Convent (place of Dominican life)

A place where people gather, answering to a personal call of God to live together according to the religious rules inspired by the Gospel, in order to seek God. These men and women, bound by the vows of religion, in this way follow the counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience given by Jesus to his disciples. Those who live in a convent are called « brothers » or « sisters » and pray together in the conventual church. They eat in community in the refectory, sleep in a place called a dormitory, organise and renew their life in a capitular hall (or chapter), study with the help of the library ... These places are connected thanks to a unified architecture that freely allows the religious to go from one to the other and to meditate on the Word of God. In the Order of Preachers, the name « monastery » is reserved for the convent of strict enclosure where the Dominican nuns live, founded by Saint Dominic at the start of the Order.