A religious order is a lineage of communities and organizations of people who live in some way set apart from society in accordance with their specific religious devotion, usually characterized by the principles of its founder’s religious practice. The order is composed of initiates (laity) and, in some traditions, ordained clergy. Religious orders exist in many of the world’s religions.
In Buddhist societies, a religious order is one of the number of monastic orders of monks and nuns, many of which follow under a different school of teaching, such as Zen. A well-known Chinese Buddhist order is the ancient Shaolin order in Ch'an (Zen) Buddhism and in modern times the Order of Hsu Yun.
In the Eastern Orthodox Church, there is only one type of monasticism. The profession of monastics is known as tonsure (referring to the ritual cutting of the monastic’s hair which takes place during the service) and is considered by monks to be a Sacred Mystery (Sacrament). The Rite of Tonsure is printed in the Euchologion (Church Slavonic: Trebnik), the same book as the other Sacred Mysteries and services performed according to need.
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Author: Wikipedia
Keywords: Religious order, Monk, Monasticism, Monastic, Monastery, monkhood, solitary, asceticism, ascetic, Nun, Nunnery, Christian monasticism, Christian monastic, Desert Fathers, Hermit, Rule of Saint Benedict, St Benedict, Franciscan, Franciscan monk, St Francis, Francis, Saint Francis, Francis of Assisi, Eunuch
Bible reference(s): Luke 2:37, 1Co 7:1, 1 Co 7:32, 1 Corinthians 7:34, 1 Corinthians 7:38, 1 Timothy 4:3
Source: This article uses material from the Wikipedia article “Religious order,” which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.
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