Word Finder - convents

definition

A religious community whose members (especially nuns) live under strict observation of religious rules and self-imposed vows.

definition

The buildings and pertaining surroundings in which such a community lives.

definition

A Christian school.

definition

A gathering of people lasting several days for the purpose of discussing or working on topics previously selected.

definition

A coming together; a meeting.

In 1813-14 Rich spent some time in Europe, and on his return to Bagdad devoted himself to the study of the geography of Asia Minor, and collected much information in Syrian and Chaldaean convents concerning the Yezidis.

Of these, 126 monasteries and 90 convents were situated in the city, 51 monasteries and 22 convents in the suburbicariates.

The law of 1873 created a special charitable and religious fund of the city, while it left untouched 23 monasteries and 49 convents which had either the character of private institutions or were supported by foreign funds.

The proceeds of the sale of the suppressed convents and monasteries were partly converted into pensions for monks and nuns, and partly allotted to the municipal charity boards which had undertaken the educational and charitable functions formerly exercised by the religious orders.

In exempt convents the head of the monastery or priory exercised jurisdiction subject to an appeal to the pope.

It constitutes a little town of itself, surrounded by walls and a moat, and contains numerous small houses, 18 convents and a church.

In consequence numerous churches and convents were built, and the town acquired the title of "Little Rome."

In medieval ecclesiastical usage the term might be applied to almost any person having ecclesiastical authority; it was very commonly given to the more dignified clergy of a cathedral church, but often also to ordinary priests charged with the cure of souls and, in the early days of monasticism, to monastic superiors, even to superiors of convents of women.

In the beginning of the 13th century the foundation of the Dominican and Franciscan_ orders furnished a more ecclesiastical and regular means of supplying the same wants, and numerous convents sprang up at once throughout Germany.

The society counted many members among the pious women in the convents of southern Germany.

Thus, when his duties called him to Constance in 1414, he employed his leisure in exploring the libraries of Swiss and Swabian convents.

The principal village is Capsali, a place of about 1500 inhabitants, at the southern extremity, with a bishop, and several convents and churches; the lesser hamlets are Modari, Potamo and San Nicolo.

Certain convents became centres of Joachimism.

Villanueva is a clean and thriving place, with good modern public buildings - town hall, churches, convents and schools.

The library, situated above the principal portico, was at one time one of the richest in Europe, comprising the king's own collection, the extensive bequest of Diego de Mendoza, Philip's ambassador to Rome, the spoils of the emperor of Morocco, Muley Zidan (1603-1628) and various contributions from convents, churches and cities.

It possesses a castle of Count Esterhazy, a modern Roman Catholic Church in Gothic style and two convents.

During the first half of the 13th century, when the university of Paris was plunged in angry feuds with the municipality, feuds which even led at one time (1229) to the flight of the students in a body, the friars established teachers in their convents in Paris.

During his thirty-eight years tenure of the see 67 new churches, 32 convents and nearly 200 mission schools were built.

Kitzingen is still surrounded by its old walls and towers, and has an Evangelical and two Roman Catholic churches, two municipal museums, a town-hall, a grammar school, a richly endowed hospital and two old convents.

Cullera is a walled town, containing a ruined Moorish citadel, large barracks, several churches and convents and a hospital.

Many of the churches, convents and other ecclesiastical establishments were built in the second half of the 18th century, some in the first half; and some parts of the original cathedral of 1617 have probably survived later alterations and additions.

In modern times many of the convents have been devoted to educational work especially for girls, which is an obstacle to the successful development of a public school system in the country.

Both sexes dressed with Puritan plainness; husbands and wives quitted their homes for convents; marriage became an awful and scarcely permitted rite; mothers suckled their own babes; and persons of all ranks - nobles, scholars and artists - renounced the world to assume the Dominican robe.

Caravaca is dominated by the medieval castle of Santa Cruz, and contains several convents and a fine parish church, with a miraculous cross celebrated for its healing power, in honour of which a yearly festival is held on the 3rd of May.

From Palestine Jerome and his companions went to Egypt, remaining some time in Alexandria, and they visited the convents of the Nitrian desert.

