Today, October 7th, the Nuns of the Order of Preachers, commonly known as the Dominican Nuns, launched their first international website: www.monialesop.org, in order to make their mission of prayer within the heart of the Order of Preachers better known.
St. Dominic de Guzman founded the Nuns of the Order in 1206, ten years before the friars were founded in 1216, when nine women who were Catholic converts from the Cathar sect, gathered together at the Monastery of Notre Dame de Prouilhe in southern France. From the very beginning St. Dominic associated the contemplative nuns with the mission of the Order to preach the Gospel for the salvation of souls through their lives of prayer and penance.
Although each Dominican monastery is autonomous, the Dominican nuns are bound together by a common Rule and Constitutions and their profession of obedience to the Master of the Order of Preachers, which is unique among the contemplative orders of nuns.
The new website www.monialesop.org is in the three official languages of the Order of Preachers: English, French and Spanish. Readers can learn about the different elements that make up the contemplative life of the Nuns and the particular way the contemplative nuns participate in the preaching mission of the Order.
There is an interactive map where one can locate any monastery in the world. Links to individual monastery websites as well as contact information can easily be found.
There is a resource page featuring various articles about the nuns’ charism as well as back issues of Monialibus, the international bulletin of the nuns.
Although the Nuns of the Order were always listed on the main website of the Order of Preachers, the information was very difficult to find. Sr. Lioba Hill, OP, of the Monastery of Our Lady of Prouilhe, France, representative of the French monasteries on the International Commission of Nuns, proposed the idea of a website totally dedicated to the nuns.
Sr. Mary Magdalene, OP, Monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary, Summit, NJ, was commissioned to create the website. Despite the challenges of language, nuns from all over the world collaborated with Sr. Mary Magdalene making the website a fruit of sisterly communion on an international level.
There are approximately 2500 nuns in 190 monasteries in five continents of the world.
Contact: Sr. Mary Catharine Perry, OP
smc@summitdominicans.org