postulant

plural postulants

1. lifestyleA person seeking admission to a religious order.

   After their six-month postulancies are over and they have mastered all the chants and books of monastic regulations, the postulants are finally ready to ordain as novice monks […]

   2020, Robert E. Buswell Jr., The Zen Monastic Experience, page 81

2. A person who submits a petition for something; a petitioner.

   But when the three postulants returned with Sabine it was clear that the results had been far from satisfactory, perhaps because of the massive potations of the old lady.

   1985, Lawrence Durrell, Quinx (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 2004, page 1254