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[German Version] (Clara; Apr 11, 1815, Aachen – May 8, 1894, Simpelveld, The Netherlands) was the daughter of a factory owner. Heavily influenced by her teacher L. Hensel, she found her way to charitable work at an early age. With the help of two friends, she opened a school for abandoned and neglected girls in 1837, for whose care and education she founded the congregation of the Sisters of the Poor Child Jesus in 1844. The mother-house in Aachen as well as many subsidiary houses having been disbanded in the wake of the Kulturkampf , the founder of the order and lifel…

[German Version] ( Clerici regulares ministrantes infirmis, MI; Ordo Sancti Camilli, OSC). The Camillians are the only clerical order of the Catholic Church devoted entirely to charitable service. The order was founded in Rome in 1582 by Camillo de Lellis (1550–1614) to renew the ministry of service to the sick (fourth vow: to serve the sick, regardless of mortal danger – hence grave losses during epidemics of the plague and cholera). After the demise of the Order of Servants o…

[German Version] (Congregatio S. Mariae Montis Oliveti OSB; Ordo S. Benedicti Montis Oliveti, OSBOliv), a reformed Benedictine congregation with strictly central organization, appointment of officers for a limited time, frequent transfers of monks, and spirituality with eremitical and mariological features. It was initiated by blessed Bernardo Tolomei (1272–1348), who settled around 1313 with a few companions on Monte Oliveto near Siena in Italy. The movement spread rapidly, but only in central an…

[German Version] (Nov 18, 1885, Gymnich near Cologne – Sep 15, 1968, Schönstatt) was the founder and leader of the Schönstatt movement. He joined the Societas Apostolatus Catholici (SAC) in 1909 (member until 1965) and was ordained to the priesthood in 1910. He founded the movement in 1914, further structuring and expanding it from 1919 onward. The movement grew out of educational work with the pupils of the Pallottines in Schönstatt near Vallendar on the Rhine. From 1941 to 1945 he was imprisoned by the Gestapo and sent …

[German Version] (Istituto della Carità, Fathers of Charity, IC), founded by A. Rosmini-Serbati in 1828 on Monte Calvario near Domodosolla in northern Italy. The members of the congregation take simple life vows and retain their personal assets. The congregation includes priests and lay brothers, who engage in educational work, apostolate to intellectuals, care for emigrants, and mission. As of 2001, there were some 400 religious in Italy, England, Ireland, the United States, India, and Africa; th…

[German Version] (Society of the Catholic Apostolate, Societas Apostolatus Catholici), founded in 1835 by St. Vincent Pallotti (1795–1850) in Rome as a community of priests and brothers, in order to spread and deepen faith. Its members take no vows, but promise to live in ¶ community according to the counsels of perfection, for a limited time, or permanently. Clergy promise furthermore not to seek church honors, or to accept them without permission. From 1854 to 1947 the society was known as the Pia Societas Missionum. It has missions in the Cameroon (1890), southern Brazil, no…

[German Version] I. Oratorians of Saint Philip Neri – II. French Oratory I. Oratorians of Saint Philip Neri (Oratory of Divine Love, Congregation of the Oratory, Philippians, Institutum Oratorii S. Philippi Nerii), congregation of secular priests who lead a common life of prayer and pastoral ministry in the spirit of P. Neri, united only by bonds of mutual love, without vows and binding commitments (albeit under statutes approved in 1612). The congregation was founded in 1552 in the oratory of its founder’s commu…

[German Version] The Johannesbund at Leutesdorf (Rhine) was founded in 1919 by Johannes M. Haw (1871–1949) as an initiative on the part of lay people and priests to spread the kingdom of God after the example of John the Baptist. Its members work in cooperation with the Sisters of St. John the Baptist and the Missionaries of St. John the Baptist to support charitable and educational institutions in Germany, Portugal, Mozambique, and India; they also have a press apostolate and conduct retreats (Exercises, Spiritual). Manfred Eder Bibliography J. Fleckenstein, Über die Idee und die h…

[German Version] These are predominantly internationally oriented organizations, which aim to offer aid through solidarity and partnership, to work for development and peace, mission and the proclamation of the gospel. In Germany, they include: Adveniat (Essen), diocesan action to support ministry among impoverished peoples in Latin America (est. 1961). Bonifatiuswerk (until 1967: Bonifatiusverein für das katholische Deutschland; Paderborn), for support of ministry amongst the Catholic diaspora in…

[German Version] members of a third order ( tertius ordo). I. Secular Tertiaries Tertiaries are members of a third order for men or women; since the 11th/12th century, they have associated with the male (First Order) or female (Second Order) branch of existing orders, especially the mendicant orders that arose in the 13th century, in order to pursue religious or social goals. The most important was and still is the Franciscan Third Order ( Tertius Ordo ¶ Franciscanus, TOF). In his Letter to the Faithful, Francis had limited himself to urging them to live active Christian lives,…

