Convent originally signified an assembly of Roman citizens in the provinces of the empire, gathered for purposes of administration and justice. The term has evolved to be related to monasticism and is generally applied to a religious community of women. The life lived by the inhabitants of a convent naturally varies in its details, according to the particular object for which it has been founded, or the special circumstances of time and place of its origin. Convents are usually roughly divided between the enclosed and unenclosed, but in terms of the present day, this division is unsatisfactory because of the variety of work undertaken by these communities. Generally the enclosed communities are contemplative, but even they undertake some educational or service-oriented work, while the “active” communities will also have a contemplative component. It may be stated that the contemplative life, in which women are motivated by a desire to save their own souls and the souls of others by their lives of prayer, seclusion, and self-denial, was the idea of older orders.

About the “contemplative life:” the complacent loving gaze of the soul on Divine truth already known and apprehended by the intellect and assisted and enlightened by divine grace. In his investigation of divine things, the contemplative is driven by love for those things, and to increase this love is his ultimate purpose. He does not rely on the natural powers of his intellect in his endeavors to gain understanding of the truth, but seeks aid by prayer and by the practice of all Christian virtues and strives to fit his soul for the grace he desires. The vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, and even silence, are aids in this effort as well, as they help to free the contemplative from earthly concerns. Having a fixed set of duties and obligations as well as a prescribed routine also contribute to the experience.

Examples of contemplative orders for women are the Carmelites, who originated in the 13th century in Israel (Mount Carmel). There are now about 11,000 Carmelites in  75 countries. An order of Carmelites here in the US spends up to seven hours a day in prayer, for themselves and for others. They receive requests for prayer from visitors and rarely leave the convent.

Another order is the Cistercian nuns, founded in 1098 in Citeaux, France by Benedictine monks (there are also Cistercian monks). The order was established to create silence and solitude in the community, “to be truly poor in Christ.” In 1957 the first group of Cistercians came to the United States from Switzerland, where they settled in Wisconsin.