In the Roman Catholic Church, the term "consecrated life" denotes a stable form of Christian living by those faithful who feel called to follow Jesus Christ in a more exacting way recognized by the Church. It comprises the life in the religious institutes and secular institutes, as well as the life of hermits, consecrated virgins and new forms,[1] and is regulated in canons 573-746 of The Code of Canon Law 1983.[2] What makes the consecrated life a more exacting way of Christian living is the public vows or other sacred bonds whereby the consecrated persons commit themselves, for the love of God, to observe as binding the counsels of chastity, poverty and obedience from the Christian Gospel, or at least, in the case of consecrated virgins and widows/widowers, a vow of total chastity. The Benedictine vow as laid down in the Rule of St Benedict, ch. 58:17, is analogous to the more usual vow of religious institutes. Consecrated persons are not part of the Catholic Church hierarchy, unless they are also ordained bishops, priests or deacons.[3]
By far the largest number of those who adopt the consecrated life join what are called religious institutes,[4] often referred to as religious orders or religious congregations, in which they follow a common rule under the leadership of a superior. They usually live in community, although some may for a shorter or longer time live their religious life as hermits without ceasing to be members of their religious institute; but this is normally by exception to the proper law of the community.
Canons 603 and 604 of the section on the consecrated life in the Code of Canon Law give official recognition also to hermits and consecrated virgins who are not members of religious or secular institutes (see below).
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Each major development in religious life, particularly in the Latin West, can be seen as a response of the very devout to a particular crisis in the Church of their day.
When Constantine was legalizing Christianity in the Roman Empire in the early 4th century, and the Christian faith became the favoured religion, it lost the self-sacrificing character that had profoundly marked it in the age of Roman persecution. In response to the loss of martyrdom for the sake of the Kingdom of God, some of the very devout men and women left the cities for the testings of the life in the desert that was meant to lead the individual back into a more intimate relationship with God, just like the wandering of the Israelites in the Desert of Sin. The Greek word for desert, eremos, gave this form of religious living the name eremitic (or eremitical) life , and the person leading it the name hermit. St Antony the Great and other early leaders provided guidance to less experienced hermits, and there were soon a large number of Christian hermits, particularly in the desert of Egypt and in parts of Syria.
Though the eremitic life would eventually be overshadowed by the far more numerous vocations to the cenobitic life, it did survive. The Middle Ages saw the emergence of a variant of the hermit, the anchorite; and life in Carthusian and Camaldolese monasteries has an eremitic emphasis. The Greek Orthodox and the Russian Orthodox Churches have their own eremitic traditions, of which Mount Athos is perhaps the most widely heard of today.
In modern times, in the Roman Catholic Church the Code of Canon Law 1983 recognises hermits who - without being members of a religious institute - publicly profess the three evangelical counsels, confirmed by vow or other sacred bond in the hands of their respective diocesan bishop, as Christian faithful that live the consecrated life (cf. canon 603, see also below).
The eremitic life was apparently healthy for some, but led to imbalance in others. St Pachomius, a near contemporary of St Anthony the Great, recognized that some monks needed the guidance and rhythm of a community (cenobium). He is generally credited with founding, in Egypt, the first community of monks, thus launching cenobitic style monasticism.
St Basil in the East in the 4th century, and St Benedict in the West in the 6th century, authored the most influential "rules" for religious living in their areas of the Christian world ("rule" in this sense refers to a collection of precepts, compiled as guidelines for how to follow the spiritual life). They organized a common life with a daily schedule of prayer, work, spiritual reading and rest.
Almost all monasteries in the Eastern Catholic Churches and in the Orthodox Church today follow the Rule of St Basil. The Rule of St Benedict is followed by a variety of orders of monks in the West, including the Benedictines, Cistercians, Trappists, and Camaldolese, and is an important influence in Carthusian life.
