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[German Version] I. Sisters of Our Lady of Zion (Religieuses de Notre-Dame de Sion, Congregatio Nostrae Dominae de Sion, NDS), a congregation founded in Paris in 1843 by Théodore Ratisbonne (1802–1884), a Catholic priest from a Jewish banking family, for educating children of non-Christian families. The first houses were established in Jerusalem, Turkey (both 1856), England (1861), Romania (1866), and Egypt (1869). Vatican II gave their educational, charitable, and catechumenal apostolate a new ec…

[German Version] I. Men's Orders – II. Women's Orders Originating in Germany – III. Women's Orders Originating outside Germany Between 1517 and 1982, 172 orders (51 male and 121 female) named themselves after St. Joseph, the patron of workers and craftsmen, most of them in America (30), France (25), and Italy (24). I. Men's Orders 1. The Congregazione di S. Giuseppe (CSI; Giuseppini del Murialdo) was founded in 1873 in Turin by Leonardo Murialdo (St., 1828–1900) to educate and train the youth; today it is also active in Latin America and in 2005 had 621 members (generalate: Rome). 2. Obla…

[German Version] (Ordo Cisterciensium Reformatorum, OCR). The Reformed Cistercians or Cistercians of the Strict Observance (Ordo Cisterciensium Strictioris Observantiae, OCSO) go back to the Cistercian abbey of La Trappe in Normandy, where Abbot A.-J. Le Bouthillier de Rancé introduced a reform characterized by penitential rigor in 1664. Since the congregation of La Trappe founded in exile at Valsainte in Switzerland in 1794 kept itself at some distance from the original order and was itself mired…

[German Version] Numerous congregations of this name exist. Most of them were founded after 1854, the year in which the immaculate conception of Mary became a dogma. The largest congregations are (as of 2000): The Brothers of the Immaculate Conception of Maastricht ( Congregatio Fratrum Immaculatae Conceptionis Beatae Mariae Virginis, FIC), founded in Maastricht (the Netherlands) in 1840 by Ludwig Hubert Rutten (1809–1891) and Jacob Adrian Hoecken (1810–1880) for the training of young people and teachers as well as for social-educational work.…

[German Version] There are some 65 congregations of women whose names include Providence or Divine Providence; they regularly engage in charitable and educational activities and today also perform pastoral ministries and evangelistic work. The most important include: ¶ 1. Soeurs de la Providence, founded in Vigy (Lorraine) in1762 by Jean-Martin Moyë (Blessed, 1730–1793) to teach in rural schools. Because he did not organize his Pauvres Soeurs on the model of a conventual congregation, by 1838 six independent congregations had come into being, including the Soeurs de la Providen…

[German Version] Many religious communities have the word love or caritas ( carità, charité, charity, etc.) in their name, referring to love of ¶ God and neighbor and usually further qualified as love of Christ, love of Mary, and so on (Merciful Brothers and Sisters of, Borromeans, Grey Brothers and Sisters, Good Shepherd Sisters, Rosminians, Vincentian Sisters). Frères de la Charité (Brothers of Charity; Congregatio Fratrum a Caritate, FC), founded as a lay congregation in 1807 in Ghent (Belgium) by the priest Pierre- Joseph Triest (1760–1836); today…

[German Version] I. Orders of Men – II. Orders of Women I. Orders of Men 1. Generally speaking, the terms Cruciferi, Crocigeri, and Cruciati refer to members of hospital orders (Hospitallers) and various other orders of knights (Knights, Orders of) whose clothing is adorned with the sign of the cross. More specifically, they are applied to the members of numerous congregations of canons regular that originated in the period of the Crusades, such as the Canons Regular of the…

[German Version] (Society of the Divine Savior, Societas Divini Salvatoris), founded in Rome in 1881 by Johann Baptist Jordan (1848–1918) as the Apostolic Teaching Society, is a congregation of priests with a broad apostolic ministry, primarily in the area of the Catholic press and in mission (India, South America, China, Africa). “Healing” is the central theme of Salvatorian spirituality; their Marian focus is indicated by their veneration of Mary as the mother of the Savior ( Maria Mater Salvatoris). The congregation quickly spread throughout the world – in the 19th cen…

[German Version] (Petits Frères de Jésus/Petites Soeurs de Jésus), established in 1933 by René Voillaume (1905–2003) and in 1939 by Elisabeth Hutin (1898–1989) in Algeria in the spirit of C.-E.V. de Foucauld (today congregations of papal right). These small communities (two to four brothers and four to five sisters) live a life of poverty, work, and worship in the midst of a socially difficult, dechristianized or non-Christian (esp. Muslim) environment (without any institutions of their own) and p…

[German Version] Pietro del Morrone (later Pope Celestine V) founded the male branch (Hermits of St. Damian, Fratres de Spiritu Sancto, Coelestini, OSBCoel) between 1240 and 1243 as a strictly ascetic monastic community following the Rule of Benedict (supplemented with Constitutions). It was confirmed by pope Urban IV in 1263 and spread quickly in Italy and, after 1300, in France; with a few monasteries also in Spain, Belgium, and Germany (Oybin near Zittau, Prague, …

[German Version] I. Name – II. Art and Liturgy – III. Roman Catholic Congregations I. Name The Greek interpretation of the Aramaic Golgotha as Κρανίου Τόπος/ Kraniou Topos, “Skull Place” (Matt 27:33; Mark 15:22; John 19:17; cf. Luke 23:32), is rendered almost uniformly in the Latin versions (Old Latin, Vulgate) as c alvariae locus. The Latin form gave rise to “Calvary” and similar terms in other European languages. It is based on the Latin noun calvaria, “cranium, skull,” which makes its first appearance in the middle of the 1st century ce in medical works (Aurelius Cornelius Celsus,…

[German Version] I. Brothers of Penitence The order of the Brothers of Penitence (Penitents of Jesus of Nazareth, Scalzetti [= Barefoot Friars], Nazareni, Ordo Poenitentium a Jesu Nazareno, OPoen) was founded by the Spaniard Juan Alonso Varela y Losada (1724–1769) in Salamanca in 1752. It was a contemplative and hermetic mendicant order, similar to the Franciscans in rule, organization, and habit, and active in the mission to the people and care of the poor (with a fourth vow until 1854: defense of th…