A missionary order is a

Catholic religious order In the Catholic Church, a religious order is a community of consecrated life Consecrated life (also known as religious life) is a state of life in the Catholic Church lived by those faithful who are called to follow Jesus Christ in a more ex ...

devoted to active

missionary A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

work. No Catholic religious order was founded for that purpose, but all the mendicant orders have been active in this field and others too, in particular the

Jesuits , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders = ...

, whose members include outstanding missionaries such as Saint

Francis Xavier Francis Xavier (born Francisco de Jasso y Azpilicueta; Latin: ''Franciscus Xaverius''; Basque: ''Frantzisko Xabierkoa''; French: ''François Xavier''; Spanish: ''Francisco Javier''; Portuguese: ''Francisco Xavier''; 7 April 15063 December ...

and Matteo Ricci. Even

monastic orders Monasticism (from Ancient Greek , , from , , 'alone'), also referred to as monachism, or monkhood, is a religious way of life in which one renounces worldly pursuits to devote oneself fully to spiritual work. Monastic life plays an important rol ...

have engaged and still engage in missionary endeavours, as did, for instance, the Benedictines whom

Pope Gregory the Great Pope Gregory I ( la, Gregorius I; – 12 March 604), commonly known as Saint Gregory the Great, was the bishop of Rome from 3 September 590 to his death. He is known for instigating the first recorded large-scale mission from Rome, the Gregoria ...

sent to evangelize the

Angles The Angles ( ang, Ængle, ; la, Angli) were one of the main Germanic peoples who settled in Great Britain in the post-Roman period. They founded several kingdoms of the Heptarchy in Anglo-Saxon England. Their name is the root of the name ...

. A missionary congregation is a

religious congregation A religious congregation is a type of religious institute in the Catholic Church. They are legally distinguished from religious orders – the other major type of religious institute – in that members take simple vows, whereas members of religi ...

devoted to active missionary work. Some, as that of the Marist Fathers, have that field of work as the purpose for which they were founded. A Catholic missionary society is a society of apostolic life devoted to active missionary work. Orders and congregations are classes of religious institutes, but societies of apostolic life, while similar, are of distinct character in that their members do not take religious vows. Missionary societies include the

Paris Foreign Missions Society The Society of Foreign Missions of Paris (french: Société des Missions Etrangères de Paris, short M.E.P.) is a Roman Catholic missionary organization. It is not a religious institute, but an organization of secular priests and lay persons de ...

, the

Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions The Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions or PIME ( la, Pontificium Institutum pro Missionibus Exteris; it, Pontificio Istituto Missioni Estere) is a society of secular priests and lay people who dedicate their lives to missionary activitie ...

, the Missionaries of the Precious Blood, the Missionary Society of St. Columban, and the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America.

External links

Congregation of the Missionary Benedictines website

St Columbans Mission Society website
* {{RC-stub

See also

External links