MONASTERO. — M. (from μονακτήριο and monasterium) in religious house (v.), inhabited by monks or regular canons, or by nuns (cann. 488, nn. 2 and 8; 494 § 1; 497 § 1; 625; 633 § 3; 635; 647; 896; 1579 §§ 1–2).
The m. may be sui iuris or non sui iuris (the words « sui iuris » were used among the Roman people to signify the independence of the head of the family: 6. 1, D. VI, 1); it may consist either of monks or of nuns. The sui iuris m. of religious is a religious house juridically independent in temporal and spiritual matters, except for certain exceptions imposed by law; consequently, in its ordinary internal government, the m. is subject to no other internal superior than the one elected by the m. itself. Nevertheless, the supreme superior of the monastic Congregation may have certain rights over the sui iuris m. in accordance with the constitutions. Every sui iuris m. is exempt, but not every exempt religious house is sui iuris. If the superior of the sui iuris m. is an abbot, it is called an abbey; if he is a prior, it is called a conventual priory; the simple priory, on the other hand, is a religious house dependent on the sui iuris m. For the foundation of an abbey, the intervention of the Holy See and of at least 12 monks with solemn vows is required; for a conventual priory, likewise, the intervention of the Holy See is necessary, since it is sui iuris, and 8 monks in addition to the prior are sufficient; for a simple priory, at least 6 monks are required, otherwise there is a cell. In a simple priory, the prior of the house has no proper jurisdiction, nor is there a Chapter or novitiate, nor is the intervention of the Holy See required for the foundation, since it is not independent but depends on the abbey or conventual priory.
A nuns’ m. means a religious house inhabited by religious women with solemn vows who, by foundation, are obliged to observe strict papal enclosure, even, for example, if the Holy See has thought it appropriate to introduce some change, permitting only simple vows (can. 488, n. 7). The abbess, also called « antistita », presides over the nuns’ m. It should be noted, however, that the sui iuris m. of nuns (AAS, 18 [1926], p. 375; 19 [1927], p. 50), although in their internal administration they have no superior other than the abbess, must nevertheless submit, besides the pope, to the Ordinary of the place or to the regular superior, and this because a woman is incapable of jurisdiction.
The oldest m. were small centers where the monks practiced every trade; thus at S. Gallo, Fulda, Cluny, Chiaravalle, etc.
In the beginnings of religious life, the m. were subject to the local bishop; later emperors and pontiffs began to grant exemption from the bishops and to subject them to their immediate jurisdiction. Indeed, there were bishops who renounced their authority over the m., submitting them directly to the pontiff or the metropolitan, or granting them the freedom to choose a bishop (v. ESENZIONE). The Council of Trent ordered that bishops visit the m. exempted auctoritate apostolica and those not exempted auctoritate propria (sess. 7, can. 8; sess. 21, can. 8; sess. 24, can. 10 de Reform.).
In ancient times the m. enjoyed the privilege « delle canne », by which, within four Roman miles, they could oppose the construction of a new religious house if they proved that they would suffer harm from such an erection.
Under the discipline currently in force, the erection of any m. (whether of monks or of nuns) requires the approval of the Holy See and the consent given in writing by the Ordinary of the place (can. 487 § 1). For clerical religious institutes, once permission to build the m. has been obtained, permission is also understood to have been obtained to build the church or public oratory attached to the m.; a license must, however, be requested from the same local Ordinary for the choice of the site (can. 1162). Moreover, permission to build the m. entails the right to carry out the activity proper to religious of that kind, while observing the conditions imposed by the bishop in granting that permission. To convert the m. to other uses not properly internal, the same formalities as for a new erection are required (can. 497 §§ 2–3).
With regard to pastoral visitation, administration of goods, Sacraments, chaplain, confessors (of religious men and women), V. the individual entries.
With regard to art, V. ABBAZIA.
