Editing Nun (section)

==== Distinction between a nun and a religious sister ====
{{See also|Religious sister (Catholic)}}

Although usage has varied throughout church history, typically "nun" (Latin: ''monialis'') is used for women who have taken [[solemn vow|"solemn" vow]]s, and "sister" (Latin: ''soror'') is used for women who have taken "simple" vows (that is, vows other than solemn vows).

During the first millennium, nearly all religious communities of men and women were dedicated to prayer and [[contemplative prayer|contemplation]]. These [[monasteries]] were built in remote locations or were separated from the world by means of a [[precinct wall]]. The [[mendicant orders]], founded in the 13th century, combined a life of prayer and dedication to God with active works of preaching, hearing confessions, and service to the poor, and members of these orders are known as [[friars]] rather than [[monks]]. At that time, and into the 17th century, Church custom did not allow women to leave the [[cloister]] if they had taken religious vows. Female members of the mendicant orders ([[Dominican Order|Dominican]], [[Order of Saint Augustine|Augustinian]] and [[Carmelite]] nuns and [[Poor Clares]]) continued to observe the same enclosed life as members of the [[Monasticism|monastic orders]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Catholic Encyclopedia: Mary Ward|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15551c.htm|access-date=2018-02-14|website=www.newadvent.org|archive-date=2021-09-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210904122241/http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15551c.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

Originally, the vows taken by profession in any religious institute approved by the Holy See were classified as solemn.<ref name=":5" /><ref name="Vermeersch">[http://oce.catholic.com/index.php?title=Religious_Life Arthur Vermeersch,  "Religious Life"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120115054809/http://oce.catholic.com/index.php?title=Religious_Life|date=2012-01-15}} in ''[[The Catholic Encyclopedia]]'', Vol. 12. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. Accessed 18 July 2011.</ref> This was declared by [[Pope Boniface VIII]] (1235–1303).<ref>"Illud solum votum debere dici solemne ... quod solemnizatum fuerit per suceptionem S. Ordinis aut per professionem expressam vel tacitam factam alicui de religionibus per Sedem Apostolicam approbatis" (C. unic. de voto, tit. 15, lib. III in 6, quoted in [https://archive.org/stream/religiouscongreg00frer#page/16/mode/2up/search/%22Illud+solum+votum+debere+dici+solemne%22 Celestine Anthony Freriks, ''Religious Congregations in Their External Relations''], p. 17).</ref> The situation changed in the 16th century. In 1521, two years after the [[Fourth Lateran Council]] had forbidden the establishment of new religious institutes, [[Pope Leo X]] established a religious [[monasticism|Rule]] with simple vows for those [[third order|tertiaries]] attached to existing communities who undertook to live a formal religious life. In 1566 and 1568, [[Pope Pius V]] rejected this class of congregation, but they continued to exist and even increased in number. After at first being merely tolerated, they afterwards obtained approval.<ref name="Vermeersch" /> Finally in the 20th century, [[Pope Leo XIII]] recognized as religious all men and women who took simple vows.<ref>Constitution "Conditae a Christo" of 8 December 1900, cited in [http://www.dom.edu/export/sites/dominican/mcgreal/volumeone/DaHCHAP11.pdf Mary Nona McGreal, ''Dominicans at Home in a New Nation'', chapter 11] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927150743/http://www.dom.edu/export/sites/dominican/mcgreal/volumeone/DaHCHAP11.pdf|date=2011-09-27}}</ref> Their lives were oriented not to the ancient monastic way of life, but more to [[social service]] and to [[evangelization]], both in [[Europe]] and in mission areas. Their number had increased dramatically in the upheavals brought by the [[French Revolution]] and subsequent [[Napoleonic]] invasions of other Catholic countries, depriving thousands of religious of the income that their communities held because of inheritances and forcing them to find a new way of living the religious life. But members of these new associations were not recognized as "religious" until [[Pope Leo XIII]]'s Constitution "Conditae a Christo" of 8 December 1900.<ref>Cited in [http://www.dom.edu/export/sites/dominican/mcgreal/volumeone/DaHCHAP11.pdf Mary Nona McGreal, ''Dominicans at Home in a New Nation'', chapter 11] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927150743/http://www.dom.edu/export/sites/dominican/mcgreal/volumeone/DaHCHAP11.pdf|date=2011-09-27}}</ref>

