Monk? Priest? Brother? Friar? Aren’t those all pretty much the same thing? Listening to pop culture or other uninformed sources, one might think so! However, not all vocations (i.e., God’s calling of each person to live his or her life in service to God and the Church) are the same. For example, married couples, through loving each other in a unique way and helping each other grow in holiness, raising their children in the faith, and sanctifying the world by their works of charity, lead very different lives from Catholic priests who embrace celibate chastity, offer the Sacraments, and serve faith communities as spiritual fathers.
Fr. Auggie DeArmond, O.P.
Pastor, St. Peter Catholic Church
Editor-in-Chief, Priestvocation.com
Click here for Fr. Auggie’s Vocation Story
If this sounds like a strict dichotomy, choose either the life of marriage or the priesthood, then think again. The Catholic Church has a rich and diverse tradition of vocations. The life of an ordained priest is expressed in many ways. And not all those who embrace celibate chastity or live in a religious community are ordained priests.
With so many terms describing so many different vocations, how is one to make sense of it all? The following article outlines the differences between four common vocation terms that often get mixed up in everyday Church conversation.
Priests
Let us begin with the vocation arguably most visible in Catholic Church leadership: the ordained priest. First of all, why would one say “ordained” priest? Are not all priests ordained? As with most terms, one has to make a distinction.
All baptized persons share in the priestly ministry of Christ. They enjoy a “royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9). This means that all baptized persons have a duty to offer their prayers and service to sanctify the world, making it a more holy place and bringing about the reign of God. All baptized persons serve God by living out the Gospel as Jesus taught us, by loving God and loving neighbor (from the ritual of Baptism for Children).
However, since ancient times, God promised to send His people “shepherds after his own heart” (Jeremiah 3:15). Christ upholds the Father’s promise by continuing to call men to celebrate the Sacraments of the Church, and lead and serve God’s people as Jesus did. These men are ordained when a bishop lays hands upon their heads and invokes the Holy Spirit to ordain them as priests.
At the moment of ordination, these men’s souls receive a special, eternal character called an indelible mark. Just as Baptism and Confirmation forever change a person by making them Christ-like and gifting them with the Holy Spirit, respectively, Holy Orders (i.e., ordination) forever changes a man by granting him the spiritual gifts and powers necessary to lead God’s people and celebrate the Sacraments.
To be clear, there are three distinct levels of the Sacrament of Holy Orders: bishops, priests, and deacons. Bishops serve as the “high priests” of the Catholic Church. They are ordained with the fullness of Holy Orders. Bishops ordain other men priests as coworkers in the mission of leading the Church and celebrating the Sacraments. Bishops ordain still other men as deacons so they might continue the service of Christ by caring for the poor, orphans, widows, home-bound, etc.
Ordination as a deacon, priest, or bishop, designates a man to a certain role in ministry. After ordination to one of these three ranks, each man serves the Church in the capacity he is supposed to serve by virtue of his ordination. Titles like “chaplain,” “pastor,” “monsignor,” “cardinal,” or even “pope,” do not in and of themselves mean someone is ordained differently from other deacons, priests, or bishops. Rather, these titles indicate how certain deacons, priests or bishops serve the Church.
And then there are the other terms mentioned earlier: monks, brothers, and friars. Are these men ordained? Well, it depends. Let’s start with one of the more ancient terms.
Monks
Monasticism is one of the oldest forms of religious life in the Catholic Church. Monks are men who, for the most part, live in communities called monasteries. Monasteries are institutions distinct from local parishes and even dioceses. They may house schools, seminaries, libraries, and even farms! Whatever work the monks undertake to sustain themselves often becomes an integral part of the monastery in question. So how does a place with such a broad range of ministries come about? It helps to know where monks themselves come from.
Monks in the Catholic Church find their origins in the life of a hermit. Hermits in both the Jewish and Christian traditions are men and women who choose to withdraw from society for the purpose of deepening their personal prayer life. Hermits seek to abandon the regular exercises of this world (politics, business, family, etc.) to devote their lives to contemplation and spiritual disciplines. Hermits often provide some service to the community, be it writing spiritual works, offering spiritual direction, or simply devoting their lives to prayer for you, me, the Church, and the whole world.
So where do monks come into this equation? Monks live in monasteries. They work, pray, and eat together. They do not sound like hermits!
If “hermit” and “monk” sound like two completely different lifestyles, remember that the word monk comes from the Ancient Greek μοναχός (monakhós) which means single or solitary. Therefore, one who seeks a single, especially a solitary, life might choose to be a monk. But this is only a small description of a broader vocation.
