What is a female friar called?

Answer 1

The female equivalent of a monk was a nun living under the Regula Sancti Benedicti (The Rule of St Benedict).

The female equivalent of a friar was a nun living under the Rule of St Clare, established by Clare of Assisi in about 1216; her nuns were called The Poor Ladies and later The Poor Clares. Extreme poverty was at the heart of her Rule - she did not permit her nuns to wear shoes during her lifetime and after her death a Pope had to give the Order a special dispensation to be permitted shoes. Some of the nuns continued to follow Clare's Rule to the letter and did not wear shoes.

See link below for an image of a friar and a Poor Clare nun (without shoes):

Answer 2

A friar is a male member of a mendicant religious order, one that originally relied on begging for alms. The word "friar" comes from the old French word frere for brother. There is no equivalent English word today based on the word for sister.

Friars were typically not confined to monasteries the way monks were. Because the Church proscribed the role of females, they were confined to cloisters if they didn't stay home. The word "nun" means a female member of a monastic religious order and comes from the feminine form of the word monk.

The word "beguine" signifies a woman from a type of Medieval spiritual order that was not restricted to a cloister. The word can be taken to mean any non-cloistered religious woman.

Answer 3

There is no such thing as a female friar.

Answer 4

Nun