postulant

The postulants are guided in reconceptualizing their entire lives as a series of events indicating a divinely directed transformation, a progressive unfolding of self that operates in both temporal registers.

If that all goes well, three months later, she enters the postulant stage, at which she can start wearing the makeup but is not yet given a veil.

Even today, postulants who enter the order, which has chapters around the world, mostly spend their days alone, in spartan cells in prayer and contemplation, mixed with some manual labor.

She had already been there four years, arriving at age 20 and spending the first six months as a postulant before becoming a novice nun.

While a postulant at the convent, she began to have seizures.