branches, and enclosed religious orders of women include the Augustinian nuns, Carmelite nuns, Poor Clare sisters, and some convents of Benedictine nuns, Dominican nuns, Carthusian nuns, Conceptionist nuns, Ursulines and Tyburn nuns.

The English word monk most properly refers to men in monastic life, while the term friar more properly refers to mendicants active in the broader world (like Franciscans, Dominicans and Augustinians), though not all monasteries require strict enclosure (Benedictines have often staffed parishes and been allowed to leave monastery confines). Although the English word nun is often used to describe Christian women who have joined religious orders, strictly speaking, female church members are referred to as nuns only when they live in enclosure, otherwise they are "sisters". The distinctions between the Christian terms monk, nun, friar, brother, and sister are sometimes easily blurred because some orders (such as the Dominicans or Augustinians) include nuns (who are enclosed) and sisters (who work in the broader world).

Once a Roman Catholic man or woman has made solemn, perpetual religious vows, the process of release from these monastic vows is not a simple one. It is not approved simply by the individual monastery, but requires the approval of the ecclesiastical authorities. Normally there is a transitional period, called exclaustration, in which the person looks to establish a new life and determine if this is what he or she is truly called to do. This usually lasts up to six years under the current Code of Canon Law. After this period, the appropriate authority--either the local bishop, but more normally the Holy See--normally determines that the wish to leave this life is valid and grants the former monk or nun release from their vows. Anglican religious orders have different procedures for the release from perpetual vows.

Contemplative orders

Contemplative orders^[3] prioritise worship^[4] and prayer over economic or outreach activity. They exist in the Roman Catholic, Anglican and Eastern Orthodox^[5] traditions as well as in Buddhist^[6] settings.

Notes

1. ^ VATICAN: Verbi Sponsa - Instruction on the Contemplative Life and on the Enclosure of Nuns
2. ^ The Code of Canon Law, Canon 667 ff. English translation copyright 1983 The Canon Law Society Trust [1]
3. ^ Schadé, Johannes P. (2006). Encyclopedia of World Religions. Foreign Media Group. p. 220. ISBN 9781601360007. http://books.google.com/books?id=XRkfKdho-5cC. Retrieved 2011-01-08. "Contemplative Order[: ] A religious community which engages exclusively, or almost exclusively, in activities directly ordered to contemplation." 
4. ^ Gurdon, Edmund (1908). "Contemplative Life". The Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 4. New York: Robert Appleton Company. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04329a.htm. Retrieved 2011-01-08. "The great function assumed by contemplatives [...] is the worship of God." 
5. ^ Bishop, George B. H. (2007). The Religion of Russia: A Study of the Orthodox Church in Russia from the Point of View of the Church in England. Gorgias Press LLC. p. 40. ISBN 9781593335663. http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=jyPtLLlYG9QC. Retrieved 2011-01-08. "The rich variety of religious orders existing in Western Christendom finds no parallel in the Orthodox Church, where there is but one, the contemplative order of S. Basil." 
6. ^ Cooray, L. J. Mark (1971). The reception in Ceylon of the English trust: an analysis of the case law and statutory principles relating to trusts and trustees in Ceylon in the light of the relevant foreign cases and authorities. Lake House Printers and Publishers. p. 168. http://books.google.com/books?id=OMoxAQAAIAAJ. Retrieved 2011-01-08. "[...] a trust for a contempative order of Buddhist nuns was upheld." 

See also

• Religious order
• Monasticism
• Cenobite
• Convent

External Links

• New Advent Encyclopaedia III ff. on "Nuns, properly so called
• "Cloister" in the New Advent encyclopaedia
• Augustinian nuns
• The Cistercians in Australia
• The meaning of enclosure according to the Dominican nuns
• New Advent Encyclopaedia on "Religious Life
•  "Contemplative Life". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913.