At the time of the secularization of Church properties there were about 120 religious edifices in the city - churches, convents, monasteries, &c. - many of which were turned over to secular uses.

A strong type of womanhood is revealed in the correspondence of St Boniface with various Saxon Benedictine nuns, some in England and some who accompanied him to the continent and there established great convents.

It has to be said that in the course of the middle ages, especially the later middle ages, grave disorders arose in many convents; and this doubtless led, in the reform movements initiated by the councils of Constance and Basel, and later of Trent, to the introduction of strict enclosure in Benedictine convents, which now is the almost universal practice.

At the present day there are of Black Benedictine nuns 262 convents with 7000 nuns, the large majority being directly subject to the diocesan bishops; if the Cistercians and others be included, there are 387 convents with nearly Ii,000 nuns.

Most of the congregations of Augustinian canons had convents of nuns, called canonesses; many such exist to this day.

On its capture by the Dutch in 1656 it was a flourishing colony with convents of five religious orders, churches and public offices, inhabited by no fewer than 900 noble families and 150o families dependent on mercantile or political occupations.

The mint, the arsenal and several convents (now ruined or converted to other uses) are also noteworthy.

Himself a Catholic priest - "the glory of the priesthood and the shame" - the tone of the orthodox clergy was distasteful to him; the ignorant hostility to classical learning which reigned in their colleges and convents disgusted him.

Since the landed proprietors disposed of churches and convents, and the kings of bishoprics and abbeys, it became possible for them too to commit the sin of simony; hence a final expansion, in the iith century, of the meaning of the term.

He bestowed on them the church of St Andrea and conferred at the same time the valuable privilege of making and altering their own statutes; besides the other points, in 1546, which Ignatius had still more at heart, as touching the very essence of his institute, namely, exemption from ecclesiastical offices and dignities and from the task of acting as directors and confessors to convents of women.

The regulation as to convents seems partly due to a desire to avoid the worry and expenditure of time involved in the discharge of such offices and partly to a conviction that penitents living in enclosure, as all religious persons then were, would be of no effective use to the Society; whereas the founder, against the wishes of several of his companions, laid much stress on the duty of accepting the post of confessor to kings, queens and women of high rank when opportunity presented itself.

They began with the convents, and Oecolampadius was able to refrain in public worship on certain festival days from some practices he believed to be superstitious.

Cracow has 39 churches - about half the number it formerly had - and 25 convents for monks and nuns.

One of these diminutive convents is appropriated to the "oblati" or novices (Q), the other to the sick monks as an "infirmary" (R).

It has a stately modern parish church (attached to a Gothic choir), a small but very ancient chapel of the abbots of St Gall (whose summer residence was this village), and two Capuchin convents (one for men, founded in 1588, and one for women, founded in 1613).

There are several monasteries and convents, and British, French and German schools.

All over the district were built Senussi convents (zawia), which still exist and have much influence, although the headquarters of the order were withdrawn about the year 1855 to Jarabub, and in 1895 to Kufra, still farther into the heart of Africa.

In many districts the Senussi convents supply the only settled element, and the local Bedouins largely belong to the Order.

Barton turned out afterwards to have been an impostor, but she had duped More, who now lived in a superstitious atmosphere of convents and churches, and he had given his countenance to her supernatural pretensions.

Amongst other buildings are the episcopal palace, with a museum of Roman and medieval antiquities, several convents, and the principal deaf and dumb institute in the country.

There are several ancient churches and convents, in one of which the interior of the chancel roof is inlaid with mother-of-pearl.

Churches and convents of Byzantine architecture are scattered about the island.

An article on monastic arrangements would be incomplete without some account of the convents of the Mendicant or Preaching Friars, including the Black Friars or Domini cans, the Grey or Franciscans, the White or Carmelites, Y Friars.

Of the convents of the Carmelite or White Friars we have a good example in the Abbey of Hulne, near Alnwick, the first of the order in England, founded A.D.

We can trace the presence of Armenian convents on the Mount of Olives as early as the 5th century.