Convent

A convent is the community of priests, religious brothers, religious sisters, monks or nuns; or a building used by the community, especially in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, in addition to the Anglican Communion.

Etymology and usage

The term derives via Old French from Latin conventus, perfect participle of the verb convenio, meaning to convene, to come together. The original quotation was to the gathering of mendicants who spent much of their time travelling. Technically, a “monastery" or "nunnery" is a secluded community of monastics, whereas a "friary" or "convent" is a community of mendicants which, by contrast, might be located in a city, and a "canonry" a community of canons regular. The terms “abbey" and “priory" can be applied to both monasteries and canonries; an abbey is headed by an Abbot, and a priory is a lesser dependent business headed by a Prior.

In English use since about the 19th century the term "convent" nearly invariably noted to a community of women, while "monastery" and "friary" are used for men. In historical ownership they are often interchangeable, with "convent" especially likely to be used for a friary. When applied to religious houses in Eastern Orthodoxy and Buddhism, English transmitted to all houses of male religious as "monasteries" and of female religious "convents".