This document outlines the differences between cloistered religious orders before St. Vincent and the non-cloistered orders he established. Before St. Vincent, orders took perpetual vows and lived cloistered lives governed within convents, not engaging with the outside world. After St. Vincent, orders took temporary, renewable vows and were actively ministering in communities to help the poor and marginalized, reflecting St. Vincent's revolutionary idea that all people had equal value. It took centuries for this new form of non-cloistered religious life to be officially recognized in Church law as Societies of Apostolic Life.