Hermits live completely individual lives. If they do not have financial resources of their own, they rely on the offerings of others to cover their needs, especially the generosity of those who seek them out for wisdom and spiritual support. It can be a difficult life for one who does not have the resources to support a fully autonomous vocation. And in the modern world there are some hermits who work regular jobs in the world, but retreat to their solitude at the end of the workday.
Not back to Monasteries: Many ancient hermits realized they could pool their resources and support each other in their way of life. These hermits eventually established monasteries and developed a system of life: appointing abbots (i.e., fathers of the monastery), externs (i.e. those who engage the outside world to procure whatever goods the monks need), formators (i.e., those who help new recruits learn the way of life), cooks, nurses, etc. Thus, these monks, no longer living lives strictly as hermits, created communities of people who care for one another and live prayerful lives together.
As with any Christian community, monasteries and their monks need priests to offer the Sacraments and guide the spiritual life of the monastery in the Catholic tradition. So, as time went on, abbots of monasteries asked bishops to ordain some of their monks as priests. Normally, the abbot himself is an ordained priest, and he has a few other priests to assist him.
However, since the original intention of monks (hermits in a community) is to live quiet lives of prayer and contemplation, monasteries are not meant to be large communities of priests. There are just enough priests to care for the needs of the monks and fulfill the external mission of the monastery if there be one.
Monks can have interactions with the outside world, as allowed by their specific traditions. The Benedictines, for example, have regular visitors and even go into the outside world to minister when the need arises. On the other hand, the Carthusians live in strict isolation from the world, not even conversing with each other except for special times of celebration throughout the year. The choice of what type of monastery to enter depends greatly on one’s personal need for human interaction and outside activity.
Monasteries are self-contained communities, wherein their members can focus on their salvation in Christ. As part of their charism, they pray for the world from within their solitude.
FYI: A charism is a grace-filled gift from God to the world, given through a specific person or community. The charism of monks is solitude and prayer. In a moment, this article will look at other charisms.
Getting back to the terms at hand (monks, brothers, friars, and priests), one can see that not all monks are ordained priests. And neither are all Catholic priests classified as monks. These are two distinct types of vocation that can overlap, depending on one man’s vocation.
To make things a bit more complicated, monks (whether ordained or not) are often referred to as brothers. This classification, too, requires a distinction.
Brothers
In the Roman Catholic tradition, a brother is a member of a religious community of men. A brother professes religious vows, a combination of, or all of the following: poverty, chastity, and obedience. A brother’s life revolves around prayer, communal living in a monastery or other religious community, and a ministry within the Church and society. Monks, like those described above, are called by the salutation “Brother” unless they are ordained priests, and thus called “Father.”
As mentioned above, men enter monasteries as monks in order to support each other in the spiritual life and devote themselves to prayer and particular good works. However, life in a monastery can be a rigorous one. Monks profess a vow of obedience to the Abbot and his successors, meaning they could be assigned to certain duties without necessarily having input. Monks are called to the chapel several times a day for prayer. And Monks spend their entire lives within the confines of the monastery, or at least within the local region surrounding it. That is why, in addition to the other vows mentioned, monks also profess a vow of stability to a particular monastery.
Monasticism is very disciplined. And not all men are called to live such a structured life as that of monks. Further, not all men desiring religious life have the resources and skills to be hermits, living on their own for their entire lives either.
However, there are many men who are called to live celibate chastity, in a community, promoting the mission of the Church. Strictly speaking, a brother is not ordained to the priesthood, and thus does not perform the sacramental duties of a priest (i.e., celebrating Mass, hearing Confessions, etc.).
Why would someone choose this way of life and not seek ordination to the priesthood? Are the less important than ordained priests? Absolutely not! Brothers have long served the Church with a specific charism: being Christ as a brother, in loving service, to everyone they encounter.
Ordained Catholic priesthood, while a fulfilling and joyful vocation, is not without its obligations. For example, weekends are a busy time for priests: weddings on Fridays and Saturdays, Masses on Saturdays and Sundays. At any hour, a priest may be called to anoint someone at home or in a hospital. Priests also can be called to care for parishes, a job which entails a great deal of time and effort.
A man may desire to live in a community to have the support of like-minded men who share the same passion for the Christian faith. He may desire to pray with others on a daily basis. He may be called to teach, write, practice some trade, or undertake any variety of ministry without the obligations of the Sacramental ministry of an ordained priest. These men are spiritual brothers to one another and to all they serve.
