The Order of Preachers, also known as the Dominican Order, is a mendicant Catholic religious order founded by the Spanish priest Dominic of Caleruega in France, approved by Pope Innocent III via the Papal bull Religiosam vitam on 22 December 1216. Members of the order, who are referred to as Dominicans, generally carry the letters OP after their names, standing for Ordinis Praedicatorum, meaning of the Order of Preachers. Membership in the order includes friars, nuns, active sisters, and affiliated lay or secular Dominicans.
The Carmelites, formally known as the Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel or sometimes simply as Carmel by synecdoche, is a Roman Catholic mendicant religious order founded, probably in the 12th century, on Mount Carmel in the Crusader States, hence the name Carmelites. However, historical records about its origin remain very uncertain. Berthold of Calabria has traditionally been associated with the founding of the order, but few clear records of early Carmelite history have survived.
The term Augustinians, named after Augustine of Hippo (354–430), applies to two distinct types of Catholic religious orders, dating back to the first millennium but formally created in the 13th century, and some Anglican religious orders, created in the 19th century, though technically there is no "Order of St. Augustine" in Anglicanism.
Nicholas of Tolentino, known as the Patron of Holy Souls, was an Italian saint and mystic.
Saint Dominic, also known as Dominic of Osma and Dominic of Caleruega, often called Dominic de Guzmán and Domingo Félix de Guzmán, was a Castilian priest and founder of the Dominican Order. Dominic is the patron saint of astronomers.
Mendicant orders are, primarily, certain Christian religious orders that have adopted a lifestyle of poverty, traveling, and living in urban areas for purposes of preaching, evangelization, and ministry, especially to the poor. At their foundation these orders rejected the previously established monastic model. This foresaw living in one stable, isolated community where members worked at a trade and owned property in common, including land, buildings and other wealth. By contrast, the mendicants avoided owning property at all, did not work at a trade, and embraced a poor, often itinerant lifestyle. They depended for their survival on the goodwill of the people to whom they preached.
Saint Simon Stock, an Englishman who lived in the 13th century, was an early Prior of the Carmelite religious order. Little is known about his life with any historical certainty. The Blessed Virgin Mary is traditionally said to have appeared to him and given him the Carmelite habit, the Brown Scapular. Thus, popular devotion to Saint Simon Stock is usually associated with devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
Saint Alypius of Thagaste was bishop of the see of Tagaste in 394. He is also credited with building the first monastery in Africa. He was a lifelong friend of Saint Augustine of Hippo and joined him in his conversion and life in Christianity. Most of what is known about him comes from Augustine's autobiographical Confessions.
Fra Jacopone da Todi, O.F.M. was an Italian Franciscan friar from Umbria in the 13th century. He wrote several laude in the local vernacular. He was an early pioneer in Italian theatre, being one of the earliest scholars who dramatised Gospel subjects.
The continuing Monastery of the Holy Saviour at Lecceto in Tuscany, was the principal House of the order of the Hermit Friars of Saint Augustine in 1256, when Pope Alexander IV constituted the Augustinian order internationally. It was dedicated to Saint Saviour.
The Arca di San Domenico is a monument containing the remains of Saint Dominic. It is located in Dominic’s Chapel in the Basilica of San Domenico in Bologna, Italy.
Blessed John of Fermo, O.F.M., more often called John of La Verna, from his time spent on that mountain was an Italian Franciscan friar, who was a noted ascetic and preacher.
Blessed Augustine Fangi, O.P., was an Italian Dominican friar and Catholic priest. He was commonly regarded in his time as a miracle worker, and, in serving as the prior of several of his Order's monasteries, was concerned with restoring and maintaining a faithful observance of the Rule of Saint Dominic. He was beatified in 1878.
The Order of Saint Augustine, generally called Augustinians or Austin Friars, is a Catholic religious order. It was founded in 1244 by bringing together several eremetical orders in the Tuscany region who were following the Rule of St. Augustine, written by St. Augustine of Hippo in the 5th Century.
Silvester of Valdiseve (1278–1348) was a medieval monk who is not yet recognized as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church, but rather a Blessed. Silvester was christened Ventura and lived in Florence. He was involved in the processing of wool until the age of 40 when he became a monk. He entered the Benedictine Camaldolese monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli, also located in Florence. There, he worked as a cook.
Blessed Stephen Bellesini was a friar in the Order of the Hermits of St Augustine (OSA), who was born in Trent, Italy, on November 25, 1774, and died in Genazzano, Italy, on February 2, 1840.
The Basilica of San Giacomo Maggiore is an historic Roman Catholic church in Bologna, region of Emilia Romagna, Italy, serving a monastery of Augustinian friars. It was built starting in 1267 and houses, among the rest, the Bentivoglio Chapel, featuring numerous Renaissance artworks.
When referring to Roman Catholic religious orders, the term Second Order refers to those Orders of cloistered nuns which are a part of the mendicant Orders that developed in the Middle Ages.
Blessed Andrew of Montereale was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and a professed member of the Order of Saint Augustine. His entire life was one devoted to teaching and leading the Augustinians from several positions of leadership; he was also hailed during his lifetime as a pious miracle worker.
Blessed Angelo da Foligno - born Angelo Conti - was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and a professed member of the Order of Saint Augustine. Conti was part of the order of John the Good though became a mainstream Augustinian in 1256 after the Grand Union of the order. He was a close friend of both Saint Nicholas of Tolentino and Blessed Ugolino da Gualdo Cattaneo.
