From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishmendicantmen‧di‧cant /ˈmendəkənt/ noun [countable] formal RRPOORsomeone who asks people for money in order to live, usually for religious reasons —mendicant adjective
Examples from the Corpus
mendicant• The rich man who deludes himself into behaving like a mendicant may conserve his fortune although he will not be very happy.Origin mendicant (1300-1400) Latin present participle of mendicare “to beg”, from mendicus “beggar” 