You cannot be currently married in the eyes of the Church. If you are, you must obtain an annulment in order to consider becoming a nun. Widows may validly become nuns.
The vow of chastity, or celibacy, means that Catholic nuns and sisters do not marry or engage in romantic behavior or sexual acts of any kind. This vow frees her from the demands of an exclusive human relationship so that she can give all her love to God and through God to all people.
Live as a single, widowed, or annulled woman.
In order to be considered for life in a convent, you must be a woman who doesn't have any outstanding vows. This means you must either be unmarried, or your married partner has passed away.
Consecrated Widows
At this point in time, the Latin (Roman) Catholic Church has not re-established the Order of Widows/Widowers in its Canon Law. The Canons for the Eastern Catholic Churches do allow for the consecration of widows and widowers.
Aspiring nuns and monks are required to reject private property, marriage and biological family ties. Celibacy – abstinence from sexual relations – is implicit in the rejection of marriage and procreation and has always been central to the monastic ideal.
You must be 18 to 40-ish years old. Although the age limit used to be confined to 18-25, communities accept women up to age 40, and many accept women beyond their 40s and into their 50s. If you are in the higher range of age, don't be discouraged from pursuing religious life.
A woman who wants to become a Catholic nun, for example, must be at least 18 years old, be single, have no dependent children, and have no debts to be considered. Buddhist nuns face similar requirements when considering ordination.
When a man loses his wife, he becomes a widower. The equivalent name for a woman whose husband dies is a widow. In many cases, a man is only referred to as a widower if he has not remarried. Both a widow and a widower are described as being widowed.
Marriage to a brother's widow is prohibited, but not to a deceased wife's sister.
(Besides being widowed, Catholics who want to remarry in a church-sanctioned fashion must first receive an annulment.) While the Pope has not yet called for the ban to be lifted, he did tell churches not to treat remarried Catholics as if they were “excommunicated.”
Most people use the term nuns to refer to both nuns and sisters, but there are some significant differences. Nuns' lives are spent in prayer and work within their convent or monastery. Sisters are more active in the world, engaging in many different kinds of work, most often for people who are in great need.
Can a Catholic woman get married and divorced twice, give birth to eight children with two different men, become a nun and eventually found a new religious order? The answer is Yes!
Becoming a nun is a life-altering decision. There are numerous communities that accept women over 60 who want to become a nun. Some communities, particularly the more traditional ones, do have an age limit of usually 30 or 35. Yet even the more traditional communities will ...
The nuns pray the Divine Office together in choir five times a day, spend an hour and a half daily in mental prayer, do spiritual reading for at least a half hour a day, observe silence except during Recreation which is after dinner and supper; and engage in a variety of work: maintenance of the monastery, gardening, ...
Without a doubt, the answer is yes. Nuns are not prohibited from drinking alcohol. In reality, several famous nuns make and market wines.
Throughout the Catholic Church, East as well as West, a priest may not marry. In the Eastern Catholic Churches, a married priest is one who married before being ordained. The Catholic Church considers the law of clerical celibacy to be not a doctrine, but a discipline.
Catholic Church
The Catechism forbids polygamy as a grave offense against marriage and contrary to the original plan of God and equal dignity of human beings.
No, unless the previous marriage is found to be not valid or the former spouse has died (Canon 1085).
There are also many who are tonsured monastics but have never formally lived the monastic life. Further, a number of bishops are widowers, but because clergy cannot remarry after ordination, such a man must remain celibate after the death of his wife.
It is common for widows to wear their wedding ring on their right ring finger rather than their left ring finger. This is a way to symbolize moving forward while still keeping the memory of your marriage close.
It is a common practice for those who have been widowed to move their wedding ring to their right hand. You might see moving your ring as a "baby step" toward not wearing it. For some people, this is a small step toward "letting go" of the past (even though you don't have to do that).
“My late spouse.”
The technically-correct way to refer to a spouse who passed away is as your “late husband” or “late wife." The term “late” is euphemistic, and it comes from an Old English phrase, “of late." In the original Old English, “of late” refers to a person who was recently, but is not presently, alive.
But according to Sister Mary Ann Walsh of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, nuns have the same access to medical care as any other woman - and that includes access to the pill.
No, a woman is not required to be a virgin before becoming a sister.
For their enitre lives, their time will be divided between constant prayer and the work of the convent. Most do not read novels, see movies, or play sports. They do not hug one another and keep all physical contact to a minimum. Most of them rarely, if ever, see their families.