Mendicant orders are, primarily, certain
Roman Catholicreligious orders that have adopted for their male members a lifestyle of
poverty, traveling, and living in urban areas for purposes of
preaching,
evangelization, and
ministry, especially to the poor. At their foundation these orders rejected the previously established
monastic model. This model prescribed living in one stable, isolated community where members worked at a trade and
owned property in common, including land, buildings and other wealth. By contrast, the
mendicants avoided owning property at all, did not work at a trade, and embraced a poor, often
itinerant lifestyle. They depended for their survival on the goodwill of the people to whom they preached. The members of these orders are not called
monks but
friars.
The term "
mendicant" is also used with reference to some non-Christian religions to denote holy persons committed to an
ascetic lifestyle, which may include members of religious orders and individual holy persons.
Main mendicant orders
The
Second Council of Lyon (1274) recognised four main mendicant orders, created in the first half of the 13th century:
The
Carmelites (Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel) first historical recorded in 1155[1] and their reform branch, the
Discalced Carmelites (established in the 16th century)
Servites – Order of Servants of Mary, founded 1233 by the Seven Holy Men of Florence, Italy. The order was suppressed by the
Second Council of Lyon in 1272, on the basis of the restrictions in the decree Ne nimium of 1215; the suppression was not fully enforced and was subsequently overturned by
Pope Benedict XI in his
Bull, Dum levamus, of 11 February 1304.[5]
Order of Minims – Hermits of St. Francis of Paola, founded 1436.
Like the monastic orders, many of the mendicant orders, especially the larger ones, underwent splits and reform efforts, forming offshoots, permanent or otherwise, some of which are mentioned in the lists given above.
Former mendicant orders
Mendicant orders that formerly existed but are now extinct, and orders which for a time were classed as mendicant orders but now no longer are.
Extinct mendicant orders
Ambrosians or Fratres sancti Ambrosii ad Nemus, existed before 1378, suppressed by
Pope Innocent X in 1650.
Hospitallers of San Hipólito (Saint Hippolytus) or Brothers of Charity of de San Hipólito were founded in Mexico and approved by Rome as a mendicant order in 1700. In the 18th century they were absorbed by the Brothers Hospitaller of Saint John of God.
Jesuati, or Clerici apostolici Sancti Hieronymim, Apostolic Clerics of
Saint Jerome, founded in 1360, suppressed by
Pope Clement IX in 1668.
Saccati or "Friars of the Sack" (Fratres Saccati), known also variously as
Brothers of Penitence and perhaps identical with the Boni homines, Bonshommes or Bones-homes, whose history is obscure.[6]
Crutched Friars or Fratres Cruciferi (cross-bearing friars) or Crossed Friars, Crouched Friars or Croziers, named after the staff they carried which was surmounted by a
crucifix, existed by 1100, suppressed by
Pope Alexander VII in 1656.
Scalzetti, founded in the 18th century, suppressed by
Pope Pius XI in 1935.[6]
Orders no longer mendicant
Jesuits or
Society of Jesus, founded in 1540, and for a time considered a mendicant order, before being classed instead as an Order of
Clerics Regular.
Orders considered heretical by the Catholic Church