The day Lauren Franko was inspired to become a nun, she did what many people her age would do: She logged on to the Internet in search of answers.

But first, the now 21-year-old had to break the news to her boyfriend, whom she had met in an online chat room a few years earlier and planned to marry.

"I didn't have the grace for marriage," Franko said. "I just couldn't do it. I needed to give myself entirely to God. That was the only way I would be happy."

She began her online search in the fall of 2006, and it led her to a Web site for the Dominican Monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary, a cloistered community of nuns in Summit, N.J.

Intrigued, she fired off an e-mail inquiry. A little over a year later, she entered the monastery.

In doing so, she is also joining an unfamiliar world —- one without cellphones and, ironically, the Internet.

The cloistered lifestyle may seem incompatible with the Internet. Unlike "active" communities of nuns and friars, who devote themselves to community service and are often seen in public, cloistered nuns and monks rarely leave the monastery. Typically, they also limit their usage of mass media so that the outside world does not distract them from a life of silence and perpetual prayer.

But now, more cloistered communities are launching Web sites as a way to increase visibility and assist men and women who are exploring religious life. And while there are no statistics to suggest the Internet is bolstering interest in the life, many cloistered monasteries that have embraced the technology say they are starting to receive more inquiries through the Internet and, in some cases, experiencing newfound growth.

Catering to the young

The Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers has its connection to the outside world through www.trappist.net. Brother Michael Lautieri said the monastery gets 25 to 30 inquiries a month via its Web site.

"I would probably say 95 percent of our inquiries come from our Web site," he said. "I seldom get snail mail."

The Dominican Monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary in New Jersey got its introduction to the online world about eight years ago, when the sisters invited two aspiring priests to give a talk about the pros and cons of the Internet. Despite some concerns, the women took a vote and decided it could be used to educate interested women about their life, recalled Sister Judith Miryam and Sister Mary Catharine, two of the Net-savvy nuns.

In 2004, the two women decided to launch a blog to engage people and take them inside the monastery walls. The blog is written from the cloistered community's perspective.

"This is how these young women communicate, and this is how they want to be communicated to," said Sister Judith Miryam, who maintains the Web site and believes the blog has helped spur the interest of six new women there, all of whom found the monastery online.

It's hard to say if the Internet is helping to bolster growth in cloistered communities. But the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, a nonprofit organization affiliated with Georgetown University, is planning a survey that will look at recent membership patterns in active and cloistered communities. The survey also will include questions about the Internet's role in vocations, said Sister Mary Bendyna, the center's executive director.

Even without statistics, some monasteries that used to be reluctant about Web sites are starting to change positions.

Several cloistered Carmelite communities, including the Monastery of Cristo Rey in San Francisco, said a Web site could be in their future.

"I accept the fact that times have changed," said Mother Elizabeth.

Been there, done that

Despite the rise in Internet usage, however, some monasteries are sticking to tradition.

In Alexandria, S.D., the Discalced Carmelite Nuns at the Mother Marie Therese of the Child Jesus received permission from its prioress about a year ago to test the waters of the World Wide Web when one of its sisters enrolled in an online course. But ultimately, the nuns decided it was too distracting from their life of silence and prayer, and they got rid of it.

"If you've been eating organic food and you have been eating fresh things, and then go out and have something that's processed, it does something to your system," said Sister Mary. "That is the same thing we have found with the Internet. It's too invasive."