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A missionary order is a
Catholic religious order In the Catholic Church, a religious order is a community of consecrated life with members that profess solemn vows. They are classed as a type of Religious institute (Catholic), religious institute. Subcategories of religious orders are: * can ...
devoted to active
missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who 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.Thoma ...
work. No Catholic religious order was founded for that purpose, but all the
mendicant orders Mendicant orders are primarily certain Catholic Church, Catholic religious orders that have vowed for their male members a lifestyle of vow of poverty, poverty, traveling, and living in urban areas for purposes of preacher, preaching, Evangelis ...
have been active in this field and others too, in particular the
Jesuits The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
, whose members include outstanding missionaries such as Saint
Francis Xavier Francis Xavier, Jesuits, SJ (born Francisco de Jasso y Azpilicueta; ; ; ; ; ; 7 April 15063 December 1552), venerated as Saint Francis Xavier, was a Kingdom of Navarre, Navarrese cleric and missionary. He co-founded the Society of Jesus ...
and
Matteo Ricci Matteo Ricci (; ; 6 October 1552 – 11 May 1610) was an Italian Jesuit priest and one of the founding figures of the Jesuit China missions. He created the , a 1602 map of the world written in Chinese characters. In 2022, the Apostolic See decl ...
. Even monastic orders have engaged and still engage in missionary endeavours, as did, for instance, the
Benedictines The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly Christian mysticism, contemplative Christian monasticism, monastic Religious order (Catholic), order of the Catholic Church for men and f ...
whom Pope Gregory the Great sent to evangelize the Angles. A missionary congregation is a
religious congregation A religious congregation is a type of Religious institute (Catholic), religious institute in the Catholic Church. They are legally distinguished from Religious order (Catholic), religious orders – the other major type of religious institute – i ...
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. It has also been suggested that all congregations, at their foundation, are missionary focussed. The largest Catholic missionary congregation is the Society of the Divine Word. A Catholic missionary society is a
society of apostolic life A society of apostolic life is a group of men or women within the Catholic Church who have come together for a specific purpose and live fraternally. It is regarded as a form of consecrated (or "religious") life. This type of organization ...
devoted to active missionary work. Orders and congregations are classes of
religious institute In the Catholic Church, a religious institute is "a society in which members, according to proper law, pronounce public religious vows, vows, either perpetual or temporary which are to be renewed, however, when the period of time has elapsed, a ...
s, but societies of apostolic life, while similar, are of distinct character in that their members do not take
religious vows Religious vows are the public vows made by the members of religious communities pertaining to their conduct, practices, and views. In the Buddhist tradition, in particular within the Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions, many different kinds of r ...
. Missionary societies include the Paris Foreign Missions Society, the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions, the Missionaries of the Precious Blood, the Missionary Society of St. Columban, and the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America.


See also

* '' Ad gentes'' *
Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples The Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (CEP; ) was a congregation (Roman Curia), congregation of the Roman Curia of the Catholic Church in Rome, responsible for Catholic missions, missionary work and related activities. It is also kn ...
*
Jesuit China missions The history of the missions of the Jesuits in China is part of the history of Foreign relations of China, relations between China and the Western world. The missionary efforts and other work of the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits, between the 16th a ...
* Society for the Propagation of the Faith


References


External links


Congregation of the Missionary Benedictines website

St Columbans Mission Society website
* {{RC-stub