Who we are

We are community of the nuns of the Order of Preachers, of which there are many. We belong to a large family founded 800 years ago, by St. Dominic, of which we are the contemplative branch.

The Order of Preachers was instituted "especially for preaching and the salvation of souls” (Primitive Constitutions of the Order), its task is “the proclamation of the Word of God, preaching the name of our Lord Jesus Christ throughout the world” (Pope Honorius III at 18th January 1222). Members of the different branches of the Order (friars, nuns, sisters of miscellaneous Dominican congregations, members of secular institutes, laity etc.) share in a common service to proclaim the Word of God in various ways.

The rank of nuns is in the deepest heart of the Dominican order. Their main duty is to hear God's word, ponder it and call upon him in solitude so that “the word proceeding from the mouth of God may not return to him empty, but may accomplish those things for which it was sent”(cf. Is. 55,10). Nuns praise and celebrate the Lord in the name of whole humanity and also ask the Lord to bring every human into salvation. Like Moses standing on the mountain in front of the Lord with raised hands, while Israel fought to Amalek (Ex 17, 8 fol.) the nuns help the preaching of the brothers and sisters of our Order by all their hidden life in God's presence. Sharing the common life in love and forgiveness in their community, having “one mind and heart in God” (Acts 4,32), they are a sign of God's grace and love to the world, the sign of reconciliation of all things in Christ, they are "holy preaching" (the people called the first cloister of our Order in Prouilhe like that we celebrated 800th anniversary of its foundation in 2006).

The history of Praha - Lysolaje monastery is pretty short. At present we are six nuns, aged between 45 and 70 years. We are a contemplative community. Our seventh sister, who is on the far right in the photo, recently followed her Lord to his glory. Our lives are initially devoted to common and private prayers and then to study and work. We work for our subsistence but also for The Order, Church and last but not least we do our housework. Whatever we do, we do in our monastery. We don't serve at hospitals, schools, parishes etc.

Our website will tell you more about us, about our environment and also about some miscellaneous face-to-face encounters with people outside of our community. Maybe you would like to visit a mass or common prayer in our chapel or maybe you would be willing to trust us to prayer about some of your problems.

On this link you will find a video that our friend Alena Zavadilová made about our community some time ago.