lay sister

American  

noun

1. a woman who has taken religious vows and habit but is employed in her order chiefly in manual labor.

---

lay sister British  

noun

1. a woman who has taken the vows of a religious order but is not ordained and not bound to divine office

---

Etymology

Origin of lay sister

First recorded in 1700–10

Example Sentences

Accompanying the Castilian generals is Luz, a former aristocrat turned Dominican lay sister and agent of the Inquisition.

From Slate

Among the Spaniards’ company is the eerily cordial Baronesa Luz, a widow and lay sister of the Dominican order, and the sort of warm and sympathetic soul who will kick a dog when nobody’s looking.

From Seattle Times

Moreover the ugliest lay sister, a veiled ape, an octogenarian skeleton, was made the guardian of poor Vert-Vert, who had always preferred the youngest and coyest of the novices.

From Project Gutenberg

Whether he acceded to her request is not known, but in the following year there was serious trouble, because the Prioress had raised the number of nuns above the statutory number of twenty, by receiving two girls against the bishop’s order and the convent’s will, one to be a nun and the other to be a lay sister.

From Project Gutenberg

Busch, with the consent of the chapter-general of the congregation of Windesheim, took from Bronopia two nuns, Ida and Tecla and a lay sister Aleidis, who for his sake and for the sake of the good work left their own country and their noble friends and relatives, and made a long and sometimes dangerous journey with Busch across Westphalia and Saxony to Helmstedt.

From Project Gutenberg