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by bell-cot 964 days ago
With the plummeting popularity of becoming a monk or nun over the past half-century or so, I suspect that quite a few such communities would relax their requirements.

OTOH, any "you can stay indefinitely" offers would be given on an individual basis, contingent on both your behavior and their own situation (including the financial viability of their organization), and rather unlikely to include substantial medical care as you got older.

1 comments

I'm not sure orthodox monasteries are having that problem to the same degree. To my knowledge about twenty monasteries in the US are newly formed since the 1970s.

Anyway I know one person who became a monk at one and another who was rejected for not meeting the requirements. Exceptions have to be granted by the regional bishop, and they need a genuinely compelling reason. "There aren't enough monks" either isn't one, or they don't have that problem right now.