Convent
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A convent is a community of
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
In modern English usage, since about the 19th century, the term convent almost invariably refers to a community of women,
History
The mendicant orders appeared at the beginning of the 13th century with the growth of cities; they include in particular the
See also
References
- 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.
- ^ Swissinfo. Retrieved 2022-09-26.
- ^ See Etym on line
External links
- Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. .
- Carmelite Monastery of the Sacred Hearts — an example of a modern-day convent
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.