THE DISCIPLINE CURRENTLY IN FORCE FOR FEMALE M. OF
1. Precedents of the current discipline
Before the present reform, the cloistered women’s monastery was characterized by the presence of solemn vows, papal, that is, strict, enclosure, the choral recitation of the Divine Office, autonomy, and isolation. But this juridical position could no longer be maintained in modern society: canonically, because the legislation then in force conflicted with the criteria furnished by the experience of the numerous and flourishing women’s congregations of active life, above all because of the enclosure, autonomy, and isolation that condemned the whole of women’s monastic life to more or less imminent exhaustion; from a disciplinary standpoint, because of the difficulties of recruitment, owing to the lowering of the level of cloistered vocations in social standing, culture, and quality, in the esteem of the Curias and of the people, as well as because of the lack of serious and effective supervision by the ecclesiastical authorities; economically, because of a frequently distressing state of poverty and the pressing need to find remunerative work in order to obtain the means of subsistence, since, owing to the depreciation of the currency, it was no longer possible to rely on dowries or on the monasteries’ ancient properties, which had been lost or considerably reduced. The various commissions studied the problem thoroughly, suggesting the remedies to be employed, ranging from the suppression of monasteries wherever every other measure could be expected to prove ineffective, to transfers to places offering greater possibilities for survival; from the transformation of monasteries into congregations of simple vows with an ordinary centralized regime, to groupings that would preserve the autonomy of individual monasteries and the rights which the CIC assigns to the local Ordinaries over them, while removing those same monasteries from isolation, with economic, disciplinary, and spiritual advantages.2. The contents of the apostolic constitution « Sponsa Christi »
a) The first part of the Constitution rapidly outlines the various stages of women’s religious life in the Church, from virgins consecrated to God who live within their own families, to the categories of persons in the public state who, through the profession of the evangelical counsels, withdraw into the cenobium. For a long time, all women’s religious life, spiritually corresponding to the appropriate male branch, became oriented and harmonized in the monastery, where discipline was strict and life eminently contemplative. The initial forms of apostolate, especially educational and charitable, found their implementation through dispensations, adaptations, and expedients. Then congregations of a predominantly active character and with central government arose. In the present reform, the contemplative life retains its higher degree of nobility and is openly defended in the Constitution, despite the sacrifice of ancillary elements; solemn vows constitute its essential note. Enclosure, autonomy, and isolation, in the modern social climate, have undergone the adjustments necessary to permit broader work, more extensive apostolate, and greater internal vitality in individual monasteries.b) The juridical and practical part of the Constitution is contained in 9 statutes that set forth in legislative form the most important innovations, supplemented by the 26 articles of the Instruction of the S. Congr. of Religious for their practical implementation. It begins with the notion of canonical contemplative life, which is essentially nothing other than « the external profession of religious discipline ordered to interior contemplation ». The purpose, therefore, of canonical contemplative life is contemplation, that is, uninterrupted meditation on divine things; public prayer, that is, the official prayer of the Church (Divine Office); and personal and voluntary sacrifice in isolation and penance. It is such as to encompass the entire life of the nuns and direct all their activity. The effective means of attaining this end are found in vows, enclosure, groupings or federations of monasteries, and monastic work. Where the purpose may be regarded as irreparably compromised through the inadequacy or unsuitability of the means, the monastic character is not permitted.
The term « nun » today designates that religious woman who has professed in a monastery subject to papal enclosure. The solemnity of the vows is not strictly necessary to the monastic character, since there may be nuns bound by simple, perpetual, or even temporary vows. In fact, it is the Church’s desire that solemn vows be restored wherever, by privilege and generally because of political circumstances, they had been reduced to simple vows; but nuns, too, before solemn profession, must make temporary profession, which by its nature is simple. Nor is it necessary for all nuns, that is, persons living in a monastery, to make solemn vows, because in fact in many monasteries the lay sisters make only simple vows, while in law the so-called extern sisters cannot make solemn vows.
