Monastery

MONASTERY. - M. (from μοναστήριον and monasterium) in the CIC is a religious house (v.), inhabited by monks or canons regular or nuns (canons 488, nos. 2 and 8; 494 § 1; 497 § 1; 625; 633 § 3; 635; 647; 896; 1579 §§ 1-2).

The m. can be sui iuris or non sui iuris (the words "sui iuris" were in use among the Roman people to signify the independence of the father of a family: 6. 1, D. VI, 1): it can be composed of either monks or nuns. The m. sui iuris of religious is a religious house, juridically independent in temporal and spiritual matters, save for some exception imposed by law; therefore the m. in its ordinary internal government is not subject to any internal superiors other than the one elected by the m. itself. Nevertheless the supreme superior of the monastic Congregation may have rights over the m. sui iuris according to the constitutions. Every m. sui iuris is exempt, but not every exempt religious house is a m. sui iuris. If the superior of the m. sui iuris is an abbot, then it is called an abbey; if he is a prior, it is called a conventual priory; whereas the simple priory is a religious house that depends on the m. sui iuris. For the foundation of an abbey the intervention of the Holy See is required, and of at least 12 monks of solemn vows; for the conventual priory likewise the intervention of the Holy See is necessary, because it is a m. sui iuris, and 8 monks besides the prior are sufficient; for the simple priory at least 6 monks are required, otherwise there is a cell. In the simple priory the prior of the house has no jurisdiction of his own, nor is there a Chapter, nor a novitiate, nor is the intervention of the Holy See required for the foundation, because it is not independent, but depends on the abbey or conventual priory.

By m. of nuns is meant a religious house, inhabited by religious of solemn vows who by foundation are bound to strict papal enclosure, even, for example, if the Holy See has seen fit to introduce some change, permitting only simple vows (can. 488, no. 7). The m. of nuns is presided over by the abbess, also called "antistita." However, it must be noted that the m. sui iuris of nuns (AAS, 18 [1926], p. 375; 19 [1927], p. 50) although in their internal regime they have no superiors other than the abbess, nevertheless, besides the pope, must be subject to the local Ordinary or to the regular superior, and this because a woman is incapable of jurisdiction.

The most ancient m. were small centers where the monks practiced all the trades; thus at St. Gall, Fulda, Cluny, Clairvaux, etc.

In the beginnings of religious life, the m. were subject to the local bishop; then emperors and pontiffs began to grant exemption from the bishops and to subject them to their immediate jurisdiction. Indeed there were not lacking bishops who renounced their power over the m., subjecting them directly to the pontiff, to the metropolitan, or giving freedom to choose a bishop (v. EXEMPTION). The Council of Trent ordered that bishops visit exempt m. auctoritate apostolica and non-exempt ones auctoritate propria (sess. 7, can. 8; sess. 21, can. 8; sess. 24, can. 10 de Reform.).

In ancient times the m. enjoyed the privilege "of the canes," by which within four Roman miles they could oppose the building of a new religious house, if they proved that from such an erection they would receive harm.

In the discipline currently in force, for the erection of any m. (whether of monks or of nuns) the beneplacitum of the Holy See is required and the consent given in writing by the local Ordinary (can. 487 § 1). For clerical religions, once the permission to build the m. has been obtained, the permission to build the church or public oratory annexed to the m. is understood to have been obtained as well, requesting however the license from the same local Ordinary for the choice of the place (can. 1162). Furthermore the permission to build the m. entails the right to exercise the activity proper to the religious of that kind, observing the conditions laid down by the bishop in granting such permission. To convert the m. to other uses not properly internal, the same formalities are required as for a new erection (can. 497 §§ 2-3).

Regarding the pastoral visitation, administration of goods, Sacraments, chaplain, confessors (of religious men and women), v. the individual entries.

Regarding art v. ABBEY.

THE DISCIPLINE IN FORCE FOR FEMALE M. OF

enclosure and take solemn vows (at least some of them, if not all); it therefore does not concern sisters, that is, religious of the active life who take only simple vows.

