How does a nun get their training?

Answer 1

Nuns start out as novices, when they begin their training in the the convent. They stay there until the mother superior or presiding priest feels they are ready and then they take another set of vows and basically "marry" themselves to the church Then they become nuns and can stay at the convent or be reassigned as missionaries who travel from place to place.

Roman Catholic AnswerThere is a difference between a "nun" and a "sister". Nuns are cloistered, female religious (cloistered means that they live in an enclosed monastery or convent and are not normally allowed to leave; nor is anyone allowed in) who are basically contemplative: they pray all day, The Divine Office is the primary duty, along with private prayer, meditation, and contemplation plus work such as sewing vestments and hangings for churches, or making altar breads.

A woman entering a monastery usually spends six months as a postulant, where she gets to know the community "from the inside" so to speak, and decides if she would like to stay. The community also decides if they want her to stay. Then she is "clothed": she receives the holy habit, and moves into the novitiate, a place set apart for novices who are learning religious life; at this point she is under no promises. At the end of a year or two, if she successfully completes novitiate and wishes to stay, she formally requests admittance and the whole community votes on whether to accept her. If both are agreeable, she is received into the community as a junior and professes simple vows, good for one year. These are renewed for how many years that order specifies. At the end of the time of trials, she again petitions for solemn vows, and again, the entire community votes. If she is received, she makes a solemn profession and from that day is bound for life.

A sister, upon entering the junior period would be sent to school to learn to teach, nurse, or whatever that particular order's charism is. After making her solemn vows or perpetual profession (many sisters do not take solemn vows as a nun does) she would be sent out as a nurse or teacher, or whatever charism that order engages in.

Answer 2

When a woman enters a religious congregation she becomes a postulant. After taking first vows she becomes a novice and gains the title Sr. Religious Name. Then upon taking solemn vows she becomes a nun for now and all eternity.

Answer 3

Roman Catholic AnswerA woman entering a monastery is called a postulant for the first six months or so. At the end of her postulancy, if she is accepted by the order, she is clothed (receives the habit of the order) as a novice. The noviciate is separate and usually last a year or two. Upon successful completion of noviciate and acceptance of the other members of the order, the woman may then take simple vows, when she is known as a junior, which are good for one year. After another several years, a vote is taken by all the nuns and the new nun is allowed to make solemn profession which bind for life.

Answer 4

It was much the same training as modern nuns: a period of learning and probation called the "novitiate", when the novice would be taught the strict regime of the nunnery, learn the rules and daily timetable, learn Latin and learn to sing the hymns, prayers and psalms used in services, learn to sew and embroider and much more.

The novitiate was designed like an apprenticeship to see if the life of a nun was acceptable to the novice - and to see if she fitted into the nunnery; if she did not like it she could leave and if it was thought she was unsuited to the cloistered life she could be asked to leave. Her religious enthusiasm (or lack of it) would be a major factor in the decision.

Otherwise, after a variable period of learning and eventual acceptance (which might take a year or more), she would take her final vows in front of a bishop and be "married to Christ", which is how nuns saw their vocation.