Dominican Friars?

[Totally Franciscan]

http://www.dominicanablog.com/records/

 

This is the first time I have heard of Dominicans referred to as friars.  I thought Franciscans were the only friars, but I stand corrected.  This CD sounds wonderful!

[reminiscere]

Augustinians, Carmelites, Dominicans, Franciscans, Mercedarians, Minims, Servites, Trinitarians...

 

http://www.dominicanablog.com/records/

 

 

This is the first time I have heard of Dominicans referred to as friars.  I thought Franciscans were the only friars, but I stand corrected.  This CD sounds wonderful!

[TheresaThoma]

Yup Dominicans have always been friars. I believe the difference is a monk is enclosed were a friar is not.

[Gabriela]

Yep, TheresaThoma is right: Friars are basically "active" men, whereas monks are essentially "cloistered" (contemplative) men.

 

However, if Augustinian, they are technically called "canons", not monks or friars. I believe that's the case for all Augustinians, anyway. It has been for all the ones I've known.

 

I think it's a common misconception, though, that all friars are Franciscans. I certainly thought that for a LONG time. It might be the fact that the two words sound similar—"Franciscan", "friar"—or it might be that we so often hear the two conjoined, "Franciscan friar". :idontknow:

Edited November 10, 2013 by curiousing

[TheresaThoma]

I just spend all my time around Dominican friars and had heard about Franciscan friars so it didn't seem odd to me.

[reminiscere]

To be more specific, it depends. The O.E.S.A. and O.A.D. (Discalced Augustinians)  are friars. 

 

However, if Augustinian, they are technically called "canons", not monks or friars. I believe that's the case for all Augustinians, anyway. It has been for all the ones I've known.

 

[Gabriela]

To be more specific, it depends. The O.E.S.A. and O.A.D. (Discalced Augustinians)  are friars. 

 

Friars who are not called "canons"? Or they're friars but they're still called "canons"?

 

Can you link to one of their communities?

[reminiscere]

OK, not all Augustinians are canons, some are friars. The orders I mentioned are not canons, rather friars. 

 

Another monastic order, the Order of St. Paul the First Hermit follows the Rule of St. Augustine but their own Constitutions. They are not Canons, they are rather Monks.

 

According to the Annuario Pontificio these are the orders of Monks: Benedictines, Camaldolese, Cistercians, Trappists, Carthusians, Paulines (which I've just mentioned following Augustine's Rule) and the Jeronimites. 

 

Also, many other communities (contemplative, active, semi-active) have the Rule of St. Augustine, e.g. the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. That doesn't make them canons, or Augustinians of course.

 

 

Friars who are not called "canons"? Or they're friars but they're still called "canons"?

 

Can you link to one of their communities?

 

[Gabriela]

OK, not all Augustinians are canons, some are friars. The orders I mentioned are not canons, rather friars. 

 

Another monastic order, the Order of St. Paul the First Hermit follows the Rule of St. Augustine but their own Constitutions. They are not Canons, they are rather Monks.

 

According to the Annuario Pontificio these are the orders of Monks: Benedictines, Camaldolese, Cistercians, Trappists, Carthusians, Paulines (which I've just mentioned following Augustine's Rule) and the Jeronimites. 

 

Also, many other communities (contemplative, active, semi-active) have the Rule of St. Augustine, e.g. the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. That doesn't make them canons, or Augustinians of course.

 

Ah, very good! Thank you so much for the clarification!  :like: 

[AnneLine]

OK, this may help.... and I think I have it all written down right, but if someone sees an error, let me know!

 

Hermits / those called to an Eremitical life are those who are called to live in a solitary style of prayer.  They might have a spiritual director, or affiliate themselves with an Abbey or other location, but the commitment is to stay in the cell, and to develop a prayer life within that cell.  Most strict hermits aren't found in Western religious life, but it is pretty common in the middle east and Greece.  AND in the West, the tradition morphed into communities of hermits - like the Camaldolese and Carthusians.... and in recent years, to private individuals being consecrated as hermits in their own homes/dioceses.  But the focus is still on a solitary life lived in the cell.

 

Monks (and women Monastics) are those who are under obedience to an Abbot/ (or in female communities Abbess) and make a commitment to obey the Abbot/Abbess and to live in community with the other monks/nuns.  Monks tend to NOT go out (although some may have ministries within the abbey such as schools, retreat centers, etc.  But the commitment is to attach oneself to a spiritual leader and stay in that same community until death.  Kind of like pebbles that will be polished by rolling around together in an enclosed container, for lack of a better example.   Some monasteries also affiliated lay people with them by an offering of themselves 'Oblation' and they became 'oblates'.   In the western church, most people think of the Benedictines and their offshoots when they think of monastic life.

 

No everyone has the vocation to be a monk or hermit.  One of the people who DIDN'T have either of those vocations was St. Francis.  Francis tried (and failed) the monastic life.... he just didn't fit there.

