Dominican Stories

Dominican Nuns Launch First International Website

Sr. Mary Catharine Perry, OP and op.org feature

Summit, New Jersey–The Nuns of the Order of Preachers, commonly known as the Dominican Nuns, launch 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 we gathered together nine women who were converts from the Cathar sect to the Catholic Faith at the Monastery of Notre Dame de Prouilhe in Southern France. From the very beginning St. Dominic associated the contemplative nuns to the mission of the Order to preach the Gospel for the salvation of souls through their lives of prayer and penance.

According to tradition it was at this monastery that St. Dominic received the Rosary from Our Lady in 1208, although there are no historical documents to prove this oral tradition.

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.