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Religious order
A religious order is a subgroup within a larger confessional community with a distinctive high-religiosity lifestyle and clear membership. Religious orders often trace their lineage from revered teachers, venerate their founders, and have a document describing their lifestyle called a rule of life. Such orders exist in many of the world's religions.
In Buddhist societies, a religious order is one of the number of monastic orders of monks and nuns, many of which follow a certain school of teaching—such as Thailand's Dhammayuttika order, a monastic order founded by King Mongkut (Rama IV). A well-known Chinese Buddhist order is the ancient Shaolin order in Ch'an (Zen) Buddhism; and in modern times, the Order of Hsu Yun.
A religious order in the Catholic Church is a kind of religious institute, a society whose members (referred to as "religious") make solemn vows that are accepted by a superior in the name of the Church, who wear a religious habit and who live a life of brothers or sisters in common. Religious orders are to be distinguished from religious congregations, which are religious institutes whose members profess simple vows, and from secular institutes, including societies of apostolic life and lay ecclesial movements. Unless they are also deacons or priests in Holy Orders members of religious orders are not clergy but laity. However, particular orders and institutes are classified as either specifically clerical or lay depending on their charism.
Among the traditional forms of solemnly vowed religious order, there are four key categories:
Religious life began in the Latin Church as early as the 3rd century, with the Order of Saint Benedict being formed in the 6th, in 529. All the earliest religious foundations were either essentially monastic or canonical depending on how much weight they placed on monastic enclosure or pastoral care respectively. Initially rules of life tended to vary between communities but gradually by the 10th century the Rule of St Benedict became the standardised norm among the Latin Church’s monks and nuns while the Rule of St Augustine was standardised among its canons and canonesses. The earliest orders include the Cistercians (1098), the Premonstratensians (1120), the Poor Clares founded by Francis of Assisi (1212), and the Benedictine reform movements of Cluny (1216). These orders consist entirely of independent abbeys and priories where power rests in the hands of the individual communities and their abbot or abbess, prior or prioress. Their members remain in the same community for life.
Later in the 13th century the mendicant orders like the Carmelites, the Order of Friars Minor, the Order of Preachers, the Order of the Most Holy Trinity and the Order of Saint Augustine formed. These Mendicant orders did not hold property for their Religious Communities, instead begging for alms and going where they were needed. Their leadership structure included each member, as opposed to each Abbey or House, as subject to their direct superior. In the 16th century the orders of clerics regular began to emerge, including such institutes as the Society of Jesus, the Theatines, the Barnabites, the Somascans. Most of these groups began to turn away from the common public celebration of the divine office.
In accordance with the concept of independent communities in the Rule of Saint Benedict, the Benedictines, Cistercians, and Trappists have autonomous abbeys (so-called "independent houses"). Their members profess "stability" to the abbeys where they make their religious vows; hence their abbots or abbesses may not move them to other abbeys. An "independent house" may occasionally make a new foundation which remains a "dependent house" (identified by the name "priory") until it is granted independence by Rome and itself becomes an abbey. Each house's autonomy does not prevent it being affiliated into a congregation—whether national or based on some other joint characteristic—and these, in turn, form the supra-national Benedictine Confederation.
Non-monastic religious institutes typically have a motherhouse, generalate, or general curia with jurisdiction over any number of dependent religious communities, whose members may be moved by their superior general to its other communities as the institute's needs require.
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Religious order AI simulator
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Religious order
A religious order is a subgroup within a larger confessional community with a distinctive high-religiosity lifestyle and clear membership. Religious orders often trace their lineage from revered teachers, venerate their founders, and have a document describing their lifestyle called a rule of life. Such orders exist in many of the world's religions.
In Buddhist societies, a religious order is one of the number of monastic orders of monks and nuns, many of which follow a certain school of teaching—such as Thailand's Dhammayuttika order, a monastic order founded by King Mongkut (Rama IV). A well-known Chinese Buddhist order is the ancient Shaolin order in Ch'an (Zen) Buddhism; and in modern times, the Order of Hsu Yun.
A religious order in the Catholic Church is a kind of religious institute, a society whose members (referred to as "religious") make solemn vows that are accepted by a superior in the name of the Church, who wear a religious habit and who live a life of brothers or sisters in common. Religious orders are to be distinguished from religious congregations, which are religious institutes whose members profess simple vows, and from secular institutes, including societies of apostolic life and lay ecclesial movements. Unless they are also deacons or priests in Holy Orders members of religious orders are not clergy but laity. However, particular orders and institutes are classified as either specifically clerical or lay depending on their charism.
Among the traditional forms of solemnly vowed religious order, there are four key categories:
Religious life began in the Latin Church as early as the 3rd century, with the Order of Saint Benedict being formed in the 6th, in 529. All the earliest religious foundations were either essentially monastic or canonical depending on how much weight they placed on monastic enclosure or pastoral care respectively. Initially rules of life tended to vary between communities but gradually by the 10th century the Rule of St Benedict became the standardised norm among the Latin Church’s monks and nuns while the Rule of St Augustine was standardised among its canons and canonesses. The earliest orders include the Cistercians (1098), the Premonstratensians (1120), the Poor Clares founded by Francis of Assisi (1212), and the Benedictine reform movements of Cluny (1216). These orders consist entirely of independent abbeys and priories where power rests in the hands of the individual communities and their abbot or abbess, prior or prioress. Their members remain in the same community for life.
Later in the 13th century the mendicant orders like the Carmelites, the Order of Friars Minor, the Order of Preachers, the Order of the Most Holy Trinity and the Order of Saint Augustine formed. These Mendicant orders did not hold property for their Religious Communities, instead begging for alms and going where they were needed. Their leadership structure included each member, as opposed to each Abbey or House, as subject to their direct superior. In the 16th century the orders of clerics regular began to emerge, including such institutes as the Society of Jesus, the Theatines, the Barnabites, the Somascans. Most of these groups began to turn away from the common public celebration of the divine office.
In accordance with the concept of independent communities in the Rule of Saint Benedict, the Benedictines, Cistercians, and Trappists have autonomous abbeys (so-called "independent houses"). Their members profess "stability" to the abbeys where they make their religious vows; hence their abbots or abbesses may not move them to other abbeys. An "independent house" may occasionally make a new foundation which remains a "dependent house" (identified by the name "priory") until it is granted independence by Rome and itself becomes an abbey. Each house's autonomy does not prevent it being affiliated into a congregation—whether national or based on some other joint characteristic—and these, in turn, form the supra-national Benedictine Confederation.
Non-monastic religious institutes typically have a motherhouse, generalate, or general curia with jurisdiction over any number of dependent religious communities, whose members may be moved by their superior general to its other communities as the institute's needs require.