Prepared for the SIR-PPP 2019

Casa Generalizia, Fratelli del Sacro Cuore

Rome (Italy)

Presenter:
Bro. Reginald Cruz, CFX
Lecture 1
Who are Consecrated Persons?



 Conse- Forms of Manifes- Examples
crated Consecra tations of
Life Itself -ted Life Life
Forms

Canonical Forms of Consecrated Life Clerical

Salesians
Institutes
Institutes of
Religious La Salle
Brothers Brothers
Institutes of
Consecrated Cloistered Carmelite
Life Nuns Nuns

Apostolic Assumption
Sisters Sisters

Secular Opus Spi-

Institutes ritus Sancti

Clerical Mill Hill

Institutes
Societies of
Apostolic
Daughters
Life Sisters
Consecrated of Charity
Life
New Jerusalem
Monastics Comm.ty
“New
Forms”
Families of The Work
CL

Order of
Hermits

Order of Associated
Servidoras
Virgins Virgins

Consecrated
Persons in Lay Apostolic Focolare
Associations
NUMBER OF PONTIFICAL CONGREGATIONS IN 2017
MEN
Order of Canons Regular 7
Monastic Orders 7
Mendicant Orders 17
Clerics Regular 8
Clerical Religious Institutes 98
Institutes of Religious Brothers 35
Institutes of Consecrated Life of Eastern Rights 9
Clerical Secular Institutes 10
Lay Secular Institutes 6
Societies of Apostolic Life 36
Total 232
NUMBER OF PONTIFICAL CONGREGATIONS IN 2017

WOMEN
Monastic Orders and Congregations 71
Institutes of Consecrated Life (Latin Church) 1293
Institutes of Consecrated Life (Eastern Churches) 30
Societies of Apostolic Life 13
Secular Institutes 66
“New Forms” and Other Forms of Consecrated Life 7
Total 1480
NUMBER OF PONTIFICAL CONGREGATIONS IN 2017
TOTAL
Women’s Congregations 1480
Men’s Congregations 232
Total 1712
 ■ All the members of the faithful are consecrated
through baptism;
■ However, while diocesan priests are consecrated
“to be at the service of the People of God” …
■ and while married laypersons are consecrated
“to love their spouse and children”…
■ Consecrated Persons are consecrated to “make
Christ present again” (“consacrati per
ripresentare Gesù”)

■ “The consecrated life truly constitutes a living memorial of Jesus’

way of living and acting as the Incarnate Word in relation to the
Father and in relation to the brethren. It is a living tradition of the
Saviour’s life and message.” (Vita consecrata, n. 22)
■ “The essential contribution that the Church expects from
consecrated persons is much more in the order of being than of
doing.” (Pope Benedict XVI, Sacramentum caritatis, 81)
 Conse- Forms of Manifes- Examples
crated Consecra tations of
Life Itself -ted Life Life
A form of life Forms
through which Religious
“the Institutes

Canonical Forms of Consecrated Life

(can. 607, §1-3)
consecrated, through
the profession of the Īnstitūtum = a stable Salesians
Clerical
Institutes

evangelical form ofInstitutes

living of that
La Salle
Religious
counsels, lead a Institutes of
entails aBrothers
long term Brothers

stable form of living

Consecrated
Life
commitment
Cloistered
Nuns
Carmelite
Nuns

… and are totally Apostolic

Sisters
Assumption
Sisters
dedicated to God
“Live the present
Secular
rituswith
Opus Spi-
whom they loved Institutes Sancti
passion.… We have to
most of all.” Clerical
ask ourselves:
Institutes
Mill Hill
Is Jesus
Societies of
(cf. Can. 573 §1) Apostolic
Life reallySisters
our first and only
Daughters
Consecrated of Charity
Life love,New
as we promisedJerusalem
“New he would be when
Monastics we
Comm.ty
Forms”
professed
Families of our vows?”
CL
The Work

Order of
(Pope Francis, Letter on
Hermits the Occasion of the Year
Order of of Consecrated
Associated Life, I.2)
Servidoras
Virgins Virgins

Consecrated
Persons in Lay Apostolic Focolare
Associations
Who are Religious?

