Cistercian Nuns
There has also always been a large number of Cistercian nuns; the first community was founded in the Diocese of Langres in 1125; at the period of their widest extension there are said to have been 900 monasteries, and the communities were very large. The nuns were devoted to contemplation and also did field-work. In Spain and France certain Cistercian abbesses had extraordinary privileges. Numerous reforms took place among the nuns. The best known of all Cistercian women's communities was probably the Abbey of Port-Royal, reformed by Mother Marie Angélique Arnauld, and associated with the story of the Jansenist controversy.
The nuns have also followed the split in observances followed by the monks. Those who follow the reform of De Rancé are called Trappistines. As with the men, the houses of this branch outnumber those of the Original Observance.
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“Both nuns and mothers worship images,
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But keep a marble or a bronze repose.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)