Nortish religious houses

The Church of Nortend has a long and unbroken history of foundations of religious communities of men and women, dating back to the first monastery founded in the 8th century by St Laurence in 751, two years after the foundation of Sulthey Cathedral.

Types

Religious communities are split between cloistered or eremitical monastic communities, mendicant orders and canons regular. Of the first category, communities may be described as Benedictines, Cistercians, Carthusians and Camuvalians, commonly known as the Black Monks, Pied Monks, White Monks and Red Monks respectively. Of mendicant orders, there are four, being the Dominicans, Franciscans and Carmelites, commonly known as the Black Friars, Grey Friars and White Friars respectively. Canons regular may be broadly classified into the Augustinian Canons and Norbertine Canons, commonly known as the Black Canons and the White Canons respectively.

Monastic foundations

Great Nortend has a large number of monastic foundations scattered across the countryside for both males and females. Whilst most of the 233 cloistered monastic foundations are in the Benedictine or Cistercian tradition, following the Rule of St Benedict, a sizeable number are Carthusians, following the Carthusian statutes, or Camuvalians, following the Rule of St Edmund.

Despite these distinct traditions, there are no formal orders per se insofar as there is no hierarchy over all individual foundations in a particular tradition. Apart from the eremitic Carthusian monasteries which only have priories, there is a more localised hierarchy where abbeys have dependent priories which are under the abbey's control. These priories may in time be elevated to abbatial status and becoming independent.

There is also a national Abbots' and Abbess' Conference, where the abbots and abbesses of all abbeys (thus excluding the Carthusians) meet to discuss matters of growth, funds, discipline, order &c.

Grades

Within a monastery, there are usually two grades of monastic which determine the particular job and responsibility the monastic has. Lay brothers or sisters have a more secular role, spending their time in work, manual labour, chores and the like. Choir monks and nuns, on the other hand, have their main role of praying in choir, illuminating books and are generally forbidden to leave the cloister without good reason.

Mendicant houses

The Dominicans, Franciscans and Carmelites are considered to be the mendicant orders of Great Nortend. The friars are often ordained clerics and engage in works in the community such as preaching, ministry, education, pastoral work and health-care, based in small priories usually located in or near population centres.

There are also convents, abbeys or priories of choir nuns and lay sisters in each order, known as the Minoresses in the Franciscan order. Though historically the convents of the mendicant orders were cloistered as monastic foundations, in the 19th and 20th centuries the lay sisters of the Dominicans generally began to undertake apostolic works in the community like the friars, usually the education of girls or nursing, with the choir nuns performing administrative and sacred duties. Both the Carmelites and Minoresses remain fully contemplative cloistered orders; however, in common with monastic foundations, still operate almonries and almshouses for the poor, aged and infirm.

Unlike the monastic foundations, each of the mendicant orders have a national hierarchy, headed by a Prior General. The friars and lay sisters do not take vows of stability, are may move between individual priories or convents.

History

After the Acts of Cleaving which separated the Church of Nortend from the Roman hierarchy, the Monastic Reformation preserved the religious foundations in Great Nortend, unlike in many other countries where similar reformations resulted in the dissolution of monasteries and religious houses.