the aggregation of individuals
living together in an ordered
community

 • A vow is a deliberate and free

promise made to God;
• It is public when a legitimate
superior accepts it in the
name of the Church
 Classical Antiquity Middle Ages Modernity
– 284 284 – 610 610 – 1050 1050 – 1250 1250 – 1450 1450 – 1650 1650 – 1945 1945 –

Graeco- Refor-
Germanic Global
Roman mation

33 313 410 1054 1305-1415 1517 1792 1962

Eremetic Movements
Eastern Monastics [Cenobites] (Basilians, etc.)
Western Monastics [Cenobites] (Benedictines, Cistercians, etc.)
Canons Regular (Norbertines, Augustinian Canons, etc.)
Clerical Western Monastics (Cistercians, etc.)
Beguines/Beghards & New Devout Communities
Non-clerical Hospitallers (Alexians, St. John of God, etc.)
Mendicant Orders (Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinians, etc.)
Clerics Regular (Jesuits, etc.)
Societies of Apostolic Life (Daughter of Charity, etc.)

Non-clerical Institutes (Lasalles, etc.)

Institutes of Simple Vows (Passionists, etc.)
 Leitourgia (λειτουργία):
public act = worshipping
 Kerugma (κήρυγμα):
proclamation = proclaiming
the Good News
 Koinonia (κοινωνία):
communion by intimate
participation = living in
communion with each other
 Diakonia (διακονία): work of
a servant = ministering to
each other
 Marturia (μάρτυρία): to give
testimony before a court =
testifying for Jesus at the risk
of losing one’s life
Within the Early
Church also lived
women and men
who, along with
these five marks,
led lives of
asceticism,
contemplation,
and – above all –
celibacy in small
informal groups in
the midst of the
larger Christian
community.
Lecture 2
 Il n’y a que les details qui comptent (Only the details are really
important)… “There are instances in the history of culture when details
are unexpectedly illuminating.” (Mircea Eliade, “The Quest for the
‘Origins’ of Religion”)
 When the details of a historical study are forgotten or ignored, our
understanding of the subject at hand become oversimplified and its
trajectory leads to erroneous paths.
 How did the Consecrated Life begin? What was taught to you about its
origins?
When Antony had gone to church and heard the Lord saying in
the Gospel, Take no thought for tomorrow, he distributed the rest
of his wealth to the poor. He was not content to stay at home but
entrusted his sister to some faithful virgins of good repute to be
brought up according to their example, while he himself, now
released from all worldly ties, eagerly entered upon a harsh and arduous way of
life. But monasteries were not yet so numerous in Egypt and there was no one at all
who was familiar with the remote desert: anyone who desired to benefit himself in
the service of Christ would settle at no great distance from his own village. Now
there was on a neighboring estate an old man who from his earliest youth had led a
solitary life. When Antony saw him, he was keen to emulate him in goodness. At
first, when he started out, Antony lived in places which were at a relatively short
distance from home but later on, if he heard of anyone engaging in this disciplined
life, he would go out and search for him like a wise bee.
When Antony had gone to church and heard the Lord saying in
the Gospel, Take no thought for tomorrow, he distributed the rest
of his wealth to the poor. He was not content to stay at home but
entrusted his sister to some faithful virgins of good repute to be
brought up according to their example, while he himself, now
released from all worldly ties, eagerly entered upon a harsh and arduous way of
life. But monasteries were not yet so numerous in Egypt and there was no one at all
who was familiar with the remote desert: anyone who desired to benefit himself in
the service of Christ would settle at no great distance from his own village. Now
