The Big Three of Religious Orders: Franciscans and Dominicans and Jesuits…Oh My!
A short series
Pretty much everyone on the planet can identify a priest or a nun simply by the particular clothing they wear. If you’re watching a film, whether it’s Bing Crosby in Going My Way, Max von Sydow in The Exorcist, or Ewan McGregor in Angels & Demons, the minute a priest appears on screen, you automatically know he’s a priest. The same is true in everyday life; the clothes are a dead giveaway.
What many do not know is that there are actually two “types” of priests (for lack of a better word): diocesan priests, who enter and continue their vocation through a diocese, and those who enter and serve through a specific religious order. A diocese is a geographic region with a bishop at its head, and diocesan priests generally remain within one diocese serving the parishes there. Priests belonging to religious orders can be sent anywhere in the world, according to the needs of the Order. In this short series, I’ll take a brief look at three of the best-known religious orders individually, examining their unique characteristics and most famous members.
Even if you had never heard the term “religious order” before, the title of this article probably clued you in to the fact that Franciscans, Dominicans, and Jesuits (as well as Benedictines…
