Question About Dominican Tertiaries And Vow Of Chastity

[MarysLittleFlower]

I was reading the manual for the Order of Penance, which is it seems the way the Third Order of St Dominic was when it was started or at the time of St Catherine of Siena. At one point, there's the Vow of Chastity and talks about being espoused to Jesus Christ. The text that the Sister says is "I [Sister] N., a poor and miserable sinner, out of pure love for Jesus Christ, in whose mercy and protection I place all my confidence and strength, of my full and entire free-will, without any constraint whatever, choose this day this same Saviour for my spouse; and in pledge of this spiritual contract here consecrate myself to the Lord, and promise Him chastity until death (or for such a time). I also implore His divine grace, that I may fulfill in deed what I here promise in word, and in pledge of my truth I hereto set my signature... " then the priest says "I espouse you to Jesus Christ; may He keep you unstained in heart and in body..."  This is for the Tertiaries - some of whom lived in convents or wore habits in the world. My question is, - does anyone know if this Vow of Chastity was made only by virgins, or could it be made also by widows or penitent women? thank you :)

 

 

 

 

[krissylou]

I honestly don't know about what that meant in Catherine of Siena's day.

 

I do know that now, there are plenty of married people who are Dominican Tertiaries, as well as widows and people who have always been single.

 

I'm not sure if that has anything to do with your question ...

[MarysLittleFlower]

Today, the Third Order has different practices than the Order of Penance... in the Order of Penance, they had  Vow of Virginity - actually I don't know if they still do in the modern order. But I was just wondering if this was like the Consecration of Virgins where only virgins could take this vow, of if it was more general for anyone who wanted to live chastity regardless of whether they were a virgin or not.

[AnneLine]

I think my understanding is that, like KrissyLou, I suspect this is kind of apples and oranges, MLF.  I'm not trying to be argumentative at all... but if I remember my understanding of St. Catherine's vocation, It is preetty clear that the 'Mantellatae' (which is what she actually joined as the 'tertiaries' really didn't exist yet) were wary of Catherine because up to that point, they had all been married women and widows.  They were not sure it was realistic for a young, single, beautiful woman to live their lifestyle.  But she did it and did it well.  Whether or not she had any official vows, she believed that Christ had wed her as His Bride... and I am certain that was enough for her.

 

My suspicion is that \women at that point who wanted to live a life of consecrated virginity would have opted for second order Nun status... and the Third Order as you are thinking of it simply didn't exist yet.  

 

Only after Catherine's death would the 'Third' way of being Dominican split into 'regular' sisters who wore the habit and lived in community and 'laity' who lived in their own homes.

 

Anyone else know differently?

[MarysLittleFlower]

I don't know, I read that when St Dominic started the Third Order, it was called the Brothers and Sisters of Penance and the Sisters lived in community as nuns do, but they were Third Order. They might have done the vow of Chastity because it's in the manual that was written for the rule (the rule was written after St Dominic, but still quite early on). I'm not sure why at St Catherine's time, the Third Order members were mostly widows, and how it was before, but it does seem that in the beginning, they were not all widows, in fact it took a special permission for someone to join the Third Order if they were married and many were virgins. That lead me to wondering if the vow of Chastity is for anyone, not only virgins. I was told elsewhere that it's for anyone, (I spoke to someone after asking on this thread) but I'm interested in how it's different from consecrated virginity etc. :)

Edited April 30, 2014 by MarysLittleFlower