New Religious Order

[PiusOfTheCross]

So, the Franciscans have little subgroups of Priests and Fathers such as the Franciscans of the Immaculate, or the Franciscans of the Eternal Word. As do the Benedictines. And the Augustinians. My question is, why don’t the Dominicans? They only have different orders for their nuns, not the friars of brothers. The closest I found was the Fraternity of Vincent Ferrer, but they aren’t within the Dominican Order, they just follow their rule. Thanks!
P.S. How could a subgroup be formed? Must a Dominican Friar as his superior, or the Superior General of the Dominicans?

 

[PapyrusDouay]

Interesting Question. Unfortunately I can only partially address it, and would love to hear other takes on it.

First of all, there are only a handful of authorized Rules of life permitted by the Holy See.
Rule of St Benedict
Rule of St. Albert (Carmelites)
Rule of St. Augustine
Rules of St. Francis
…and a small handful of lesser known monastic rules.

New orders choose from pre-existing Rules, but are permitted to write their own constitutions, which dictate how they live out their rule of life.

The nature of Franciscanism is such that there has ALWAYS been a bit of a clamor for reform, and as such, there are countless Franciscan orders. The vast majority are technically third orders. There are only 3 first orders. I think 1 or 2 second orders (Poor Clares) and all the rest are all third orders, including TORs, OFS, CFRs, Felician Sisters, Friars of the Eternal Word, etc. there will continue to be many more new Franciscan orders to come. It’s just the nature of it.

Dominicans would technically be a branch of the Augustinians. When St. Dominic founded the order, he had to choose from the rules of life available and chose the Rule of St. Augustine. ( Saint Francis was given special permission by the pope to create his own Rule).

 

[TimoteoGiuseppe]

Why not found a new group? That’s what I’ve been working on.

 

[po18guy]

There is a running joke about our omniscient God not knowing two things:

1. How many Franciscan orders exist
2. Just what a Jesuit is thinking.

 

[JamalChristophr]

I think it’s probably because the Dominicans are so awesome that they don’t need sub groups.