The central topic of this work is the history of the monastery of St Martin of the Dominican Sisters in Split. Even though it is the oldest monastery of Dominican Sisters in the Croatian lands with a continuous existence, it has not drawn the attention of scholars to date, leaving its history completely unstudied. This prompted us to devote ourselves to researching its history, i.e. the archival data that would shed light on it. The material preserved in the monastery of St Martin (testaments and personal documents of individual nuns, monastery property documents, documents about the litigations conducted by the monastery, official monastery documents, account books, monastery chronicles, and records of canonical visitations), dating from the Middle Ages to the 21st century, was particularly important for this effort. We have found valuable data in the archives of the Congregation of Holy Guardian Angels in Korčula (material on the Dominican Sister communities in Split and individual Sisters who were active in that city, documents of the Congregation chapters, the Congregation chronicle, registry books and official documents of the Congregation’s General Administration), the Archives of the Croatian Dominican Province in Zagreb (registers of the Dalmatian Dominican Province), the Archdiocesan Archives in Split (registers of episcopal visitations and the relevant documents in other archival fonds), and the archives of the Dominican Brothers’ monastery in Split (chronicles, minutes of monastery Council sessions, debtors’ ledgers, and lists of members of the Third Order). Of particular importance in Dubrovnik are the manuscripts of Fra. Serafin Maria Crijević, preserved in the library of the monastery of St Dominic, and the documentation on the pinzochere and their communities in the area of today’s Diocese of Dubrovnik, preserved in the diocesan archives. Also important are the death records, whose microfilms are located in the Croatian State Archives in Zagreb. We critically analysed and valorised the sources found in these archives and the data contained therein. Next, we used the narrative method to present and critically display the data we have obtained as well as the conclusions we have drawn from it.Even though the central topic of this work is the history of St Martin’s monastery, we considered it necessary to place this history within a broader context. To prevent the research from taking too long and to keep the results from exceeding the frame of one work, we limited the broader context to the area of today’s Split Ecclesiastical Province, where we examined the history of exclusively Third Dominican Order nuns from the Middle Ages to the 21stcentury. We have divided this work into two parts. At the beginning of the first one, we have clarified terms specific to the topics we are dealing with here (recluses, pinzochere, mantellate) because they are no longer in everyday use and thus not self-explanatory. Next, we have shown the reasons and ways individual pinzochere communities in the area of today’s Split Ecclesiastical Province appeared and disappeared, and presented an overview of their history in the context of social and ecclesiastical events. We have devoted special attention to the monasteries of St Michael in Split, St Vincent in Stari Grad on Hvar, and St Michael near Ston. These three monasteries were chosen because they represent three specific ways of life of the Dominican pinzochere and thus serve as a good research sample. The monastery of St Michael is a classic example of a pinzochere community in urban surroundings. Its beginnings stretch to the 14thcentury, when the first recluses were mentioned next to the little church of St Michael. When their number grew, they took up the more moderate way of life characteristic of the pinzochere and, in time, joined the Third Dominican Order. The community ended with the death of its final member, Anđela Barić, in the 19thcentury. The monastery of St Vincent in the Old Town was established around 1500 for the pinzochere and was located outside the urban area; it ceased to exist towards the end of the 17thcentury. At first independent, in time it joined the Third Dominican Order. The monastery of St Michael, established in 1550, was located on St Michael’s hill near Ston, and is specific because it is the only community of Dominican pinzochere whose precise dates of establishment and dissolution are known. In addition, being located on a hill outside the urban area, it was the only female Dominican hermit community in the Croatian lands. The community ceased to exist in 1984 with the death of its final member, Hozana Šutalo, who was also the last Croatian pinzochera. Her death marked the end of the pinzochere consecrated way of life in the Croatian lands. In addition to these three specific pinzochere communities, we believed it necessary to refer to the life and work of the Third Dominican Order nun Ozana Kotorska as an example of the transition from the way of life characteristic of the recluses to the way of life typical of the pinzochere. In addition, this Dominican recluse became the first female Croatian Blessed in 1927, and this alone makes her life deserving of a brief overview in this work. Furthermore, in time, several followers gathered around her, and we believe that this is how the community of Dominican pinzochere, which thematically fits into the broader context of this work, developed.With the first part of the work, we have set down the broader context necessary for examining the role of the Dominican pinzochere in ecclesiastical and social happenings. We have devoted the second part to the history of the monastery of St Martin in Split, which we have followed from the first mention of recluses next to the church of St Martin, though their transformation into a community of pinzochere and its accession to the Third Dominican Order, to the reforms in the early 20thcentury and its accession to the Congregation of the Holy Guardian Angels, created in 1905 by the unification of the communities of Dominican pinzochere in Šibenik, Split, and Korčula. We have divided the history of the monastery of St Martin into two large parts: the first encompasses the period from the first mention of the recluses next to the church of St Martin to 1905, when the monastery became a part of the Congregation of the Holy Guardian Angels, while the second part covers the history of the monastery as part of the mentioned Congregation from 1905 to the early 21stcentury. Studying historical sources, we have determined that the first mention of nuns next to the church of St Martin does not date from 1372, as has been claimed till now, but from 1343, and also that the claims that Dominican cloister nuns were the first residents of the monastery of St Martin, preceding the Third Dominican Order nuns, are false. In our work, we have proven that the recluses were the first to live next to the church of St Martin, followed by the pinzochere, who joined the Third Dominican Order in the late 15th or early 16th century at the latest. Based on the records of episcopal visitations, we have also determined that Archbishop Marco Antonio de Dominis granted them the church of St Martin in the early 17thcentury. We have analysed the rises and falls of this monastic community and the factors that influenced them in a chronological order. As the monastery became part of the newly established Congregation of the Holy Guardian Angels in 1905, we have also analysed the hitherto unknown role of the monastery in the establishment of the Congregation. Next, we have chronologically presented the history of the monastery within the frame of the Congregation, devoting separate chapters to the subsidiaries of the Dominican Sisters established in Split between the two world wars, the subsidiary established in the monastery of the Split Dominicans after World War II, and the role of the monastery of St Martin in the establishment and building of the monastery of St Catherine of Sienna in Split’s Škrape district. At the end of the work, we have included a list of the monastery heads, a list of the deceased members of the monastery, and statistical data on the monastery –all for the period from 1905 to the 21st century. The primary goal of this work is to offer a critical overview of the history of the monastery of St Martin, placed in the broader context of the history of Dominican pinzochere in the area of the Split Ecclesiastical Province. In doing so, we have shed light on the role of the Dominican pinzochere in ecclesiastical and social events and shown how they, reading the signs of their time, shaped their way of life and types of apostolate. The monastery of St Martin was placed into this broader picture; like most other pinzochere communities, it appeared as an answer to the need of medieval women who wanted to become nuns, but could not find a monastery in which they could achieve their spiritual calling. In such circumstances, the first recluses settled next to the church of St Martin; they would give up their place to the (Dominican) pinzochere who, in order to secure their survival, would accede to the Congregation of the Holy Guardian Angels in 1905. Members of this Congregation live in the Monastery of St Martin above the Golden Gate of Diocletian’s Palace to this day.