**RELIGIOUS SUPERIOR** – A religious superior is one who lawfully possesses the authority to command the members of a religious society or a part thereof.
I. In canon law, there are major and minor superiors. Among the former are to be included: all supreme superiors of centralized religious institutes, the Primate Abbot of the confederated Benedictine monastic congregations, the Presiding Abbot of the individual Benedictine congregations (v. BENEDICTINES), the provincial superiors and others who, although not bearing the same title, in fact possess the same ordinary powers; moreover, all their vicars when they possess ordinary powers (can. 488, n. 8). It should be noted that in monastic orders, in canons regular, and in houses *sui iuris*, whether masculine or feminine, the local superior, designated as abbot, prior, or by any other name, is indeed a major superior. Minor or local superiors are all those who, in a centralized order (v. RELIGION), exercise authority over a single house.
Another canonical distinction must be made between major superiors who hold a permanent, continuous office, and those who exercise authority only under certain circumstances. Such are the visitors of many orders, especially monastic ones; however, they must possess ordinary powers, not merely delegated ones, in which case they are not considered major superiors—for example, a delegate of the major superior sent to conduct a canonical visitation is not a major superior.
A third distinction is between collegial and personal superiors. Among the former are the General Chapter, the Diet, and other assemblies that act as a single body with collegial responsibility. All other superiors are personal, i.e., individually responsible, even if they have a council whose advice they must seek, except when the superior and council act as a collegial body, as occurs in certain cases where a collegial superior is in place.
II. In religious communities, superiors are lawfully constituted either through free election or by appointment. This occurs especially in centralized orders—in which only the highest offices, such as supreme superior, councilor, procurator, and generally also the bursar and general secretary, are filled by election in General Chapters (v. CHAPTER)—while for all other offices, appointment by the major superiors is far more common. Sometimes, provincial chapters, although competent to elect their own provincial superior, must receive confirmation of their deliberation from the supreme government.
The election or appointment of superiors represents one of the typical rights of religious orders (can. 501 § 1) from their very inception; however, since the Roman Pontiff is also the supreme superior of all religious orders, he possesses the power, either personally or through the competent Roman Congregations, to appoint superiors who, naturally, possess the same rights and duties as those elected or appointed by the order itself (can. 499). The manner, juridical conditions, and qualities required for election or appointment depend on the *Codex Iuris Canonici* and the constitutions. The common conditions for being elected supreme superior are set forth in can. 504: one must be a legitimate son of the Church, have made profession for ten years, be at least forty years of age to be a supreme superior or thirty to be a major superior; and, in general, possess all the moral qualities of prudence and governance necessary for such office.
The term of office for all superiors is limited in time, unless the constitutions of the order expressly provide otherwise (can. 505). Minor local superiors, moreover, cannot remain in office for more than six years in the same house without a prior dispensation from the Holy See (can. 505). For the superiors of religious orders in Italy—whether centralized orders or monasteries—one must also take into account the instruction of the Sacred Congregation of Religious dated March 9, 1920 (AAS, 12 [1920], p. 365), according to which a female superior general or local abbess cannot be reelected for a third consecutive six-year term without a postulatio and confirmation from the Holy See.
III. The rights and duties of superiors are proportionate both to the territorial scope of their authority and to the limitations established by canon law and the constitutions, especially in centralized orders, where the distinction between supreme, provincial, and local superior is of the greatest importance. A fundamental right and duty of every superior is to strive, by all means of authority, prudence, and charity, to ensure that subjects attain the religious holiness to which they have vowed themselves, and that the order, province, or house over which they preside achieves the special ends for which the institute was approved by the Holy See.
The power, even when dominative, by which superiors command is undoubtedly of a public nature, both because they govern organizations of a universal character, in many respects similar to dioceses, and because such power derives from the same supreme public source of all authority, namely the Roman Pontiff, who grants juridical status to religious orders. In exempt orders, this power also includes jurisdiction, which confers upon major superiors the rank of prelates and Ordinaries in accordance with canon law (can. 110, 198, 501 § 1); supreme superiors possess, as their own general right, the authority to command all provinces, regions, houses of the order, and all and each of its members (can. 502). The supreme superior also becomes, from the moment of election, the exclusive representative of the order as such, with the power to bind, act, and answer in both canon and civil law.
Among the principal rights and duties are: the admission and regulation of professions (can. 572); the assignment of members to various offices; the convocation of General Chapters; the conduct of canonical visitations (v.); the granting of temporary dispensations from the observance of merely disciplinary constitutions; the drafting of quinquennial and annual reports (can. 510); the care for the formation of novices; and so forth. In orders divided into provinces, those acts for which canon law refers to major superiors, and expressly to supreme superiors, fall under the competence of provincial superiors, unless the individual constitutions specify otherwise. The authority of local superiors in centralized orders is subordinate to the constitutions of each institute, generally excluding authority in matters of greater importance, whether administrative or governmental. The superiors of monasteries or houses *sui iuris*, however, are true Ordinaries, and to them belongs all the authority that the *Codex Iuris Canonici* attributes to Ordinaries (can. 198 § 1).
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