Today's religious applicant is older and better educated (nearly 70 percent have a bachelor's degree), than in the past.
At one point in Church history, girls could enter a community as early as age 12. For example, St. Therese of Lisieux entered a Carmelite monastery at age 15.
After her mother's death, St. Catherine de Ricci's father placed her in the Convent of Monticelli (where an aunt lived) at age six. Catherine later returned home for a few years, but eventually received her religious veil as a Dominican at 14. The year before, she had entered the Dominican order on this day in 1535.
- Little White Book, Diocese of Saginaw