I’m at the beginning end of some research and am looking for that first rung to grasp on the way up the ladder… After reading some Umberto Eco I’ve developed a healthy curiosity regarding the different Orders of the Catholic Church, and would greatly appreciate a primer on the basic similarities and particularly the differences between them. As there are more than I could have possibly imagined, I’m content to start with the most widely known, like the Dominicans, Franciscans, Jesuits, Benedictines, etc… Thanks!
You can try looking them up individually in The Catholic Encyclopedia. That is the 1908 edition, but most of the main orders s/b there.
I started there, but the amount of information is overwhelming and confusing for someone not raised in the church. I’m still poking around, but I’m hoping to find an oversimplified catalog to start with, then continue on from there…
A pretty big topic, but a very interesting one. It would be impossible to give a full summary of all the orders, so I would point you to sites like this: http://roma.katolsk.no/orders.htm (good overview of the various orders represented in Rome); for lotsa links (to orders’ homepages as well as to individual monasteries) see http://www.opuslibani.org.lb/link/orders.html and http://dir.yahoo.com/Society_and_Culture/Religion_and_Spirituality/Faiths_and_Practices/Christianity/Denominations_and_Sects/Catholic/Orders/
The powerhouses, as it were, in Western Europe have been the Dominicans, the Franciscans, the Benedectines, the Cistercians, and the Jesuits, and maybe a couple of other ones (Carmelites, Carthusians, etc.). There are many, many other orders, and each of the major orders includes several sub-divisions. Each order has their own focus. Some demand a completely cloistered existence–the Benedictines, for example, or the Carthusians and Cistercians, who practice a severely ascetic lifestyle, often involving a vow of silence. Others emphasize charity and missionary work–you find this particularly among the Dominicans and Franciscans, the so-called “mendicant” orders. Furthermore, some orders have particular “specializations.” The Dominicans and Jesuits strongly emphasize scholarship (Thomas Aquinas, for instance, was a Dominican); the Franciscan ideal is to pattern one’s life after Christ and live in poverty.
I should point out that these are general characteristics, and these distinctions aren’t always so clear.
The most conspicuous differences have usually been in their habits, or monastic dress–the Benedictines in black, the Cistercians in white, the Franciscans in brown, and the Dominicans in black and white (a very smart combination of a black mantle over a white habit). Since a lot of monks nowadays don’t wear a full habit, this difference isn’t quite as apparent as it used to be.
Nota bene: the above applies to Western monasticism–I don’t know enough about the Eastern tradition to give any overview.
Thanks! Much appreciated.
[Nitpick]I attended a university run by Cistercians, who a) also had a concentration on scholarship (each of the old monks had two or three Ph.D.s apiece and spoke several languages); and b) wore a habit that was black with white sleeves.[/Nitpick]
An interesting pun: the Dominican order was named after St. Dominic (duh). The plural of the Latin word for a member of the Dominican order is dominicanes, which could also be translated as “the hounds of the Lord” (i.e., domini canes).
Depends on your definition of “cloistered”: My high school, for instance, was run by a Benedictine monestary, and the monks were strongly encouraged to teach at the school and to otherwise be involved in the community. Several of them also acted as pastor of a parish church, but that may be just because Cleveland had a shortage of priests. The Benedictines are largely distinguished by the Rule of St. Benedict, a set of rules for monastic life laid down by the saint and used (with appropriate variations) by many other orders.
The Franciscans are one of the oldest orders, and are distinguished by humility. They’re one of the mendicant orders, which means that they live in poverty, perhaps even by begging. They’re dedicated to serving the poor. The Missionaries of Charity, the order founded by Mother Teresa, is another example of a mendicant order, and has a similar focus.
St. Augustine was a great and prolific scholar, and so his order, the Augustinians, is often associated with scholarship and research. Mendel, the father of the science of genetics, was an Augustinian abbot. They also have an emphasis on teaching.
The Trappists are what’s called a contemplative order, which means that they isolate themselves from the world and dedicate their life to prayer. They follow a version of the Benedictine rule, but are stricter than the Benedictines. They’re one of the orders, for instance, which has a vow of silence: Trappist monks are only allowed to speak when addressed by a superior, or in the process of worship.
There are many other Catholic orders, but these are the ones with which I’m most familiar. I’ll let others extend the list.
