Brescia, Rosana MarrecoThomas Almeida, InesFonseca, Ana Maria Liberal da2025-05-072025-05-072024-12-300211-3538PURE: 105135951PURE UUID: 4743cb8f-48f6-40ff-a574-e46d081b247cORCID: /0000-0002-3034-5611/work/183233828ORCID: /0000-0002-4683-9499/work/183234133Scopus: 86000490731http://hdl.handle.net/10362/182763UIDB/00693/2020 UIDP/00693/2020In most female convents active in 18th-century Europe, music was essential to religious life. Women with previous musical knowledge were highly appreciated and, in some cases, offered benefits when entering the monastic life. The same happened in Portugal, despite women's education being more limited during the ancient regime than in other European countries. Women found in cloisters a space to develop their talents, receive education, and even achieve some recognition for their artistry. This becomes evident with the musician nuns of the ancient Royal Monastery of São Bento da Avé-Maria in Oporto, where a few women became virtuous performers, indispensable to commissioning new repertoire for the most important celebrations of the catholic calendar. But who were these women, and what was their cultural background before joining monastic life? The present paper intends to analyse the case of the musician nuns of the ancient Royal Monastery of São Bento da Avé-Maria during the 18th and 19th centuries, focusing on their education and on what it was like to be a woman, an artist, and a nun in Portuguese society.15568089engMonjas músicasMúsica ConventualMonasterio de São Bento da Avé-MariaMujeres en Portugaljournal article10.3989/anuariomusical.2024.79.451https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/86000490731https://anuariomusical.revistas.csic.es/index.php/anuariomusical/article/view/451