prioress n : the superior of a group of nuns [syn: abbess, mother superior]

English

Noun

prioress

1. a nun in charge of a priory; an abbess or mother superior

A priory is a house of men or women under religious vows headed by a prior or prioress.

Priories may be houses of mendicant friars or religious sisters (as the Dominicans, Augustinians and Carmelites, for instance), or monasteries of monks or nuns (as the Carthusians).

The Benedictines and their offshoots (Cistercians and Trappists among them), the Premonstratensians, and the military orders distinguish between conventual and simple or obedientiary priories. Conventual priories are those autonomous houses which have no abbots, either because the canonically required number of twelve monks has not yet been reached or for some other reason. At present the Benedictine Order has twenty-seven conventual priories. Simple or obedientiary priories are dependencies of abbeys. Their superior, who is subject to the abbot in everything, is called simple or obedientiary prior. These monasteries are satellites of the mother abbey.

Priories were originally Catholic institutions. A special case is the ecumenical priory of the Taizé Community.

Sources and references

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