Sorry! Didn’t mean to imply that non-Dominicans or Jesuits were not scholarly–actually most orders have quite outstanding academic qualifications. Monks of various orders have founded and run many of the best libraries in Europe (and by doing so have saved many precious manuscripts).
I didn’t realize the Cistercian habit was black with white sleeves, though. I have to admit my familiarity with Cistercians is limited to their architecture (beautiful churches and monasteries, with a strong emphasis on clear, austere designs). I’d like to learn more about their order.
I love that pun, and how the Dominicans openly embraced it–they regarded themselves as the “hounds” rooting out heresy. For the Dominican church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence, the painter Andrea da Firenze depicted the Dominican mission, with the brothers dressed in their distinctive habits, and also in an allegorical role as dogs (colored black and white, of course) attacking wolves, which represent heretics.
One of my favorite frescoes!
Correction on nitpick. Cistercian habit is a white robe, but with a black sleeveless garment worn over it.
Or at least that’s what the pictures I looked up show. I seem to remember these features being combined in a single garment, but I could be wrong.
I meant “contemplative,” but you’re right that not all Benedictines are as strict as the Trappists. My comments were mainly about the medieval versions of these orders, but even then I admit my statements are generalizations, with many orders blurring the “boundaries.”
A further example of this is the Franciscan order, which was initially one of the (if not the) most thoroughly mendicant order of the Church. St. Francis and his early followers insisted on living in absolute poverty, not in large architectural complexes (i.e., permanent monasteries). This changed not long after Francis’s death, with the building of permanent structures (including the glorious Gothic church of San Francesco in Assisi) and permitting the brothers to own communal property.
Every once in a while, a group of Franciscans would try (and still try) to bring their order back to Francis’s ideals–their effort would result in a reformed branch of Franciscans, like the Capuchins. And the process would repeat itself dialectically for ages to come.
Thanks for that link, Kizarvexius. Those are nice habits!
I also liked how they include a quote from Dostoevsky on their homepage.
With all this useful information, hopefully we can tolerate something lighthearted?
When I worked in Admissions, I went to a lot of receptions and dinners at schools run by various orders. Benedictine, Ursuline etc. Jesuits knew how to party.
Yes, they do! I love going to high school alumni events- the Jesuits do indeed throw one hell of a party!
One thing we might want to do is distinguish scholarship as a goal for the priests/monks (i.e. the monks themselves are scholarly and erudite), and those who a large part of their order’s ministry is education (i.e. Jesuits).
I thought the Capuchins were mostly noted for drinking a coffee-milk-cinnamon mixture and keeping pet monkeys.
PS 
Thanks for the insights, serious and not so. In all liklihood a lot of what I learn is going to wind up fueling scenarios in a RPG, so the more color I hear with the facts the better.
As far as nuns go, the Sisters of St. Joseph seem to be primarily a teaching order, and the Sisters of Mercy are a generally charitable and community-focused group - lots of schools, hospitals, and the like.
You might also want to note that a lot (most?) of priests don’t belong to specific orders, but rather are “diocesan” priests - basically, they are answerable to the Bishop of their diocese rather than to the head of an order.
Aren’t the Trappists another name for a type of Cistercians? Thomas Merton was a Trappist, and I’m pretty sure they were Cistercians. Flips through a Merton book Yup, I think they are.
I had to write a paper for a World Religions class on the Carmelites, probably IMO one of the wierdest orders in the church, and I grew up Catholic. IIRC, they were founded in the middle ages (no exact date- around 1100) by, uh, no one, really, or at least, no one really knows who their founder is. It sort of grew out of these monks that emulated the prophet Elisha and lived naked in caves, fasting.
Somehow that grew into a religious order for men, then they added nuns, and now it’s a lay order ie you don’t have to be a priest or nun to be a Carmelite. I can’t figure out what they do, really, other than pray a lot of litanies. (My friend’s mom is a Carmelite) Their famous piece of clothing is the brown scapular, and they believe if you are wearing it when you die, the Lord will come get you from purgatory the saturday after your death.
I think the Pope is a Carmelite, as was Mother Theresa. Um that’s about all I can remember, it’s been a long time, but I would definitely check out the Carmelites because they just seem kinda odd to me… A bit more “interesting” than some of the other orders.