A good example of this way of religious life is The Brothers of the Christian Schools (also known as the Christian Brothers or the Lasallian Brothers). The Christian Brothers devote their lives to teaching, especially in secondary and university education. St. Jean-Baptiste de La Salle, their founder, envisioned a community of men who lived in a community, but had a more apostolic (active) ministry.
While the Christian Brothers may not be ordained priests and, thus, not considered spiritual “fathers,” they have been mentors to many students over the years and take great pleasure in being older “brothers” to many young people in their journey of faith and education. Ask any alumnus of a Christian Brothers school about the positive impact a brother had on his life. You likely will be ready to canonize that brother!
So, brothers are not priests…and priests are not brothers? The answer is a little more complex. It should be noted that there are groups of brothers, like those in monasteries, who have ordained priests. In the outside world, these priests are usually called “Father” by the people they serve. However, when in a community, members of these communities, whether ordained or not, often address each other as “Brother.” For example, this is the case for Dominican Friars.
Friars
Now, this is getting out of hand! What is a friar? What is a Dominican Friar?
Are they Monks? No.
Are they brothers? Yes, for the most part.
Are they priests? That depends on the individual friar.
This sounds complicated. But, with the right information, it will all make sense.
It’s time to take a step back and look at friars in general. Friar comes from Latin and means “brother.” A friar is a male member of only four orders: Dominicans, Franciscans, Carmelites, and Augustinians. While there are other groups of brothers, as mentioned above, friars have distinct characteristics.
For the first 1200 years of Christianity, hermits and monks made up the religious-order tradition for men. Ordained priests were largely members of their local dioceses, working for their local bishops. Only a handful of priests belonged to monasteries or chose the life of a hermit. Those practices began to change in the early 13th century, as the needs of the Church changed.
Around 1203, a Spanish priest named Dominic de Guzman began a traveling preaching mission throughout France to combat heresies of the day that were tearing the Catholic Church apart in that region. Over time, in addition to offering spiritual care to groups of cloistered nuns in monasteries, St. Dominic gathered men, both non-ordained men, and ordained priests, to join him in his preaching mission.
St. Dominic originally was a priest for his diocese. He resided at the cathedral in Osma, Spain. At that time, many priests living in a Cathedral rectory were canons. As a community, they served not only the ministerial needs of the cathedral but also as a type of governing body for the diocese, assisting the local bishop in administrative matters.
While being diocesan priests, canons developed a form of religious observance, praying and eating together, living in community, etc. Since the only example of communal religious life at that time was that of monks, the life of canons at the cathedral took on the semblance of monasticism. However, the canons were not monks!
Canons did not make vows as religious; they were diocesan priests. Canons had the freedom to leave the confines of the cathedral rectory as their ministry and commitments required. And so, that way of life influenced how St. Dominic developed the life of the Dominican Friars: an apostolic way of life rooted in community. And in 1216, St. Dominic received the official, global recognition from the Pope for the Order of Friars Preachers, a religious order with a universal mandate to preach the Gospel for the salvation of souls. The friars were not bound to a single region but sent throughout the world.
St. Dominic wanted a simple expression of religious life that allowed freedom for all the Order’s members to carry out the mission of preaching. Therefore, he adopted the Rule of St. Augustine, a rule for religious life adaptable to the needs of the Order. And unlike monks who make vows of poverty, chastity, obedience, and stability, Dominicans make one vow: obedience. This vow of obedience to live by the Constitutions of the Order encompasses all the disciplines St. Dominic required of his friars.
St. Dominic was not alone in this time of innovation. Another well-known man by the name of Francis of Assisi, a deacon, had been gathering men and women into religious communities, not unlike St. Dominic’s group. The difference largely is their vows and their charism. Franciscans profess vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, and all share in the common mission of serving the poor. St. Francis received the official, global recognition from the Pope for the Order of Friars Minor in 1209.
Over the next several years, another group of friars arose calling themselves the Order of St. Augustine, or Augustinians. They espoused a missionary charism, traveling the world and founding parishes and missions. Their primary goal was to establish stable communities of Christians and to teach them in the ways of the faith.
Finally, another group of friars received official recognition from the Church: the Carmelites. Interestingly enough, where the other mendicants found practices of monasticism filtered through more modern expressions of community, like the canons, the early Carmelites began as hermits on Mt. Carmel, ancient stomping grounds of the Prophet Elijah, and eventually banded together to form a religious community similar to the Franciscans, but not a monastery. Their charism became the life of contemplation.