there was on a neighboring estate an old man who from his earliest youth had led a
solitary life. When Antony saw him, he was keen to emulate him in goodness. At
first, when he started out, Antony lived in places which were at a relatively short
distance from home but later on, if he heard of anyone engaging in this disciplined
life, he would go out and search for him like a wise bee.
When Antony had gone to church and heard the Lord saying in
the Gospel, Take no thought for tomorrow, he distributed the rest
of his wealth to the poor. He was not content to stay at home but
entrusted his sister to some faithful virgins of good repute to be
brought up according to their example, while he himself, now
released from all worldly ties, eagerly entered upon a harsh and arduous way of
life. But monasteries were not yet so numerous in Egypt and there was no one at all
who was familiar with the remote desert: anyone who desired to benefit himself in
the service of Christ would settle at no great distance from his own village. Now
there was on a neighboring estate an old man who from his earliest youth had led a
solitary life. When Antony saw him, he was keen to emulate him in goodness. At
first, when he started out, Antony lived in places which were at a relatively short
distance from home but later on, if he heard of anyone engaging in this disciplined
life, he would go out and search for him like a wise bee.
When Antony had gone to church and heard the Lord saying in
the Gospel, Take no thought for tomorrow, he distributed the rest
of his wealth to the poor. He was not content to stay at home but
entrusted his sister to some faithful virgins of good repute to be
brought up according to their example, while he himself, now
released from all worldly ties, eagerly entered upon a harsh and arduous way of
life. But monasteries were not yet so numerous in Egypt and there was no one at all
who was familiar with the remote desert: anyone who desired to benefit himself in
the service of Christ would settle at no great distance from his own village. Now
there was on a neighboring estate an old man who from his earliest youth had led a
solitary life. When Antony saw him, he was keen to emulate him in goodness. At
first, when he started out, Antony lived in places which were at a relatively short
distance from home but later on, if he heard of anyone engaging in this disciplined
life, he would go out and search for him like a wise bee.
 Through this biography, Antony became the most famous practitioner of
the ascetic life. Much as Paul had become the apostle to the Gentiles par
excellence because he was the most influential apostle in the West during
his lifetime, so too did Antony become the monk par excellence.
 The view of Antony as the first monk and of Egypt as the source from which
his innovation and its developments spread throughout the rest of
Christendom are oversimplified and erroneous conclusions. Empirical
details fail to support it.
 It is difficult to pinpoint the precise beginnings of the Consecrated Life in
Christianity.
 It is unlikely that monasticism existed as a recognizable movement before the
early part of the 2nd century.
 The tradition of virginity/celibacy during the 1st century was grounded in the
example and teaching of Jesus (Matt 19:12) as well as in the writings of St. Paul (1
Cor 7)…. But that virginity/celibacy [being “eunuchs for the Kingdom”] was
embraced because of the Parousia.
 Still, we do have clear historical proofs that monasticism became both visible
and practiced by the mid-2nd century in Christian communities around the
region of Syria.
 However, it was suspect, controversial, and unpopular among Christian leaders
in the West.
Pythagoreans of
Greece Manichaeans of Syria and
Mesapotamia
Jewish Therapeutae of
Alexandria, Egypt