Around the 13th century during the rise of the medieval towns and cities the mendicant orders developed. While the monastic foundations were rural institutions marked by a retreat from secular society, the mendicants were urban foundations organized to engage secular city life and to meet some of its needs such as education and service to the poor. The three primary mendicant orders of the 13th century are the Order of Friars Preachers (the Dominicans), Order of Friars Minor (the Franciscans), and the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (the Carmelites). Unlike the monks and nuns of the earlier orders, the members of the latter orders called their houses convents, rather than monasteries (in English, Dominican convents for men may also be called priories, and Fransciscan and Carmelite convents friaries).
Until the 16th century recognition was granted only to institutes with solemn vows. Institutes with simple vows arose in the 16th century and increased in number. After at first being merely tolerated, they afterwards obtained approval.[5] They provided specific services or ministries for the Church and society, building schools, hospitals and new missionary enterprises around the world. The period of their greatest growth was in the wake of the French Revolution in early 19th century France and Belgium. These communities were largely founded to Only in 1900 did they obtain full recognition as religious.[6]
The Society of Jesus is an example of an institute that obtained recognition as an "order" with solemn vows, although the members were divided into the professed with solemn vows (a minority) and the "coadjutors" with simple vows.[7] It was founded in the wake of the Protestant Reformation, introducing several innovations designed to meet the demands of the 16th century crisis. It members were freed from the commitments of common life, especially the common prayer, which allowed them to minister individually in distant places. Their unusually long formation, typically thirteen years, prepared them to represent the intellectual tradition of the Church even in isolation.
Secular institutes have their modern beginnings in 18th century France. During the French Revolution, the government attempted to dechristianise France. The French government had required all priests and bishops to swear an oath of fidelity to the new order or face dismissal from the Church, and had forbidden any form of religious life. Fr Picot de Cloriviere, a Jesuit, founded a new society of women, the Daughters of the Heart of Mary (French: Societe des Filles du Coeur de Marie). While living a life of perfection, they did not take vows, remaining a secular institute to avoid being considered a religious society by the government. They would eventually receive pontifical institute status in 1957. On 2 February 1947 Pope Pius XII issued the apostolic constitution Provida Mater Ecclesia recognizing secular institutes as "a new category of the state of perfection" Latin: nova categoria status perfectionis.[8] The 1983 Code of Canon Law recognizes secular institutes as a form of consecrated life.[9] They differ from religious institutes in that their members live their lives in the ordinary conditions of the world, either alone, in their families or in fraternal groups. They include, among others, Caritas Christi, The Grail, and the Servite Secular Institute.
As mentioned above, there are individuals recognized by the Church as consecrated persons who are unattached to religious institutes. Among them are the hermits who consecrate themselves to God through their public or private profession of the evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty and obedience, confirmed by a vow or other sacred bond, in the hands of their respective diocesan bishop (or his delegate), and observe each their own "plan of life" under his direction; theirs is a life devoted to the praise of God and salvation of the world through a stricter separation from the world, the silence of solitude and assiduous prayer and penance (cf. canon 603 of the Code of Canon Law 1983; Nos. 920-921 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church 1992).
There are the virgins who are consecrated to God through the solemn prayer of consecration of their diocesan bishop and do not profess the evangelical counsels; they are betrothed mystically to Christ, the Son of God, and are dedicated to the service of the Church (cf. canon 604 of the Code of Canon Law 1983; Nos. 922-924 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church 1992). Consecration of widows also is practised today as in New Testament times and, in addition the consecration of widowers, Pope John Paul II said that such individuals, "through a vow of perpetual chastity as a sign of the Kingdom of God, consecrate their state of life in order to devote themselves to prayer and the service of the Church."[10] Although the Latin Church has no specific liturgical rite for the consecration of widows and widowers, the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches envisages individual eastern churches choosing to have consecrated widows.[11]
Comparable to religious institutes are the societies of apostolic life,[12] dedicated to pursuit of an apostolic purpose, such as educational or missionary work. They do not take religious vows, but live in common, striving for perfection through observing the "constitutions" of the society to which they belong. Whilst it is not a general obligation for all societies of apostolic life, some of them define in their constitutions "bonds" of a certain permanence whereby their members embrace the evangelical counsels.[13] Examples of societies of apostolic life are St. Philip Neri's Institute of the Oratory, the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, and the Priests of St. Sulpice.