Mater Ecclesiae Monastery

The Mater Ecclesiae Monastery is a monastery in Vatican City. It was founded around 1990 by Pope John Paul II as a monastery for cloistered nuns. In 2013, it became the residence of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI after his resignation.

The monastery, named after a Catholic title for Mary as "Mother of the Church" , is located on the Vatican Hill inside the Vatican Gardens and near the Aquilone fountain. It was founded by Pope John Paul II in order to have a community of nuns of an enclosed religious order inside Vatican City, who were to pray for the pope in his service to the Catholic Church. This task was, at the beginning, entrusted to the nuns of the Order of St. Clare, better known as the Poor Clares. This assignment, however, was shifted every five years to another female monastic order, who would then occupy the monastery.

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