Vow of obedience

In the Catholic Church, the vow of obedience is one of the three vows of professing to live according to the evangelical counsels. It constitutes one of the religious vows which are made both by members of the religious institutes and diocesan hermits.

The 1983 Code of Canon Law (canon 601) defines it as follows:

"The evangelical counsel of obedience, undertaken in a spirit of faith and love in the following of Christ who was obedient even unto death, requires a submission of the will to legitimate superiors, who stand in the place of God when they command according to the proper constitutions." ^[1]

In relation to Christian discipleship, the Second Vatican Council's Dogmatic Constitution on the Church speaks of "liberty strengthened by obedience". ^[2]

Description

The vow of obedience is stipulated in

• the candidate's respective Church law, for example in the Roman Catholic Church, the 1983 Code of Canon Law (see canons 573, 601, 603.2)
• the candidate's respective rule, for example, for those who are to be received into a Benedictine monastic community, the Rule of St Benedict. ^[3]

References

1. Code of Canon Law, Canon 601, accessed 22 July 2022
2. Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, paragraph 43, published on 21 November 1964, accessed on 28 January 2026
3. Rule of St Benedict, Chapter 58.17, accessed on 28 January 2026

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Religious Obedience". Catholic Encyclopedia . New York: Robert Appleton Company.