“Benedictine women in North America maintain the Western tradition of cenobitic monasticism, characterized by the common life ‘under a Rule and an Abbot.’ The prioress is a central figure in the cenobitic community whose members have come together to seek God. She attends to the spiritual and temporal well-being of her community, appointing assistants to tend to the various affairs of the priory. In leading the community and exercising her authority, she does all things with appropriate counsel Ant community members for their part help the prioress to discern wisely by participating in the collegial structures of government that have reappeared in this culture and this time, advising her out of their own knowledge and understanding of matters under consideration. But final judgement in issues affecting the community life is the responsibility of the prioress.”

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Upon This Tradition:

Five Statements on Monastic Values

in the Lives of American Benedictine Sisters

Conference of American Benedictine Prioresses

(2001).