RELIGIOUS STATE. — In canon law, and in the strict sense, it is the juridical status of those Christians who, desiring to live permanently a life of Christian perfection, embrace as particular means to attain it the evangelical counsels, by taking the public vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in a society approved by the Church, where they live a common life.
In this sense, a religious state is synonymous with "religion" (q.v.) and represents the highest and complete degree of the state of evangelical perfection in its theological and juridical elements. Theologically, the religious state presupposes a total consecration to God, by which a person obliges himself to dedicate himself entirely to God’s service in order to strive for the perfection of charity (cf. Summ. Theol., II-II, q. 184, a. 1), fulfilling not only the Lord’s commandment but also His counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience (Mt. 19:21; 19:12; 8:20; Lk. 9:58). This act sums up a man’s entire life in a single offering, directing all his subsequent works to God and His glory in a manner different from that of ordinary Christians. Indeed, the life of one who has irrevocably offered himself to God acquires in all its manifestations an ascetical character, that is, of worship, by virtue of the virtue of religion, by which one is bound to live out this total consecration (cf. A. Gemelli, *Le associazioni dei laici consacrati a Dio nel mondo* [pro manuscripto], Assisi 1939, n. 6).
Juridically, the total consecration of oneself to the service of God must not be a passing act of interior fervor but must be translated into a constant obligation, assumed through a moral bond recognized by the Church. Another fundamental juridical requirement is belonging to a society approved by the Church, for only the social profession of the life of perfection is admitted and recognized as such, no juridical character being attached to a fully individual form of religious life.
Regarding the essential theological and juridical elements of the complete state of evangelical perfection, the legislation and jurisprudence of the Holy See have created a true hierarchy of states of perfection, comprising various degrees or states, depending on how fully the juridical elements are determined. Among these are diocesan associations of priests called Oblates (q.v.), Secular Institutes (q.v.), societies living in common without vows, religious congregations, and religious orders. The last two forms constitute the true canonical public religious state, with all the juridical elements contemplated by the *Codex Iuris Canonici*, such as public vows, public profession, and common life, among others.
Historically, theology and ascetical doctrine, by emphasizing the various aspects of the state of perfection, facilitated the emergence and concretization of the different forms mentioned. Thus, in the early centuries, the profession of religious life was primarily understood as a total consecration to God, to whom many faithful offered themselves entirely, becoming servants of God, consecrated to Him. This was undoubtedly a consecration of the will, but it was approved or at least considered by the Church for anchorites (q.v.), ascetics (q.V. ASCESIS), and especially recognized through the consecration of virgins.
Without neglecting this profound aspect of consecration, the centuries following the sixth enriched the theology of the religious state with the concept of a state of complete public profession of evangelical perfection. Those who wished to be religious had to bind themselves to perfection through a stable dedication to a superior of a monastery or religious house, where they were to live a common life in poverty, chastity, and obedience. This was the age of monasticism (q.v.), during which the religious state was often compared to a second baptism and a school of divine service. From the 13th to the 20th centuries, the religious state was increasingly seen as a perfect imitation of Jesus Christ, not only in His total consecration to the Father and obedience to His will—both of precept and counsel—but also in His life entirely devoted to the apostolate of good example and preaching. This was the era of the Canons Regular and the Mendicant Orders. It was also the need for ever-greater apostolate in the world, together with the evolution of personal rights safeguarded by law in the exercise of human activities, that first gave rise to and then multiplied the congregations with simple vows, especially female ones (q.V. CONGREGATIONS). Finally, the Secular Institutes, approved by the apostolic constitution *Provida Mater Ecclesia* of February 2, 1947, made it possible to reconcile the religious life as a complete state of evangelical perfection with all the professions exercised by man in the world.
For the duties of the religious state: see RELIGION.