Katachoi of the Serapeion

Essenes of
in Memphis, Egypt
Qumran

Brahmins of India
Syriac Christian
Communities
(2nd century)
 As early as the 2nd Century C.E., a form of the Consecrated Life had become visible
in the Syriac-speaking Christians in the Persian Empire.
 St. Irenaeus of Lyons was the first Christian writer to talk about them in his writings.
He called them Encratites.
 Encratites (ἐγκράτεια) literally meant “those who practiced
self-control”.
 They were noted for their refusal of marriage [thus,
celibacy], abstinence from animal meat and human pleasure
[thus, asceticism], and an intense inner quest for God [thus,
contemplation].
 However, these women and men were not accepted by the
Greek-speaking Churches in the Roman Empire. St. Irenaeus
even labeled their life an airesis [αϊρεσις, i.e. heresy].
Those who we called Encratites preached
against marriage, thus setting aside the
original commandment of God and indirectly
blaming Him who made the male and female
for the propagation the human race. Some of
them have also introduced abstinence from
animal food, thus proving themselves
ungrateful to God, who formed all things. …
(Contra Heresiae, xxviii.1)
 Despite this and other criticisms from Western Church leaders, the Encratites were
known to be “other-worldly” ascetics, i.e. they were wandering missionaries in the
Christian East who set about caring for the sick, feeding the poor, and preaching the
Gospel as they moved from place to place.
 One can say that they strongly represented the non-
dichotomized ethos of the Syriac churches: fiercely ascetical
yet thoroughly mission-oriented at the same time.
 By 300 C.E., these Encratites had managed to establish
themselves further south, eventually becoming present in some
form or another in the Egypt of St. Antony.
Lecture 3
 Documents from 250 C.E. indicated the development of a
phenomenon within Western Christianity concerning
“virgins dedicated to God” who associated themselves with
bishops for material support and encouragement.
 These women were referred to in Greek as parthénos
syneísaktos [παρθέος συνείσακτος] and in Latin as virgines
subintroductae [lit. “virgins brought in/introduced into (the
bishop’s house)].
 The geographical origin of these documents show how
widespread Consecrated Virgins were: Carthage (North
Africa), Ancyra (Asia Minor), Elvira (Spain), Antioch
(Syria), Bordeaux (France), and even in parts of Italy.
 We know from the Life of Antony that around 270 C.E.,
Antony placed his younger sister “in the charge of
respected and trusted virgins.”
 They were required to fast frequently, lead a celibate life,
and pray for the Church.
 But these women lived as part of their village.
 There were also men numbered among these consecrated
virgins. However, according to the Historia Monachorum
in Aegypto, female virgins and widows outnumbered their
male counterparts by two to one.
 The chronicler Epiphanius described the life of these
virgins: “Often, in their own church, a group of seven
virgins enters, carrying torches and clad in white robes,
and they go out from there to prophesy to the people.
They put on a kind of enthusiasm…; they cause the
people to weep, as though they were inducing the
mourning of repentance, shedding tears and
bewailing… human life.”
 They were spiritual elders and mentors to many and
were known for their powerful healing prayers.
 The Life of Antony spoke of “an old man on a
neighboring village who from his earliest youth led an
ascetic lif.” Ancient texts called them apotactics
[άροτακτικοí = i.e. men who renounced privileges]
 Like others like him, this ascetic remained an active
member of his village, not one who fled to the desert.
 Still this form of asceticism involved renunciation of the
usual patterns of human life, specifically having a
family and a life of luxury.
 The apotactics “followed the pattern long set for virgins
and widows, and set up houses of their own in town, in
which the life of renunciation and service in the church
would be practiced.”
 It is known that their numbers were large and lived
in villages within Egypt and even Pannonia (present
day Hungary).
 Apotactics were not clerics, and evidences indicate
that they clashed head-on with clerical authorities in
doctrinal, economic, and legislative issues.
Emperor Constantine attributed his victory at the Battle of the Milvian
Bridge in 312 to the Christian God and the loyalty of Christian soldiers who
enlisted in his army at the behest of Helena, his mother.

As a result, he granted Christianity universal toleration in February 313…

Thus, Christianity became a legal religion of the Roman Empire. Eventually,
It became the official religion of the Roman Empire in 395 during the reign
of Theodosius, a Christian emperor.
 Although he himself only became a Christian as he was about to die,
Constantine became Christianity’s main patron and granted special
privileges to the once forbidden religion. These include:
a) Providing for the building of grandiose Christian churches through
government finances and free construction materials;
b) Exempting the Christian churches and clerics from taxation;
c) Excusing the Christian clergy from shouldering burdensome civil
obligations;
d) Granting the Christian clergy regular “contributions” from the
government coffer;
e) Setting up a system of gifts of food to churches, and grain allowances
to consecrated virgins, widows, and others in church service.
 Constantine’s munificence towards Christianity made the so-called “Old
Christians” to confront the issue of “legitimate continuity” of their faith with
the ecclesia martyrum (church of martyrs):
 Was the Church, now heavily privileged by Constantine, the same Church
which not too long before had been persecuted by previous Roman emperors?
 In Egypt, many “Old Christians” resented the enrichment of the Christian
clergy and its absorption into the Roman imperial system. They were
convinced that the leadership of the Church has been corrupted.
 They had to convince themselves that their church was still the ecclesia
martyrum (church of martyrs)… even vicariously.
 To re-experience the life of martyrdom of their
ancestors, many Old Christians fled to the
hostile desert and mountains of Lower Egypt.

