Terminology

Monastic Roles

On the Community page, you may have met some words you've never seen before.  Here are what some of them mean:

Abbey

Our monastery is one of only two Benedictine abbeys of women in the United States.  An abbey is a community of nuns in solemn vows, which include the obligations of enclosure and the singing of the full Divine Office daily.  Benedictine abbeys of women are common in Europe and some other parts of the world. 

Abbess

The superior of an abbey is called an abbess.

Prioress

In a monastery that is not an abbey, such as our own monastery prior to its becoming an abbey in 1989, or such as the many communities of unenclosed Benedictine Sisters in the United States, the superior is called a prioress.  In an abbey, the prioress is the assistant to the abbess and takes her place when she is not present.

Subprioress

The subprioress is the assistant to the prioress and takes her place when she is absent.

Cellarer/Treasurer

The treasurer, called the "cellarer" in the Rule of St. Benedict, is the community business manager and, in our case, bookkeeper.

Infirmarian

The infirmarian is responsible for the care of the sick and elderly Sisters of the community.  She may not be a nurse herself, but she makes sure that every Sister gets proper professional medical care.

Formation Director

The formation director is responsible for guiding all the women who enter the community through the various stages of preparation for final vows.  In our tradition, she is often called the novice mistress, even though she is ultimately responsible not just for novices but for women in all stages of formation.  In our house, the vocation director serves as assistant formation director.

Vocation Director

The vocation director receives all inquiries about membership in the community and assists women in discerning their call to monastic life in our community.

Novitiate

The novitiate includes all the women who enter the community from the day of their entrance until they make solemn profession.  They learn what the monastic life is by experiencing it, and by formal class studies.  Throughout the novitiate, these women and the community seek to discern whether or not they are truly called by God to live the monastic life in this house.  In the novitiate, a woman goes through the following stages:

Candidate:  she makes a candidacy of up to three months

Postulant:   she then makes a postulancy of six to nine months

Novice:        she receives a modified form of the religious habit, with white veil, and makes a two-year novitiate, during which she and the community discern more closely whether she is called to make vows in our community

Junior:she makes temporary vows of obedience, stability, and fidelity to the monastic way of life;  at the end of this time, she or the community may decide to prolong her time in temporary vows, or they may decide that she will make final (solemn) vows