A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service and contemplation, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent. The term is often used interchangeably with religious sisters who do take simple vows but live an active vocation of prayer and charitable work.
The Trappists, officially known as the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance and originally named the Order of Reformed Cistercians of Our Lady of La Trappe, are a Catholic religious order of cloistered monastics that branched off from the Cistercians. They follow the Rule of Saint Benedict and have communities of both monks and nuns that are known as Trappists and Trappistines, respectively. They are named after La Trappe Abbey, the monastery from which the movement and religious order originated. The movement first began with the reforms that Abbot Armand Jean le Bouthillier de Rancé introduced in 1664, later leading to the creation of Trappist congregations, and eventually the formal constitution as a separate religious order in 1892.
In the Catholic Church, a religious order is a community of consecrated life with members that profess solemn vows. They are classed as a type of religious institute.
A solemn vow is a certain vow taken by an individual during or after novitiate in a Catholic religious institute. It is solemn insofar as the Church recognizes it as such.
Religious vows are the public vows made by the members of religious communities pertaining to their conduct, practices, and views.
The Order of Calatrava was one of the four Spanish military orders and the first military order founded in Castile, but the second to receive papal approval. The papal bull confirming the Order of Calatrava was given by Pope Alexander III on September 26, 1164. Most of the political and military power of the order had dissipated by the end of the 15th century, but the last dissolution of the order's property did not occur until 1838.
The term third order signifies, in general, lay members of Christian religious orders, who do not necessarily live in a religious community such as a monastery or a nunnery, and yet can claim to wear the religious habit and participate in the good works of a great order. Roman Catholicism, Lutheranism and Anglicanism all recognize third orders.
Consecrated life is a state of life in the Catholic Church lived by those faithful who are called to follow Jesus Christ in a more exacting way. It includes those in institutes of consecrated life, societies of apostolic life, as well as those living as hermits or consecrated virgins/widows.
The Knights of Justice or Professed Knights, form the first of the three classes of members of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta together with the professed conventual chaplains. They make vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. According to the group's Code, "they are religious in all respects and they comply with the universal and particular norms that concern them."
A religious congregation is a type of religious institute in the Catholic Church. They are legally distinguished from religious orders – the other major type of religious institute – in that members take simple vows, whereas members of religious orders take solemn vows.
The Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette are a religious congregation of priests and brothers in the Latin Church. They are named after the apparition of Our Lady of La Salette in France. There is also a parallel religious community of sisters called the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of La Salette. A lay fraternal group of associates also works in cooperation with the vowed religious. The Missionaries are dedicated to making known the message of Our Lady of La Salette, a call to healing of inner brokenness and personal reconciliation with God, especially as found in the first three commandments. The missionaries are popularly known as "the La Salettes."
The Order of Saint Paul the First Hermit, commonly called the Pauline Fathers, is a monastic order of the Catholic Church founded in Hungary during the 13th century.
Exposcit Debitum is the title of the Papal bull that gave a second and final approval to the foundation of the Society of Jesus. It was issued by Pope Julius III on 21 July 1550. It replaced Regimini militantis Ecclesiae of 1540. The structure of the text is the same but, based on 10 years experience, some modifications were introduced:
- the limitation to 60 members was dropped;
- it allowed the admission of Coadjutors, that is: zealous but uneducated priests and competent lay people desirous to offer their life for an apostolic service The temporal coadjutors have always taken the same three vows of religious life, and are nowadays called 'Jesuit Brothers';
- Defence of the faith is added to its Propagation as an aim of the Society of Jesus.
The Missionaries of the Company of Mary is a missionary religious congregation within the Catholic Church. The community was founded by Saint Louis de Montfort in 1705 with the recruitment of his first missionary disciple, Mathurin Rangeard. The congregation is made up of priests and brothers who serve both in the native lands and in other countries. The Montfortian Family comprises three groups: the Company of Mary, the Daughters of Wisdom and the Brothers of Saint Gabriel.
Regular clergy, or just regulars, are clerics in the Catholic Church who follow a rule of life, and are therefore also members of religious institutes. Secular clergy are clerics who are not bound by a rule of life.
This is a glossary of terms used within the Catholic Church. Some terms used in everyday English have a different meaning in the context of the Catholic faith, including brother, confession, confirmation, exemption, faithful, father, ordinary, religious, sister, venerable, and vow.
"A religious institute is a society in which members, according to proper law, pronounce public vows, either perpetual or temporary which are to be renewed, however, when the period of time has elapsed, and lead a life of brothers or sisters in common."
Jesuit formation, or the training of Jesuits, is the process by which candidates are prepared for ordained or brotherly service in the Society of Jesus, the world's largest male Catholic religious order. The process is based on the Constitution of the Society of Jesus written by Ignatius of Loyola and approved in 1550. There are various stages, from a novice, to studying, to full-time work and a return to studies before ordination as a priest or final profession as a brother. They are formed spiritually, academically and practically for the ministries they offer the Church and world.
Francisco Gárate Aranguren, SJ was a Spanish Catholic professed religious of the Jesuit order. Aranguren served as an nurse after receiving his qualification in 1877 and became noted for his encouragement and his tender care to the needs of students in his care.
Arsenio da Trigolo, OFM Cap., was an Italian Catholic priest and a professed member from the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin.