1. Precedents of the current discipline

Before the present reform, the female cloistered monastery was characterized by the presence of solemn vows, by papal enclosure, that is, rigorous enclosure, by the choral recitation of the Divine Office, by autonomy and by isolation. But such a juridical position in modern society could no longer be maintained: canonically, because the legislation in force was in conflict with the criteria derived from the experience of the numerous and prosperous female congregations of active life, especially because of the enclosure, autonomy and isolation that condemned the whole of female monastic life to a more or less imminent exhaustion; disciplinarily, because of the difficulties of recruitment, because of the lowering of the level of cloistered vocations as a social position, as culture and as quality, in the estimation of the Curias and of the people, as well as because of the lack of serious and effective control on the part of the ecclesiastical authorities; economically, because of the state of destitution, frequently distressing, because of the pressing need to find profitable work in order to procure the means of subsistence, since it was no longer possible, because of the devaluation of money, to rely on dowries or on the ancient possessions of the monasteries, lost or considerably reduced. The various commissions studied the problem in depth, suggesting the remedies to be applied, from the suppression of monasteries where every other means could be foreseen to be ineffective, to transfers to places that offered greater possibilities of life; from the transformation of monasteries into congregations of simple vows with an ordinary centralized regime, to groupings that would preserve the autonomy of the individual monasteries and the rights that the CIC attributes over them to the local Ordinaries, and would remove the same monasteries from isolation, with economic, disciplinary and spiritual advantages.

2. The content of the apostolic constitution "Sponsa Christi"

a) The first part of the Constitution rapidly outlines the various phases of female religious life in the Church; from the virgins consecrated to God who live within their own family, to the categories of public status who, with the profession of the evangelical counsels, take refuge in the cenobium. For a long time, the whole of female religious life, aligned, in spirit, with the corresponding male branch, was oriented and harmonized in the monastery, where the discipline is rigid and the life is eminently contemplative. The final hints of apostolate, especially educational and charitable, find their realization by way of dispensations, adaptations, expedients. Then arise the congregations of a prevalently active character and with a central government. In the present reform the contemplative life retains its degree of greater nobility and is openly defended in the Constitution, albeit with the sacrifice of accessory elements; the solemn vows are its essential note. The enclosure, autonomy and isolation, in the modern social climate, have undergone those adjustments necessary to permit a broader work, a more extensive apostolate, a greater internal vitality of the individual monasteries.

b) The juridical-practical part of the Constitution is contained in 9 statutes that outline in legislative form the most important innovations, integrated 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, substantially, is nothing but "the external profession of the religious discipline ordered to internal contemplation". The purpose therefore of canonical contemplative life is contemplation, that is, the uninterrupted meditation of 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 invest the whole life of the nuns and to direct their whole action. The effective means for attaining the purpose are found in the vows, in the enclosure, in the groupings or federations of monasteries and in monastic work. Where the purpose can be considered irreparably compromised, through the deficiency or the unsuitability of the means, the monastic character is not permitted.

The term "nun" today designates that religious 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 can be nuns who are bound by simple vows, perpetual or even temporary. In fact it is the desire of the Church that solemn vows be restored where by privilege, because of circumstances for the most part political, these had been reduced to simple; but nuns too, before solemn profession, must make the temporary profession which by its nature is simple. Nor is it necessary that all the nuns, that is, the persons who live in a monastery, take solemn vows, because in fact in many monasteries the converse take only simple vows, and by law the so-called extern sisters cannot take solemn vows.

