Religious order

See also: Consecrated life in the Catholic Church

A religious order is an organization of people who live to achieve a common purpose through a form of promised or vowed life. The members of such orders, termed religious as a group, are usually distinct from both the laity and the clergy. They are sometimes termed monks, hermits, anchorites, or nuns if they live apart from general society (and if Christian) sing the divine office, or friars or brothers or sisters if they are active in society as (for example) teachers, doctors , nurses or in other active social service. Not all members of a religious order are clergy (though some are ordained), and there may be associated lay members who have taken promises to an order or taken personal vows such as vows of poverty or virginity (but who do not live in formal community with them).

In modern English, the traditional term "nun" (a term properly reserved for cloistered women) is often used loosely to describe religious sisters (who live in community, but are active in broader society).

A few monastic religious orders practice literal isolation (cloistering) from the outside world; while the majority or religious orders remain engaged with the world in various ways ( teaching, medical work, producing religious artworks and texts, designing and making vestments and writing religious instruction books) while maintaining their distinctiveness in communal living. All, however, may be distinguished either by vows (such as poverty, chastity, obedience, stability), promises or disciplines (such as self denial, fasting, silence) that they undertake as members of their religious order.

Among the best-known religious orders are Buddhist orders of monks and nuns and Christian orders which have a variety of life styles including monastic, mendicant, and apostolic. Famous orders of the Catholic Church include in order of foundation: Benedictines, Augustinians, Franciscans, Dominicans, Jesuits, Salesians, Oblates of Mary Immaculate and the Congregation of Holy Cross. A form of ordered religious living is common also in many tribes of Africa and South America, though on a smaller scale.

In Buddhist societies such as Sri Lanka, Thailand, Korea and Tibet, there exist strikingly large monastic orders. A well-known Chinese Buddhist order is the ancient Shaolin order in Ch'an (Zen) Buddhism.

External links

International Chaplains Association
Institute on Religious Life - links to many Catholic religious communties
Vocations Online - directory of men's and women's Catholic religious communities in the USA
Vision Vocation Guide for Catholic Vocations
Leadership Council of Women Religious Congregations of religious women
Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious -religious congregations of women
Religious Life Catholic Encyclopedia
In the Wheat : Songs in Your Presence Poetic Diary of a Young Monk
Order of Augustinians of the Immaculate Heart of Mary - an Independent Catholic Order
Order of the Franciscans of the Holy Cross - a secular Ecumenical Franciscan Order
The Carmelite Order - an religious Order of men and women within the Catholic Church
Legal Information for Religious Orders Legal Information for Religious Orders