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Double-Monasteries
That is, monasteries housing both monks and nuns. Such
communities were especially common in the Celtic Church,
but could be found throughout the Orthodox world at
various times. Because of the danger of scandal, they
almost always were eventually turned into single-sex
monasteries; I am unaware of any existing in modern times.
Norman Hugh Redington
- Some obvious problems:
-
St. Jerome: Epistle 117:
To a Mother and Daughter Living in Gaul.
Both widowed mother and single daughter
are trying to live as nuns, but through some disagreement
live apart. Moreover, both have invited male monastics
to live with them as "chaste protectors". Jerome
addresses some of the problems of "double
monasticism" and "monasticism in the world".
He also paints an extremely vivid portrait of an upper-class
Roman dinner-party -- not particularly decadent, but
still an inappropriate place for nuns.
--- SPL
- Some famous double-monasteries:
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