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A religious order is an organization of people who live to achieve a common purpose through a form of promised or vowed life. The members of such orders, termed religious as a group, are usually distinct from both the laity and the clergy. They are sometimes termed monks, hermits, anchorites, or nuns if they live apart from general society, or friars or brothers or sisters if they are active in society as (for example) teachers, doctors , nurses or in other active social service. Not all members of a religious order are clergy (though some are ordained), and there may be associated lay members who have taken promises to an order or taken personal vows such as vows of poverty or virginity (but who do not live in formal community with them).

In modern English, the traditional term "nun" (a term properly reserved for cloistered women) is often used loosely to describe religious sisters (who live in community, but are active in broader society).

A few monastic religious orders practice literal isolation (cloistering) from the outside world; while the majority or religious orders remain engaged with the world in various ways ( teaching, medical work, producing religious artworks and texts, designing and making vestments and writing religious instruction books) while maintaining their distinctiveness in communal living. All, however, may be distinguished either by vows (such as poverty, chastity, obedience, stability), promises or disciplines (such as self denial, fasting, silence) that they undertake as members of their religious order.

The best-known religious order is the Buddhist order of monks and nuns. However, a form of ordered religious living is common also in many tribes of Africa and South America, though on a smaller scale.

In Buddhist societies such as Sri Lanka, Thailand, Korea and Tibet, there exist strikingly large monastic orders. A well-known Chinese Buddhist order is the ancient Shaolin order in Ch'an (Zen) Buddhism.

See also

• Roman Catholic religious order
• Anglican religious order
• monasticism
• ascetic

External links

• International Chaplains Association
• Institute on Religious Life - links to many Catholic religious religious communties
• Vocations Online - directory of men's and women's Catholic religious communities in the USA
• Vision Vocation Guide for Catholic Vocations
• Leadership Council of Women Religious Congregations of religious women
• Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious -religious congregations of women
• Religious Life Catholic Encyclopedia
• In the Wheat : Songs in Your Presence Poetic Diary of a Young Monk
• Order of Augustinians of the Immaculate Heart of Mary - an Independent Catholic Order
• Order of the Franciscans of the Holy Cross - a secular Ecumenical Franciscan Order
• The Carmelite Order - an religious Order of men and women within the Catholic Church
• Legal Information for Religious Orders Legal Information for Religious Orders

• Religious orders
• Religious organizations