c) Very noteworthy is the mitigation of the rigid concept of papal enclosure. There is today a more rigid enclosure (major) and a less rigorous one (minor), always within the ambit of papal enclosure. The major one remains intact as it is established by the CIC (cann. 600-602) and amply described in the Instruction of the S. Congr. of Religious of 6 Febr. 1924. It extends to the monastery and to all its parts; particular dispensations from it can be granted only by the Holy See. All monasteries in which the strict contemplative life is professed, that is, without adaptations of any external activity, and with solemn vows, are obliged to the scrupulous observance of this enclosure. Every violation of it is subject to the canonical penalties contained in can. 2341, 1st and 3rd: excommunication with simple reservation to the Holy See and with the addition of suspension for ecclesiastics. The minor papal enclosure is more greatly mitigated. It distinguishes the monastery into two parts: one formed by the premises reserved to the nuns, subject to greater rigor; the other constituted by the premises destined for external works, to which the nuns destined for these ministries may have access from within, and from without all interested persons, under determined conditions. It obliges monasteries that have external works annexed, and monasteries of contemplative life only, but with simple vows. The violation of this enclosure, as far as concerns the part of the monastery reserved exclusively to the nuns with respect to outsiders and as far as concerns the same nuns in regard to the whole monastery, is subject to the same canonical penalties established for the major enclosure; as far as instead concerns communications between the two parts of the monastery or the illegitimate entry of outsiders into the part of the monastery destined for works, it may be subject to penalties that the local Ordinary will determine case by case. The observance of papal enclosure, at least in its lesser form, is an absolute condition for a monastery to be considered juridically as such. In all monasteries of papal enclosure there is the obligation of the choir; but nuns legitimately absent from the choir, if they are simple professed nuns, are not strictly obliged to make up for it by the private recitation of the Divine Office, although they are exhorted to do so.

d) A women's monastery of enclosure is, in itself, independent and autonomous, that is to say, it governs itself through the superior, under the jurisdiction of the local Ordinary and the authority of the regular superior, if there is one, without relations of juridical dependence of one monastery on another. There follows a certain isolation which in present circumstances can fatally lead the monastery to exhaustion through lack of means of spiritual or material life, through deficiency of religious observance, or through lack of suitable subjects. This drawback is provided for by federations, that is, regional groupings of several monasteries of the same Order, which, while preserving their own autonomy and their dependence on the local Ordinaries and the regular superiors, unite together, at their request and with the approval of the Holy See, for the purpose of more easily obtaining common advantages, especially by lending one another help for moral, intellectual and religious formation, for the exchange of directive and formative personnel, for preserving and increasing observance and the religious spirit, and for necessities of an economic nature. The federation is therefore a higher organism that groups together several monasteries whose internal and external organization it respects, which rises to the rank of pontifical right, and is governed by its own organization and its own laws. Such a federation may have at its head, alongside the superior, also a religious assistant, who, appointed by the Holy See, assists the federation with his work and counsel, as moral guide of the superior in the government and in the entire functioning of the federation, for the preservation of the spirit of the Order, the good conduct of discipline and of the formation of personnel, economic management and the relations of the federation with the outside world and in particular with the Holy See. Confederations of federations are also envisaged.

e) Monastic work is considered, in the new discipline, under the twofold aspect of spiritual and material. 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 bringing about the union between the contemplative life and the active life, as well as a source from which to derive honestly one's own sustenance and the means for works of charity and of the apostolate. The local Ordinaries, the regular superiors, the superiors of federations must take care that the nuns do not lack suitable and profitable work, making use for the purpose also of special commissions and committees. The kind of work must not hinder the contemplative life or overturn the internal order of the monastery; it must moreover be decorous and suited to nuns of enclosure, for example, the making of hosts and wine for Mass, of vestments and other objects of worship, the operation of printing presses.

f) In the presence of the present conditions of society, the general directives of the Pope contain express references to the forms of apostolate to which nuns of enclosure may also devote themselves, without detriment to their particular kind of life. The practical implementation of those directives today is found in the general prescriptions of the Apostolic Constitution: a) nuns who already devote themselves to a determined external apostolate, for example, educational, charitable, etc., should keep it; b) nuns of strictly and solely contemplative life must not devote themselves to any apostolate other than that of prayer and sacrifice, except in particular cases sanctioned by apostolic authority; c) nuns who, even within the sphere of the strictly contemplative life, have or have had some traditional form of external apostolate, should keep it or take it up again, adapting it to the needs of the times and of the contemplative life. In practice, nuns who wish to devote themselves to a certain external apostolate must apply to the S. Congr. of Religious for specific directives in the particular case. - See plate LXXXVIII.

Agostino Pugliese