Consecrated life (also known as religious life) is a state of life in liturgical branches of Christianity (particulary Catholicism, Evangelical Lutheranism, and Anglicanism) lived by those faithful who are called to follow Jesus Christ in a more exacting way. Consecrated life includes those in religious orders, those residing in monasteries or convents, as well as those living as hermits or consecrated virgins; in the Catholic Church, consecrated life may include those in institutes of consecrated life (religious and secular), societies of apostolic life.

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, it "is characterized by the public profession of the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience, in a stable state of life recognized by the Church."

The Code of Canon Law defines it as "a stable form of living by which the faithful, following Christ more closely under the action of the Holy Spirit, are totally dedicated to God who is loved most of all, so that, having been dedicated by a new and special title to his honour, to the building up of the Church, and to the salvation of the world, they strive for the perfection of charity in the service of the kingdom of God and, having been made an outstanding sign in the Church, foretell the heavenly glory."

Consecrated life is a more exacting way of Christian life because it entails public profession of religious vows or other sacred bonds, whereby the consecrated person commits, for love of God, to observe as binding the evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty, and obedience; or, in the case of a consecrated virgin, a holy resolution (sanctum propositum) of perpetual virginity and a life of prayer and service to the Church; which vows or bonds the Church publicly accepts.

The Benedictine and Carthusian vows of stability, conversion of manners/life, and obedience are equivalent to the more common vows of other religious institutes. Depending on their specific vocation, members of some religious institutes may also profess a fourth vow.

Members of consecrated life are not necessarily part of their Church hieraches (such as the hierarchy of the Catholic Church or the hierachies of the Evangelical-Lutheran Churches), yet some are also clerics.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that "from the very beginning of the Church there were men and women who set out to follow Christ with greater liberty, and to imitate him more closely, by practising the evangelical counsels. They led lives dedicated to God, each in his own way. Many of them, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, became hermits or founded religious families. Thus the Church, by virtue of her authority, gladly accepted and approved them."

Consecrated life may be lived either in institutes, societies, or individually. While those living it are either clergy or laity, the state of consecrated life is neither clerical nor lay by nature.