Congregation (monasticism)

The main form of monastic life in the Catholic Church of the Middle Ages was monastic orders , but already from the 13th century , monastic communities began to form in the Church, which did not have the status of the order and were not officially approved by the Holy See . The prototype of such communities in many respects was the movement of the runners and begards . The members of such communities, unlike the monks of the regular orders, took not “solemn”, but so-called “ordinary” vows.

In 1568, with the aim of streamlining monastic life , Pope Pius V obliged all monastic congregations to adopt charters and introduce solemn vows, but later new congregations appeared with “ordinary” vows ( ursulinki , public relations ) or no vows at all ( oratorians ), strictly speaking, generally speaking not monastic (for them the term of the society of the apostolic life was later introduced). Many smaller congregations that were mainly engaged in work in the world (child education, nursing, publication of literature) appeared in the 18th and 19th centuries .

In 1900, the Apostolic See recognized the monastic status of such congregations and determined their structure. In the Code of Canon Law of 1917, the status of monastic congregations is finally defined. During the 20th century, there was a tendency to reduce the differences between orders and congregations, in particular in 1983 the division of monastic vows into “solemn” and “ordinary” was finally canceled.

• Assumptionists
• Verbists
• Kamaldula
• Claretians
• Lazarists
• Mariana
• Oratorians
• PR
• Redemptorists

• Catholic orders and congregations (list)

• The Congregation, in the Catholic Church // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.