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.
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.
The Catholic Church in Thailand is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome.
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.
The Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, formerly called Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, is the dicastery of the Roman Curia with competency over everything which concerns institutes of consecrated life and societies of apostolic life, regarding their government, discipline, studies, goods, rights, and privileges.
A religious is, in the terminology of many Western Christian denominations, such as the Catholic Church, Lutheran Churches, and Anglican Communion, what in common language one would call a "monk" or "nun".
The Society of the Divine Word, abbreviated SVD and popularly called the Verbites or the Divine Word Missionaries, and sometimes the Steyler Missionaries, is a Catholic clerical religious congregation of Pontifical Right for men. As of 2020, it consisted of 5,965 members composed of priests and religious brothers working in more than 70 countries, now part of VIVAT international. It is one of the largest missionary congregations in the Catholic Church. Its members add the nominal letters SVD after their names to indicate membership in the Congregation. The superior general is Paul Boedhie Kleden who hails from Indonesia.
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.
A society of apostolic life is a group of men or women within the Catholic Church who have come together for a specific purpose and live fraternally. It is regarded as a form of consecrated life.
The Paulist Fathers, officially named the Missionary Society of Saint Paul the Apostle, abbreviated CSP, is a Catholic society of apostolic life of Pontifical Right for men founded in New York City in 1858 by Isaac Hecker in collaboration with George Deshon, Augustine Hewit, and Francis A. Baker.
A teaching order is a Catholic religious institute whose particular charism is education. Many orders and societies sponsor educational programs and institutions, and teaching orders participate in other charitable and spiritual activities; a teaching order is distinguished in that education is a primary mission.
The Dominican Sisters of the Immaculate Conception Province are a religious community of women consecrated to Christ in the Dominican charism with the mission of preaching the Gospel especially to those in most need. The Congregation lives out this preaching through education, evangelization, and by aiding the sick and suffering. The community was founded in 1861 by Maria Rose Kolumba Białecka (1838–1887) in Poland.
Missionary work of the Catholic Church has often been undertaken outside the geographically defined parishes and dioceses by religious orders who have people and material resources to spare, and some of which specialized in missions. Eventually, parishes and dioceses would be organized worldwide, often after an intermediate phase as an apostolic prefecture or apostolic vicariate. Catholic mission has predominantly been carried out by the Latin Church in practice.
An apostolic school is a missionary college of the Roman Catholic Church which trains the secular clergy for missionary work abroad. The first apostolic school was opened at Avignon in 1865 by Alberic de Foresta. His desire was to give boys with an ecclesiastical bent but without means a way to enter the clergy. The course of studies comprises training in the classics from Latin and Greek, and modern languages, and in mathematics. Most Catholic religious orders now have apostolic schools for the recruitment of their own ranks or for foreign missions.
A parochial mission or parish mission is a special pastoral effort in the Catholic Church aimed at preaching to and instructing Catholic followers. These are "home missions" geared toward Catholics, distinguished from apostolic missions to make conversions among non-believers. Such missions may consist of systematic preaching and instruction, extending over a stated number of days, performed by authorized missionaries.
Maximum illud is an apostolic letter issued by Pope Benedict XV on 30 November 1919. As is traditional with such documents, it takes its title from the opening words of the original Latin text, meaning "that momentous". Benedict begins by recalling "that momentous and holy charge" found in Mark 16:15: "Go into the whole world and preach the gospel to all creation."
The Religious Congregations of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church are divided in Code of Canons of the Oriental Churches as Monasteries, Hermitages, Orders, Congregations, Societies of Common Life in the Manner of Religious, Secular Institutes and Societies of Apostolic Life.
In the Catholic Church, 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."
Kimmage Mission Institute (KMI) was an educational institute of theology and cultures, founded 1991, by the Holy Ghost Fathers, at their Missionary College, in Kimmage Manor, Dublin. The Holy Ghost Fathers had a long history of teaching Theology and Philosophy in Kimmage to its missionaries. The KMI was developed as a response in the fall in vocations. As well as the Spiritans, ten other missionary congregations were involved in the institute . The KMI worked closely with its other Spiritan College on the Holy Ghost Missionary College campus, the Kimmage Development Studies Centre (DSC).
Catholic religious institutions, associations, and communities in Macau operate in the territory of the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR), which is currently under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Diocese of Macau, founded on 23 January 1576. Besides its diocesan priests, this Catholic diocese is assisted by various male and female religious orders, congregations, and institutes. The diocese is also supported by various institutions, movements, brotherhoods, and associations of Catholic inspiration made up of lay and religious people. All these Catholic bodies provide a variety of religious, social, educational, welfare, and cultural services to the Catholic and non-Catholic populations of Macau.
