A superior general or general superior is the leader or head of a
religious institute in the
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
and some other
Christian denomination
A Christian denomination is a distinct religious body within Christianity that comprises all church congregations of the same kind, identifiable by traits such as a name, particular history, organization, leadership, theological doctrine, worsh ...
s. The superior general usually holds supreme executive authority in the religious community, while the
general chapter
A chapter ( la, capitulum or ') is one of several bodies of clergy in Roman Catholic, Old Catholic, Anglican, and Nordic Lutheran churches or their gatherings.
Name
The name derives from the habit of convening monks or canons for the re ...
has legislative authority.
History
The figure of superior general first emerged in the thirteenth century with the development of the
centralized government
A centralized government (also united government) is one in which both executive and legislative power is concentrated centrally at the higher level as opposed to it being more distributed at various lower level governments. In a national contex ...
of the
Mendicant Orders. The Friars Minor (
Franciscans
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, abbreviation = OFM
, predecessor =
, ...
) organized their community under a Minister general, and the Order of Preachers (
Dominicans) appointed a Master of the Order.
Due to restrictions on women religious, especially the obligation of cloister for
nun
A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...
s, congregations of women were not initially able to organize with their own superior general. In 1609,
Mary Ward Mary Ward may refer to:
Scientists and academics
* Mary Ward (nurse) (1884–1972) English nurse to the boat people on the waterways
* Mary Ward (scientist) (née King, 1827–1869) Irish amateur scientist, was killed by an experimental steam car ...
was the superior general of a religious institute that imitated the
Jesuit
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, nickname = Jesuits
, formation =
, founders ...
model, but the institute was not accepted by the
Roman Curia. It was not until the nineteenth century that religious congregations of women were able to organize with a general superior, and the role is now very common.
Mother Teresa
Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu, MC (; 26 August 1910 – 5 September 1997), better known as Mother Teresa ( sq, Nënë Tereza), was an Indian-Albanian Catholic nun who, in 1950, founded the Missionaries of Charity. Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu () was ...
, for example, was the superior general of the
Missionaries of Charity
The Missionaries of Charity ( la, Congregatio Missionariarum a Caritate) is a Catholic centralized religious institute of consecrated life of Pontifical Right for women
established in 1950 by Mother Teresa, now known in the Catholic Church as ...
, known by the honorific title of ''Mother''.
Following the
Second Vatican Council
The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the , or , was the 21st Catholic ecumenical councils, ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church. The council met in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome for four periods (or sessions) ...
, women religious formed the
International Union of superiors general.
Canon law
In
canon law
Canon law (from grc, κανών, , a 'straight measuring rod, ruler') is a set of ordinances and regulations made by ecclesiastical authority (church leadership) for the government of a Christian organization or church and its members. It is th ...
, the generic term Supreme Moderator is used instead of superior general. Many orders and congregations use their own title for the person who holds this position. Some examples are:
*
Abbot general or Abbess general
*
Custos-general
* Master general
*
Minister general
* Mother general
*
Prior general
*
Rector general
* General Director or general Directress
In many cases there is an intermediate level between the superior general and the superior of the individual monasteries or of equivalent communities, often named the
provincial superior.
See also
*
Commissary general
*
Definitor-general
Notes
References
Sources
*
*
{{Authority control
Organisation of Catholic religious orders
Catholic ecclesiastical titles