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‪Like female and male active Catholic religious congregations, contemplative religious communities in French-speaking Switzerland and Franche-Comté Burgundy are worried about the aging of their members. But since they do not have to fill, or eventually to dispense with, teaching or caring positions, as in the case of the former, the contemplative orders define themselves rather by their historical roles: prayer, work, hospitality. Age is a temporary obstacle in the perspective of an age-old past and does not affect a primary collective identity. Nevertheless, the greying of most communities is an undeniable reality. The ways of adapting to it differ between monks and nuns, according to the different rules, depending on whether enclosure is more or less porous, and depending on relative prosperity. What is at stake is significant. From the point of view of vocations, a community that is aged and dependent may threaten what makes the order different and might still today attract women and men. And from a theoretical standpoint, the emic representation of old age may reposition scientific categories for perceiving and understanding these social groups.‪