List of religious orders

[Discerning13]

As I'm discerning I am making a list of different religious orders, so far I have: Carmelite, Benedictine, Bridgittine, Cistercian, Carthusian, Dominican. Are there any more? Thanks

[IgnatiusofLoyola]

You've just asked a very big question. I don't know the number of religious orders for women, but from just a one-minute simple Internet Search, I came up with a VERY long list, many of which I had never heard of.

Here is a link from Catholiclinks.org that lists Catholic religious orders for women. In addition, it has links to a number organizations to which various congregations of women religious belong. This list will keep you busy for a long time.

http://www.catholiclinks.org/women.htm

Edited June 6, 2015 by IgnatiusofLoyola

[Nunsuch]

In my research on religious life in the U.S. before 1917, I have come up with a list of 425 separate congregations. You need to define specifically what you mean by "order" (some of what you list here are not orders, but congregations), and need to know that many orders have hundreds of congregations that are affiliated. 

[veritasluxmea]

Those sound like spiritualities, and they're pretty much the major ones, in the US at least. Franciscan is one you left out. Those spiritualites tend to have a lot of orders underneath them, especially the Carmelites, Franciscans, and Dominicans. In the US they're kind of the "big three," lol. However there are some orders- like the Passionists- with a specific spirituality (Passionist) but there's really only one "order" that follows it, unlike Franciscans with have a ton of orders: Poor Clare Colletines, Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration, Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal- I'm not sure how to explain it? 

[sr.christinaosf]

There are a lot of different congregations within each different order (Dominicans, Franciscans, Carmelites).  I'll give an example from our community which may better illustrate this.  We are Franciscan Sisters of Dillingen.  The Order is the Third Order Regular of St. Francis.  The Congregation is Franciscan Sisters of Dillingen - Dillingen is the city in Germany where we were founded in 1241 and where our motherhouse is.  Within the Congregation, we are divided into seven provinces, one of which is in North Dakota USA.  I hope that helps!  Have  a happy feast day!

Sr. Christina M. Neumann, OSF

​https://ourfranciscanfiat.wordpress.com