Lower Egypt
(including Arcadia)
 Apart from having an inhospitable topography
– where one’s lifestyle was forcibly reduced to
the bare minimum – Egypt was already home
to Encratites.
 The Old Christians would learn from them
how to live an austere lifestyle.
 The desert world that the Old Christians
would inhabit was unique in its starkness.
 It was a world of constant, relentless battle, of
ceaseless resistance against the overwhelming
force of the environment, as well as the
equally ceaseless resistance against the
demons that assailed the “inner man.”
 Whether or not Antony (ca. 251-356) was historically the
first Christian hermit (as some would cliam), it is safe to say
that Antony provides us with the prototype of a hermit –
otherwise known as anchorite [αναχωρητής (anachōritēs) =
to withdraw].
 Unlike consecrated virgins, the hermits physically separated
themselves from the “the inhabited world” [οἰκουμένη
(oikumenē)] so they can truly live a life of solitude [μοναχóς
(monachos)].
 This form of asceticism distinguishes itself for having no
superior (abba), no community, no rules, no vow, and no
common worship.
 Each hermit lived alone – and far away from another hermit
as much as possible – so they can be “alone with God”.
 According to contemporary testimonies, eremitism spread
into Lower Egypt during the 4th century and became
popular among the Old Christians.
 However, it is difficult to determine the number of actual
hermits during this historical period because chroniclers at
that time were not careful to distinguish eremitism from
another extant ascetic life form: lavriotism.
 Lavriotism was a quasi-eremitic lifestyle involving hermits
living in one enclosed area in the desert… and with cells
that were connected to each other by lanes (in Greek,
λαυρα = “lavra”) and clustered around a church and other
common facilities.
 Their cells were fairly close to one another, thus enabling
them to interact and celebrate common worship from
Saturday to Sunday, served by priests sent by the local
bishop who, however, immediately left the lavra after the
Mass.
 Neophytes attached themselves as apprentices to a master
(an abba or amma) to learn the ascetic life. However, there
was neither a formal “novitiate” nor the profession of some
form of vow after their training.
 Palladius’ Lausiac History claims that there were 18,900
men and 3,095 women living in these desert lavras by 420
C.E.
 In spite of living in one walled area, however, these lavriotes
did not bind themselves to caring for each other: “They
followed different ways of life, each as one can or will.”
 The yearning for a life in common and caring for each other
impelled several lavriotes to give birth to a new life form –
cenobitism.
 The best-known exponent (but not originator) of
cenobitism was Pachomius (+326).
 After adult baptism, he began a life of asceticism as a
lavriote. At some point during his apprenticeship,
however, he recognized a powerful call “to serve all
people in order to call them to God.”
 To accomplish this, he realized that he first had to define
a setting in which others ascetics might support each
other [κοινοβιώτης (koinōbiotis) = in common] both
spiritually and materially.
 But what he strove for was not mere association with
others, nor even the service of others.
 What Pachomius wanted was to form his monks into
an authentic koinōnia (κοινωνία = communion by
intimate participation) that was built upon mutual
respect and mutual support.
 His first koinōnia was established at Tabennesi (Upper
Egypt) around 320 C.E. At its peak, it accommodated
several hundred cenobites. Stewardship over the
koinōnias was appointed although Pachomius
remained as the over-all abba.
 These cenobites raised their own food and engaged in
various handicrafts, the products of which were sold in
Alexandria to sustain their economics and simple
lifestyle.
 When needed, they also cared for people living outside
the moanstery. They took in the aged and orphans,
cared for the sick, fed the hungry, and buried the dead.
 For the sake of orderly common living, Pachomius drew
for the members a series of regulations inspired from
Sciptures (later known as the Pachomian Rule).
 In this Rule, Pachomius indicated that he did not want the
male cenobites to desire to become priests because he
gravely doubted its compatibility with the monastic life
form: “The clerical dignity is the beginning of a
temptation to love of power.”
 “Our father Pachomius did not want any clerics in his
monasteries, for fear of jealousy and vainglory. If any
priest comes to the monastery without invitation, he
would tell the monks: ‘Release the dogs!’ Very often,
indeed, he would talk to his monks on this subject: ‘It is
better not to seek after such a thing in our fraternity, lest
this should be an occasion for strife, envy, jealousy and
even schisms to arise in a large number of monks,
contrary to God’s will. In the same way as a spark cast
into the threshing floor, unless it is quickly quenched,
will destroy a whole year’s labor, so it is with a thought
of becoming a priest at its outset.” (Bohairic Life of
Pachomius, 25)
 “If someone from the clergy came to Pachomius and
expressed his desire to become a monk – and if he saw
that he was righteous – he would accept him and make
him a monk. However, although he would respect this
man’s office, Pachomius would make him walk
willingly in the rules laid down for the brothers, like
anyone else.” (BL Pachomius, 25)
 “Pachomius appointed some from among the capable
brothers as his assistants to take care of their souls’
salvation.” (BL Pachomius, 26)