Visitation Sister Joy Katharine Brown, left, and Sister Kathleen Cordis Mellody accept a basket of fresh fruit from Kathleen Kavanagh. Mrs. Kavanagh and other members of the Toledo Serra Club provided the sisters of the Visitation Monastery with a summer picnic Aug. 22. (Photo courtesy of Bud Weaver)

The Visitation Sisters have the privilege of papal enclosure, meaning they spend most of their lives within the monastery, leaving only for business, medical needs and other duties. As contemplative nuns, their primary apostolate is prayer.

The annual picnic for the cloistered nuns is organized around the same time of year that the Serra Club of Toledo hosts a mini-golf outing and ice cream social for all women religious of the diocese.