CONVENT. – A term often used in a popular and improper sense to denote, in general, a religious house (v. RELIGIOUS HOUSE). In the strict and specific sense, it refers to the house or religious community of a Regular Order, i.e., of a religious institute with solemn vows, but not monastic. It is especially applied to the houses or communities of the Mendicant Orders.
Originally, the term was used in the sense of a monastic customs post (*conventus*). It then came to denote, in canonical sources, both the college of religious constituted as a moral body (c. 2, X, 3, 10; c. 6, X, 3, 35; c. 6, III, 14, in VI; c. 1, III, 10, in Clem., etc.) and, later, the place or building (*conventualis locus*) intended as their dwelling (c. 2, X, 3, 35; c. un., V, 6, in VI; c. 3, V, 8, in Clem., etc.).
It is sometimes used as a synonym for monastery and cenobium, from which, however, it differs in that these terms more properly correspond to houses or communities of monks and nuns.
The convent, thus conceived, is always a *domus formata*, but not always vice versa. In addition to the concept of *domus formata*, the convent, to be strictly such, requires in addition the specific canonical erection in this regard and the full actual observance of the Rule, notably the choral office and common life: requirements which may not be present in a community even if, for the number of its members, it is a *domus formata*. Such is the concept that, from the ancient monastic statutes (e.g., those of the Cluniacs) and especially through the legislation of the Mendicant Orders, has characterized the term *conventus* or *conventualis locus*.
As regards legal personality, which every canonically erected convent enjoys (can. 536 § 1), it is disputed whether it is a collegial moral personality (corporation) or a non-collegial one (foundation): perhaps it should be recognized as a mixed or complex personality, given that the community of religious constitutes a separate collegial moral person, which can exist outside and independently of the *summa bonorum*.