 

He started a very different style of following God.   Not as a hermit, not as a monk, but as a person trying to live the gospel radically.  Free to move from place to place, preaching and serving the poor... living as he believed the Poor Jesus lived.  Soon other men joined him, and he wrote a rule for this very different style of living for God.  When he went to Rome to get his rule approved, it was approved as a rule for MENDICANTS.  "Mendicant' means beggar - so you certainly can sees the connection with Francis!    But in the Church the MENDICANT orders are NOT monks and NOT hermits.  They are not assigned to one place, but can be assigned to go where needed.   They should expect that they will move around!  They need that freedom to preach and teach and serve as needed.  Mendicant men are correctly termed 'friars'.  This is the FIRST way of being a Franciscan, a Friar, or member of the First Order.  'Friar' comes from the word for Brother, frater.... and you also see it in Spanish as 'Fray' or "Fraile' - until he was beatified, for example, Junipero Serra was correctly called 'Fray Junipero Serra'.

 

Francis also developed a form of the Franciscan life for women -- which was begun with St. Clare.  She wrote a rule for her nuns (and she was originally helped by the Benedictine nuns in Assisi, so it isn't too surprising that there are some similarities in lifestyle) that incorporated monastic life for women with the Franciscan charism.   This became the SECOND way of being a Franciscan, a Poor Clare Nun.  They are also classed with the mendicants.

 

Lay people eventually affiliated themselves with Francis and they become the THIRD way of being a Franciscan.  They did this not by becoming a friar or a nun, but by continuing to live their secular lifestyles AND incorporating the Franciscan values.  They became the nucleus for the THIRD way of being Franciscan, the Tertiaries (from the Latin for Third) or Secular Franciscans / Third Order Franciscans.  SOME of those seculars (often women, but not exclusively) chose to live in community, pool their worldly goods, and engage in Franciscan service together.  They become the nucleus for what are the active congregations of teaching, nursing and other kinds of active sisters.  Some are more contemplative, others are more active, but they are all technically part of the Franciscan tradition.... and are classed with the mendicant orders.

 

Dominic looked at what Francis was doing, and realized hey -- that structure, with some changes -- would work for my men as well, and sought and received approbation as a Mendicant order of Friars Preachers -- the Order of Preachers, the O.P.s.  And as our Dominican Nuns will tell you, he actually STARTED with the Nuns, praying for the preachers.... and the Laity affiliated themselves with the Order later down the road.  I attend a Dominican parish, and I can tell you, the lifestyle of a Dominican friar is very different from that of a Carmelite Friar or a Franciscan Friar... but all of them are more alike than they are like a monk!  He adopted the Rule of St. Augustine because it worked well for his purposes.

 

The Carmelites started as HERMITS who chose to live in community.  So... not monks.  (Yes there are Carmelite monks, but they are a different thing altogether!)   When they had to leave Mt. Carmel because of the Saracens, they migrated to Europe and England.  They didn't fit with anything that was already in Europe -- a group of hermits living in Community????  (Well, maybe kinda like Carthusians, but they also wanted a limited preaching ministry?)  So someone had the happy idea to class them with the mendicants, so yes, the Carmelites are ALSO friars.  Carmelites follow the rule of St. Albert of Jerusalem, who was their local bishop when they were on Mt. Carmel.

 

Shortly after those three were approved, Rome made the decision that there were TOO MANY new communities and rules, and insisted that future communities accept a rule already on the books.  Most chose either the Benedictine or Augustinan ones, although some are based on the Franciscan or Carmelite rules.   And then they set up 'constitutions' or 'customaries' to fill in exactly how that was to be interpreted by their members.   That is how most of the later communities and groups ended up not being either monks or friars, but clerks and other kinds of interesting things.  And the teaching and nursing sisters either based themselves off one of the older communities or created something different and didn't call it a rule!

 

I don't know as much about the Augustinians, Servites and the other communities listed above.  I believe Minims are a flavor of Franciscans, but I'm not positive.  I know some Augustinians are Mendicants, others are Monks, and still others are Canons.  Perhaps one of us knows more about this?  I do know that Canons are in some way involved with formal recitation of the Divine Office/Liturgy of the Hours, but don't know that much about it....

 

On a last note... about those Carmelite Monks and their wonderful Coffee!!!!   Well... technically the Discalced and O.Carms. would tell you there ARE no Carmelite monks, because all Carmelite men are Friars.  BUT what is really going on is that we have 'Carmelite Flavored' Monks.  They are incorporating Carmelite spirituality and traditions into their monastic life... but well... yeah... you see what I am saying here...  I think they are holy men (and yes, they make fantastic coffee!!!!).  But..... not part of either of those orders... although I understand there is some talk of them being incorporated into the O.Carms.  Time will tell!!!!

Edited November 13, 2013 by AnneLine