Monastic Orders
History and theology of Christian monastic and religious orders, from the Benedictines to the Jesuits.
14 topics
Mount Athos
Mount Athos operates as a self-governing monastic state within Greece where women have been legally banned from entering for over a thousand years by both Gr…
The Augustinians
The three major Augustinian friar orders were once a single organization under one leader before reform movements split them apart over disagreements about w…
The Beguines
The Beguines were women who lived in semi-monastic communities without taking formal religious vows, meaning they could leave and marry whenever they chose. …
The Benedictines
Despite being called an order, the Benedictines have never operated under a single hierarchy or superior general, making them less a unified order than a loo…
The Carmelites
The Carmelites originated not in Europe like most mendicant orders but on a remote mountain in the Holy Land, founded by former crusaders and pilgrims who ch…
The Carthusians
Carthusian monks have never been reformed because the order was never considered to have degenerated from its original rigor, a distinction unique among reli…
The Cistercians
The Cistercian order only survived its first decades because a 21-year-old nobleman named Bernard arrived with 30 companions in a single group, transforming …
The Dominicans
The Dominican Order was founded as a preaching order to combat the Cathar movement in southern France. In the early thirteenth century, the Cathars had built…
The Franciscans
The original Franciscan rule forbade all property ownership, requiring friars to beg for food while preaching, a radical austerity meant to directly emulate …
The Jesuits
The Jesuit Order was founded by a former soldier who structured it like a military unit, with members required to obey superiors as officers and accept deplo…
The Moravians
The Moravian Church predates Martin Luther's Reformation by sixty years, making it one of the oldest Protestant denominations in existence. The movement took…
The Orthodox Monastics
Orthodox Monasticism never developed distinct religious orders like the Benedictines or Franciscans. Every Orthodox monastery follows essentially the same mo…
The Trappists
The Trappist order was founded by a nobleman who became a monk after his close friend died, leading him to renounce his wealthy lifestyle and impose extreme …
The Waldensians
The Waldensians were declared heretics not for preaching poverty, which the Franciscans also did, but for refusing to let bishops control who could preach. T…