Despite their differences in charisms, all friars have a few characteristics in common. First of all, friars are itinerant, meaning they move around and are not tied to one place for life. Friars go where they are needed, being assigned to religious houses of their order closest to where they minister.
Friars are also mendicant. They beg for the resources they need and rely on the generosity of benefactors. Each group of friars expresses this mendicancy in different ways. As mentioned above, early Franciscans embraced a strict vow of poverty. Over the centuries, these friars have branched out into various different communities, distinct from the original order. Each group of Franciscans lives out the charism – caring for the poor – in different ways.
The Dominican life of mendicancy also is different from that of other friars, but universal throughout the Order of Friars Preachers. And Dominicans do not make a vow of poverty. Rather, they live out the “Evangelical Counsels.” And the vow binding them to those counsels is obedience. But, what does that mean, exactly?
The Dominican expression of religious life, particularly its apostolic mission, comes directly from the example of Jesus. Dominican life reflects the way Jesus lived his life in the Gospels: traveling from place to place, preaching the good news of salvation. The word Gospel comes from ancient Greek εὐαγγέλιον, later translated to the Latin ēvangelium, both of which mean “good news.” And so, in the Gospel (the Good News), Jesus “counsels” those who would be perfect to live as he lived: by following the “Evangelical Counsels.”
In other words, like all religious, Dominican Friars follow Jesus on the path to perfection by renouncing worldly gain through a spirit of poverty. We purify our minds and hearts through God’s gift of chastity. And we follow Jesus, our God, and Master, through obedience to the will of God. Anyone can follow these counsels of Jesus. However, the vow of obedience taken on by Dominicans is the way they make a public witness to the world that they have given their lives to follow Jesus in a perfect way.
Through the vow of obedience, Dominican Friars follow Jesus Christ, who gave up his home and career as a carpenter in Nazareth to preach the Gospel on the road. Through the vow, Dominicans purify their hearts and minds to love God above all and to love their neighbors as themselves, just as Jesus showed the world by his example.
Through this vow of obedience, Dominicans are obedient to God, as Jesus always is to the Father, and they rely on the generosity of our benefactors, just as Jesus did in his earthly ministry. As such, Dominicans understand “poverty,” as bringing everything we receive to the community and sharing it in common, each according to his specific needs (Acts of the Apostles 4:34-35).
As long as a Dominican Friar’s primary goal is preaching the Gospel, his works can take on many forms: itinerant preaching, teaching, parish work, missionary work, etc. St. Dominic was wise in creating a broad framework for the Order’s mission, rooted in prayer, community, and study.
And so, friars of all kinds are religious. Dominican Friars wear religious habits, live in community, and pray together. They may look like monks in a monastery. However, friars are not “half monk” and “half apostolic life.” That would make them wholly failures at both, unable to live either life fully. Rather, the friars’ combination of active mission and contemplative prayer make them an altogether unique form of religious life.
More so, many of the friars’ groups embrace a more democratic sense of community. For example, the Order of Friars Preachers is governed by expressly democratic laws. After the Pope’s approval, St. Dominic convened the friars as an order for the first time. He included all the friars in establishing their way of life. Since that first gathering, called a chapter, Dominican Friars have elected their leadership, from the local superior all the way to the Master of the Order. Dominican Friars vote on legislation rather than have one superior dictate their way of life. This concept of self-governing has kept the Dominican Order unified and focused on the mission of preaching for 800 years!
So, back to basics
– Friars are monks, right? Wrong! Friars are a distinct class of religious men who live in community. They do not live in monasteries or stay in one place all their lives. Friars move about from place to place, as Jesus did, preaching the Gospel and serving the Catholic Church.
– Are friars priests? Many friars request Ordination to the Priesthood, but not all. So, there are friars ordained as priests and non-ordained friars. The non-ordained friars are also called “brothers.”
– Ah, so not all Friars are brothers? As mentioned above, the Church-at-large refers to priests as “Fathers” and non-ordained religious as “Brothers.” However, in many religious orders, such as the Order of Friars Preachers (the Dominicans), we all internally refer to each other as “Brother.” After all, we are all sons of St. Dominic, following in his preaching mission.
Conclusion
Friars and monks, as stated above, are two distinct types of religious life. They do not overlap. Yet, both can be referred to under the broader term of brothers. And both friars and monks can be ordained as Catholic priests.
This is a lot of information about four simple terms. If you still find these terms fuzzy, you have more questions about one or all of these terms, or if you have other questions about religious life, priesthood, or the faith in general, reach out to us! We love to talk about these topics!
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