prioress

He had dozens of burly military veterans enforce his rules while the prioress and several nuns left.

The prioress of the order had taken her to meet the friar Robert, who was visiting from the Carmelite priory in Oxford, to see if he wanted anything to eat.

“This could be the prioress, or maybe someone in the Dominican order who is over her, though it is possible archdiocesan officials have weighed in on the matter informally.”

They fret about prioress elections and daily expenses — “the high price of pins, the extravagance of little loaves, the wastage of candles” — more than they do the Black Death.

When “Matrix” opens, Marie, all of 17 years old, is appointed prioress of a dilapidated abbey, founded centuries earlier, where a few nuns remain scavenging for food.