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Religious order

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Religious orders is a lineage of communities and organizations of people who live in some way set apart from society in accordance with their specific religious devotion, usually characterized by the principles of its founder's religious practice. The order is composed of initiates (laity) and ordinated clergies. Religious orders exist in many of the world's religions.

File:Taoist monk playing an instrument.png
A Taoist monk playing an instrument.

Buddhist Tradition

In Buddhist societies such as Sri Lanka, Thailand, Korea and Tibet, a religious order is one of the strikingly large number of monastic orders of monks and nuns. A well-known Chinese Buddhist order is the ancient Shaolin order in Ch'an (Zen) Buddhism.

Christian Tradition

Main articles: Christian monasticism, Consecrated life, Roman Catholic religious order

A religious order (in the Catholic Church also called "Institute of Consecrated Life") is an organization recognised by the Church whose members (commonly referred to as "religious") strive to achieve a common purpose through formally dedicating their life to God.

Religious orders are distinct from secular institutes and other lay ecclesial movements.

In the Catholic Church the members of religious orders are not members of the hierarchy but belong to the Laity,[1] unless they are also priests in Holy Orders.

It is typical of a religious order to have a Motherhouse or Generalate that has jurisdiction over any number of dependent religious communities, and for its members to be moved by their Superior General to any other of its communities, as the needs of the order at any one time demand.

Admittance to a religious order is regulated not only by Church law and the religious Rule it has adopted but also by its own norms. Broadly speaking, after a lengthy period spanning probation and novitiate and in "temporary vows" (also called "simple vows") to test their vocation with a particular order, candidates (usually called "Juniors") wishing to be admitted permanently are required to make a public profession of the Evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty and obedience and confirm this by a vow (known as "solemn vows") that is binding in Church law. One of the effects of this vow is that members of a religious order are no longer free to marry; and should they subsequently want to leave the order, they would have to seek a Papal Indult. The benefits of the profession are of a spiritual nature.[2]

Francisco de Zurbarán's painting of a Mercedarian Friar, Fra Pedro Machado.

The members of male religious orders are usually termed "monks" and those of female religious orders "nuns", if they are "cloistered", that is to say, if they are under obligation to live and work within the confines of their monastery and say the Divine office in community (commonly referred to as "contemplative orders"). They tend to be called "brothers" or "friars", and "sisters", if their order's apostolate requires them to work outside the monastery as, for example, teachers, doctors, nurses or in some other practical charitable service. In common parlance the term "nun", traditionally reserved for cloistered women, is often used loosely to refer to any female "religious". In recent times the gender-neutral "monastics" has made an appearance in the relevant literature.

Traditionally, orders of monks are referred to as the "First Orders" and those of nuns as the "Second Orders". (Some religious orders, for example, the Dominicans, have "Third Orders" of associated lay members who, without living in formal community with the order, have made a private vow or promise to it, such as of poverty or chastity, hence are not "religious", that is to say, not members of the Consecrated life.)

Since each and every religious order has its own unique aim, or charisma, it has to adhere to a particular way of religious living that is conducive to it, whether "contemplative", "enclosed", mendicant, or apostolic. Thus some religious orders – especially of nuns who are subject to "Papal Enclosure" – strictly isolate their members from the outside world, of which the "grills" in their parlour and churches are tangible evidence. Other religious orders have apostolates that require their members to interact practically with the secular world, such as teaching, medical work, producing religious artworks and texts, designing and making vestments and writing religious instruction books, while maintaining their distinctiveness in communal living. Some Anglican and Protestant orders are "dispersed", that is, living in the world rather than communally. Several founders, in view of their aim, require the members of their order not only to profess the three Evangelical Counsels of chastity, poverty, obedience, but also to vow or promise stability or loyalty, and maybe certain disciplines, such as self-denial, fasting, silence.

Daily living in religious orders is regulated by Church law as well as the particular religious rule they have adopted and their own constitutions and customaries. Their respective timetables ("horarium") allocate due time to communal prayer, private prayer, spiritual reading, work, meals, communal recreation, sleep, and fixes any hours during which stricter silence is to be observed, in accordance with their own order's charisma.

Well-known orders of the Roman Catholic Church include Augustinians, Carmelites, Dominicans, Franciscans, Jesuits, Salesians, Oblates of Mary Immaculate and the Congregation of Holy Cross.

Several religious orders evolved during the Crusades to incorporate a military mission and so became "religious military orders", such as the Knights of the Order of Saint John.

In accordance with the concept of independent communities in the Rule of St Benedict, the Benedictines have autonomous Abbeys (so-called "independent Houses"); and their members profess "stability" to the Abbey where they make their vow, hence cannot move – nor be moved by their Abbot or Abbess – to another Abbey. 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". Owing to the autonomy of each House, contrary to wide-spread misconception, the Benedictines are not a religious order. They have affiliated themselves, however, into congregations – whether national or based on some other joint characteristic – and these, in turn, into the supra-national Benedictine Confederation.

Other traditions

A form of ordered religious living is common also in many tribes of Africa and South America, though on a smaller scale.

See also

Christian articles

Hindu articles

Islamic articles

Notes

  1. ^ cf. The Code of Canon Law 1983, canon 207; Chart showing the place of members of religious orders among the People of God
  2. ^ cf. Dom Columba Marmion, Christ the Ideal of the Monk, ch. VI.
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