Enclosed Religious Orders - Contemplative Orders

Contemplative Orders

The English word monk most properly refers to men in monastic life, while the term friar more properly refers to mendicants active in the broader world (like Franciscans, Dominicans and Augustinians), though not all monasteries require strict enclosure. Benedictine monks, e.g., have often staffed parishes and been allowed to leave monastery confines.

Although the English word nun is often used to describe all Christian women who have joined religious institutes, strictly speaking, women are referred to as nuns only when they live in enclosure, otherwise they are "Religious Sisters". The distinctions between the Christian terms monk, nun, friar, Brother, and Sister are sometimes easily blurred because some Orders (such as the Dominicans or Augustinians) include nuns who are enclosed, who are usually grouped as the Second Order of that movement, and Religious Sisters who work in the broader world, who form a part of its Third Order.