c) Particularly noteworthy is the mitigation of the rigid concept of papal enclosure. Today there is a stricter enclosure (major) and a less rigorous one (minor), always within the sphere of papal enclosure. The major enclosure remains intact as established by the CIC (cann. 600-602) and extensively described in the Instruction of the S. Congr. of Religious of 6 Feb. 1924. It extends to the monastery and all its parts; particular dispensations from it may be granted only by the Holy See. All monasteries in which a strictly contemplative life is professed, that is, without adaptations involving any external activity and with solemn vows, are obliged to observe this enclosure scrupulously. Every violation of it is subject to the canonical penalties contained in can. 2341, 1° and 3°: excommunication reserved in the ordinary manner to the Holy See, with the addition of suspension for clerics. Minor papal enclosure is more greatly mitigated. It divides the monastery into two parts: one consisting of the premises reserved for the nuns and subject to greater strictness; the other consisting of the premises intended for external works, to which the nuns assigned to these ministries may have access from within, and to which all persons concerned may have access from outside, under specified conditions. It binds monasteries that have external works attached to them, and monasteries of an exclusively contemplative life but with simple vows. The violation of this enclosure, insofar as it concerns the part of the monastery reserved exclusively to the nuns, by outsiders, and insofar as it concerns the nuns themselves with regard to the monastery as a whole, is subject to the same canonical penalties established for major enclosure; insofar, however, as it concerns communication between the two parts of the monastery or the illegitimate entry of outsiders into the part of the monastery intended for external works, it may be subject to penalties
d) A female monastery subject to enclosure is, in itself, independent and autonomous; that is, it is governed by the superior, under the jurisdiction of the Ordinary of the place and the authority of the regular superior, if there is one, without any relationship of juridical dependence of one monastery upon another. This entails a certain isolation which, under present circumstances, may fatally lead the monastery to exhaustion through a lack of the means of spiritual or material life, inadequate religious observance, or a shortage of suitable subjects. This disadvantage is remedied by federations, that is, regional groupings of several monasteries of the same Order which, while retaining their own autonomy and dependence on the Ordinaries of the places and the regular superiors, unite at their request and with the approval of the Holy See in order to obtain common advantages more easily, especially by assisting one another in moral, intellectual, and religious formation, in the exchange of administrative and formative personnel, in preserving and fostering observance and the religious spirit, and in economic matters. The federation is therefore a superior body grouping together various m., whose internal and external organization it respects; it rises to the status of pontifical right and is governed by its own organization and laws. Such a federation may have at its head, alongside the superior, a religious assistant who, appointed by the Holy See, assists the federation through his work and counsel, as the superior’s moral guide in its government and in the entire functioning of the federation, in preserving the spirit of the Order, the proper conduct of discipline and the formation of personnel, economic administration, and the federation’s relations with the outside world, especially with the
Holy See. Confederations of federations are also envisaged.
e) Monastic work is considered, in the new discipline, under its dual spiritual and material aspect. It is a duty of penance and satisfaction for the nuns and for all humanity, an instrument of spiritual elevation and sanctification, a most effective means of achieving the union of the contemplative and active lives, as well as a source from which to obtain an honest livelihood and sustenance for works of charity and apostolate. The Ordinaries of the places, the regular superiors, and the superiors of the federations must ensure that the nuns are not deprived of suitable and remunerative work, also making use, for this purpose, of appropriate commissions and committees. The kind of work must not hinder the contemplative life or overturn the internal order of the monastery; it must also be decorous and suitable for nuns subject to enclosure, for example, the making of hosts and wine for Mass, vestments and other objects of worship, and the operation of printing presses.
f) In view of present social conditions, the Pope’s general directives expressly refer to forms of apostolate to which nuns subject to enclosure may also devote themselves without detriment to their particular way of life. Practical implementation of those directives is found today in the general prescriptions of the apostolic Constitution: a) nuns who are already engaged in a specific external apostolate, for example, educational or charitable work, etc., are to retain it; b) nuns living a strictly and exclusively contemplative life must not devote themselves to any other apostolate than that of prayer and sacrifice, except in particular cases sanctioned by apostolic authority; c) nuns who, even within the sphere of a strictly contemplative life, have or have had some traditional form of external apostolate are to retain or resume it, adapting it to the needs of the times and of the contemplative life. In practice, nuns who wish to undertake a particular external apostolate must apply to the S. Congr. of Religious for specific directives in the individual case. - Vedi tav. LXXXVIII.