A nun is a woman who has taken vows committing her life to her religion. She may be a woman who decided to dedicate her life to serve the other living beings or to be an ascetic who voluntarily chooses to leave mainstream society and live her life in prayer and contemplation in a monastery or convent. The term "nun" is applicable to Catholics – both eastern and western traditions – Orthodox Christians, Anglicans, Lutherans, Jains, Buddhists, Taoists, and Hindus. While in common usage the terms nun and sister are often used interchangeably, in some cases they are differentiated, a nun being a religious woman who lives a contemplative cloistered life of prayer and meditation for the salvation of others, while a sister, in Christian Catholic order like Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity, lives an active vocation of prayer and service, often to the needy, sick, poor, and uneducated.

All Buddhist traditions have nuns, although their status is different among the various Buddhist countries. The Buddha is reported to have allowed women into the sangha only with great reluctance, predicting that the move would lead to Buddhism's collapse after 500 years, rather than the 1,000 years it would have enjoyed otherwise (this prophecy occurs only once in the Canon and is the only prophecy involving time in the Canon, leading some to suspect that it is a late addition.) Fully ordained Buddhist nuns (bhikkhunis) have more Patimokkha-rules than the monks (bhikkhus). The important vows are the same, however.

Salvatore Antonio "Rino" Gaetano (Crotone,-October 29, 1950 - Rome-June 2, 1981), was an Italian singer-songwriter.

Rino Gaetano was born in Crotone, in the southern Italian region of Calabria. At the age of nine, he had to follow his parents to Rome, where he spent the rest of his life.

After a few shows at Folkstudio, he was discovered by Vincenzo Micocci and released his first single in 1973, "I Love You Marianna" (with "Jacqueline" on the B-side) under the pseudonym 'Kammamuri', produced by Antonello Venditti and Piero Montanari. The title referred to Gaetano's fondness for his grandmother Marianna, who used to play with him as a child, but it was also interpreted as a pun on loving marijuana.

In 1974 he published his first album, Ingresso libero, to little commercial and critical success; however, the LP featured the same eccentric style that would go on to characterize his career. Success came the following year with the 45 rpm record "Ma il cielo è sempre più blu"; on the album, Gaetano mixed his unique musical talent with a typical "man from the street" attitude and socialistic ideals (then very common among the Italian youth). In 1976 his song "Berta filava" also became very popular, with a long pun on "the good old' times" when Berta would work hard and go out with men.

Jeanine Deckers (17 October 1933 – 29 March 1985), known in English as The Singing Nun, was a Belgian nun, and a member (as Sister Luc Gabriel) of the Dominican Fichermont Convent in Belgium. She became internationally famous in 1963 as Sœur Sourire (Sister Smile) when she scored a hit with the song "Dominique". In the English-language world, she is credited on her records as "The Singing Nun".

Born Jeanne-Paule Marie Deckers, she was a nun in the Dominican Fichermont Convent in Waterloo, Belgium. While in the convent, she wrote, sang and performed her own songs, which were so well received by the order and at retreats that the monastery decided to let her record an album, which visitors and retreatists to the monastery would be able to purchase.

In 1963, the album was recorded in Brussels at Philips. The single "Dominique" became an international hit. Many radio stations in the U.S. played it and other softer hits more often in the wake of the John F. Kennedy assassination. Overnight, the Dominican nun was an international celebrity with the stage name of Sœur Sourire (Sister Smile). She gave concerts and appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show on 5 January 1964. "Dominique" was the first Belgian song that has been a number one hit single in the United States.