[German Version] (Congregatio Sacrorum Cordium Jesu et Mariae necnon adorationis perpetuae SS. Sacramenti Altaris, SSCC). The congregation, named after its former motherhouse in the Rue de Picpus in Paris, consists of a male branch (the Picpus Fathers, in Germany also commonly known as the “Arnstein Fathers,” after their first settlement in Arnstein on the Lahn), and a female branch (the Picpus Sisters or Zélatrices). It was founded in the late 18th century, in response to the pressure of the Fren…

[German Version] (Congregatio Missionis, CM; also Vincentian Fathers, Preti della Missione), founded in Paris in 1625 by Vincent de Paul to evangelize the rural French population through home missions (Mission to the People). Their apostolate soon expanded to include the training of priests, leading retreats (Exercises, Spiritual), spiritual guidance of the sisterhoods established by Vincent, pastoral care of prisoners and galley slaves, and foreign missions (after 1645; after 1697 in China, where…

[German Version] (SCC; Daughters of the Virgin Mary of the Immaculate Conception). The congregation was founded in Paderborn in 1849 by Pauline v. Mallinckrodt (1817–1881) for social and charitable work (initially primarily education of the blind, followed soon by education of girls and pastoral ministry). When they were expelled during the Kulturkampf (1873, return in 1887), they spread to the United States and Chile. Today some 700 sisters work in Germany, Italy, Uruguay, Argentina, and the Philippines. They are a congregation under papal law; their general council is in Rome. Manf…

[German Version] (Societas Sacerdotum Missionariorum a Sancto Paulo Apostolo, CSP), founded in New York in 1858 by the convert I.T. Hecker (1819–1888; Redemptorist 1848–1857) for the purpose of winning ¶ as many Americans as possible to the Catholic faith. The rule of the Paulists is an adaptation of the rule of the Redemptorists, but without solemn vows. The Paulists represented a school of Catholicism open to modern culture and therefore became entangled in the “Americanism” controversy in the late 19th and early 20th cent…

[German Version] (Ordo Theatinorum; Clerici Regulares, CR), the oldest order of clerics regular, founded in Rome in 1524 by Gaetano da Tiene (1480–1547) and other members of the Oratory of Divine Love, founded in 1517, including Gian Pietro Carafa, bishop of Chieti (Lat. Theate; hence the order’s name) and later Pope Paul IV. The order’s goal was renewal of the church through a reformed clergy; its primary activities were pastoral ministry, charitable work (caring for people with incurable diseases), training of priests, missionary work …

[German Version] ( Ordo Beatae Mariae Virginis de Mercede redemptionis captivorum, OdeM; also: Nolascans). The Order of the Mercedarians was founded in Barcelona in 1218(?) by Pierre Nolasque (also known as Nolasco; c. 1189–1256) as a lay congregation of knights committed to the ransoming of Christian slaves from the Muslims of southern Spain and North Africa (today: deliverance from every form of social, political, and psychological enslavement). The ransom money was raised through the sale of real estat…

[German Version] (Zusters van het Arme Kind Jesus, PIJ), founded as a congregation under papal law in Aachen in 1844 by K. Fey for the education of poor and abandoned girls. In 1872 there were almost 700 sisters in 25 houses, mostly in the Rhineland, with some 13,500 alumnae. As a result of the Kulturkampf, the mother house was moved to Simpelveld in Holland in 1878 (“Loretto House”). After they were readmitted in Germany in 1887, the sisters worked in higher education for girls and boarding schoo…

[German Version] There have been few orders of St. Peter; most no longer exist or have few members. Three deserve mention. 1. Congrégation de St-Pierre. The congregation was founded in La Chênaie (Brittany) in 1828 by Jean-Marie-Robert de La Mennais (1780–1860) and his brother Hugo-Félicité-Robert (1782–1854). Intended to replace the suppressed Jesuits, it had as its guiding principle absolute loyalty to the successor of St. Peter. Within a few years, it had over 60 members (including J.B.H. Lacordaire, P.L.P. Guéran…

[German Version] (Missionaries of Africa; Missionarii Africae, MAfr; Patres Albi, PA), founded in 1868 in Algiers by its archbishop, C.M.A. Lavigerie, for missionary work in Africa; in 1869 he also founded the White Sisters (Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa). The organization and spirituality of the White Fathers is modeled on the Jesuits; their central mission was to build a church with indigenous clergy; therefore they attached great importance to training catechists and priests in schoo…

[German Version] (Ordo Ss. Trinitatis et redemptionis captivorum, OSST; Fratres O.S.T.), a clerical order founded c. 1194 by St. John de Matha (1160–1213) in Cerfroid, near Metz, in honor of the Holy Trinity, to ransom or exchange captured Christians (16th–19th cent., involved in abolitionism), and for pastoral care and care of the sick in hospices and prisons. It received papal recognition in 1198. In the Middle Ages, it had 150 monasteries in 12 provinces throughout southern France, Spain, and I…