The [[1917 Code of Canon Law]] reserved the term "nun" (Latin: ''monialis'') for religious women who took solemn vows or who, while being allowed in some places to take simple vows, belonged to institutes whose vows were normally solemn.<ref>{{Cite web|title=CIC 1917: text – IntraText CT|url=http://www.intratext.com/IXT/LAT0813/_P1D.HTM#6T|access-date=2018-02-14|website=www.intratext.com|archive-date=2019-05-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190515010057/http://www.intratext.com/IXT/LAT0813/_P1D.HTM#6T|url-status=live}}</ref> It used the word "sister" (Latin: ''soror'') exclusively for members of institutes for women that it classified as "[[Congregation of Papal Right|congregations]]"; and for "nuns" and "sisters" jointly it used the Latin word ''religiosae'' (women religious). The same religious order could include both "nuns" and "sisters", if some members took solemn vows and others simple vows.

The new legal code of the Catholic Church which was adopted in 1983, however, remained silent on this matter. Whereas previously the code distinguished between orders and congregations, the code now refers simply to religious institutes.

Since the [[1983 Code of Canon Law|code of 1983]], the Vatican has addressed the renewal of the contemplative life of nuns. It produced the letter ''Verbi Sponsa'' in 1999,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Verbi Sponsa (13 May 1999)|url=https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccscrlife/documents/rc_con_ccscrlife_doc_13051999_verbi-sponsa_en.html|access-date=2018-11-22|website=www.vatican.va|archive-date=2018-12-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181213201128/http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccscrlife/documents/rc_con_ccscrlife_doc_13051999_verbi-sponsa_en.html|url-status=live}}</ref> the apostolic constitution {{Lang|la|[[Vultum Dei quaerere]]}} in 2016, and the instruction ''Cor Orans'' in 2018<ref>{{Cite web|title="Cor Orans" – Implementing Instruction of the Apostolic Constitution "Vultum Dei quaerere" on women's contemplative life, of the Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and the Societies of Apostolic Life (1 April 2018)|url=https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccscrlife/documents/rc_con_ccscrlife_doc_20180401_cor-orans_en.html|access-date=2018-11-22|website=www.vatican.va|archive-date=2018-11-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181102203408/http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccscrlife/documents/rc_con_ccscrlife_doc_20180401_cor-orans_en.html|url-status=live}}</ref> "which replaced the 1999 document ''Verbi Sponsa'' and attempted to bring forward the ideas regarding contemplative life born during the Second Vatican Council".<ref>{{Cite news|date=2018-11-22|title=Contemplative nuns roll with the changes under Pope Francis|language=en-US|work=Crux|url=https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2018/11/22/contemplative-nuns-roll-with-the-changes-under-pope-francis/|url-status=dead|access-date=2018-11-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181122120445/https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2018/11/22/contemplative-nuns-roll-with-the-changes-under-pope-francis/|archive-date=2018-11-22}}</ref>

<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px">
File:Irmã Rosália Sehnem IFPCC7.JPG|Sister Rosália Sehnem of the [[Sisters of St. Francis of Penance and Christian Charity]]
File:Nun on a motor-bike 2 - by Francis Hannaway.jpg|A sister of the Theresienne Sisters of [[Basankusu]] wearing a brightly coloured habit, riding a motor-bike, [[Democratic Republic of Congo]], 2013<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://stbasankusu.blogspot.co.uk/ |title=The Theresienne Sisters of Basankusu (La congrégation des soeurs thérésiennes de Basankusu) |access-date=2014-05-09 |archive-date=2014-05-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140512232302/http://stbasankusu.blogspot.co.uk/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
File:An Ugandan nun teaching during a community service day.jpg|A Ugandan nun teaching during a community service day
</gallery>