Catholic Reform

The Catholic Reformation is the true Reformation.  It is the story of Catholics, like Martin Luther, who desired reform, but unlike Luther, remained in the Church, choosing unity over division.  This is a list of Catholic orders, which either formed or reformed as a response to this need for reformation.

Theatines

Year - 1524

Founder/Reformer - Gaetano dei Conti di Thiene (Saint Cajetan), Gian Pietro Carafa, Paolo Consiglieri, and Bonifacio da Colle

Mission - Establish hospitals, preach, “[provide] a focus for the study of Scripture and the liturgy,”¹ not own property or beg, sing the daily Office.²

Capuchins

Year - 1525

Founder/Reformer - Matteo da Bascio 

Mission - To travel barefoot, preach simple sermons, chant the Office at midnight, and pray privately for two hours every day.^3,4

Barnabites

Year - 1530

Founder/Reformer - Antonio Maria Zaccaria, Bartolomeo Ferrari, and Giacomo Antonio Morigia

Mission - Besides the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, “the Barnabites took a fourth vow, to accept no office or honour without the permission of the pope.”⁵ Besides this, their mission was to preach, hear confessions, run missions, and visit hospitals and prisons.⁶

Somaschi

Year - 1531

Founder/Reformer - Girolamo Miani

Mission - Manage hospitals and orphanages, provide a place to stay for ex-prostitutes, provide schooling for orphans and the poor.⁷

Ursulines

Year - 1535

Founder/Reformer - Angela Merici 

Mission - Meet once a month to take Holy Communion, lead lives of frugality, serve in hospitals and orphanages, bury the dead, provide a place to stay for ex-prostitutes, and to teach religion to girls.⁸

Jesuits

Year - 1540

Founder/Reformer - Ignatius Loyola

Mission - Besides the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, “senior members took a ‘fourth vow,’ of complete obedience to the holy father.”⁹  They worked as social workers, preachers, educators, missionaries, disputants, confessors, and authors.^10,11  In 1548 Loyola completed one of his most famous and influential books called Spiritual Exercises,¹² which was meant to help individuals “toward a personal decision and dedication to the service of God.”¹³

Spanish Carmelites

Year - 1562

Reformer - Teresa of Ávila

Mission - Re-focus the order of Carmelite nuns towards their original, strict, holy, austere way of life and chose to go shoeless as an expression of this.  Accordingly, they became known as the Discalced Carmelites.¹⁴

Congregation of the Oratory

Year - 1563

Founder/Reformer - Filippo Neri

Mission - Was an association of priests without vows.¹⁵  They focused their efforts on Rome through “preaching, hearing confessions, and working among the young,”¹⁶ and reciting the Office.¹⁷  Neri went to all the churches and catacombs of Rome, praying at each.¹⁸

Clerks Regular of the Mother of God

Year - 1574

Founder/Reformer - Giovanni Leonardi 

Mission - To catechize, preach, hear confessions, visit hospitals and aiding the dying, running of schools.^19,20  On Sundays, they practiced an exercise known as “the Exercise of Divine Grace...[which was meant] to awaken a horror of mortal sins.”²¹

Fathers of the Nail

Year - 1567

Founder/Reformer - Matteo Guerra

Mission - They owned no possessions.  Their mission was to preach, administer the Sacraments, and catechize children.²²

Poor Infirmarians, or ‘Obregonians’

Year - 1567

Founder/Reformer - Bernardino Obregón 

Mission - Besides the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, Poor Infirmarians took a fourth vow, to work in hospitals²³

Oblates of the Blessed Virgin and St Ambrose

Year - 1578

Founder/Reformer - Bishop Carlo Borromeo

Mission - Bishop Borromeo put them in charge of the “direction of colleges, schools and seminaries, diocesan administration..., serving vacant parishes, conducting retreats and assisting him in implementing the Tridentine programme,”²⁴ or the reforms layed out by the Council of Trent.

Clerks Minor

Year - 1589

Founder/Reformer - Giovanni Agostino Adorno

Mission - They “combined teaching with Marian piety.”²⁵

Fathers of Christian Doctrine

Year - 1592

Founder/Reformer - César de Bus

Mission - Teach poor children, hear confessions, dispense Holy Communion, and public recitations of the Rosary.²⁶

Augustinian Canonesses Regular of the Lateran

Year - 1609

Founder/Reformer - Mary Ward

Mission - Wake up at 4 a.m. every morning to pray and meditate for an hour, have Mass at the same time every day, examine their consciences twice a day, educate the youth, and recite “the greater canonical hours or the office of the Blessed Virgin”²⁷ daily.

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¹Michael A. Mullett, The Catholic Reformation, Vol. Taylor & Francis eLibrary ed. (London: Routledge, 2001), at http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xna&AN=70414&authtype=cookie,cpid&custid=s9245834&site=ehost-live&scope=site, 98.

²Mullett, Catholic Reformation, 100.

³Mullett, Catholic Reformation, 144.

⁴Mullett, Catholic Reformation, 145.

⁵Mullett, Catholic Reformation, 101.

⁶Mullett, Catholic Reformation, 103.

⁷Mullett, Catholic Reformation, 104.

⁸Mullett, Catholic Reformation, 148.

⁹Mullett, Catholic Reformation, 125.

¹⁰Mullett, Catholic Reformation, 125.

¹¹Mullett, Catholic Reformation, 125.

¹²Mullett, Catholic Reformation, 126.

¹³John Vidmar, O.P., The Catholic Church Through The Ages: A History. 2^nd ed. (New Jersey: Paulist, 2014), 242.

¹⁴Mullett, Catholic Reformation, 98.

¹⁵Mullett, Catholic Reformation, 139.

¹⁶Mullett, Catholic Reformation, 140.

¹⁷Mullett, Catholic Reformation, 140.

¹⁸Mullett, Catholic Reformation, 140.

¹⁹Mullett, Catholic Reformation, 141.

²⁰Mullett, Catholic Reformation, 143.

²¹Mullett, Catholic Reformation, 141.

²²Mullett, Catholic Reformation, 143.

²³Mullett, Catholic Reformation, 144.

²⁴Mullett, Catholic Reformation, 143.

²⁵Mullett, Catholic Reformation, 144.

²⁶Mullett, Catholic Reformation, 144.

²⁶Mullett, Catholic Reformation, 152.

All images from Google images: Catholic Reform, at https://www.google.com/search?rlz=2C1SAVS_enUS0537US0539&biw=1517&bih=640&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=8dLEXI-iJNGKtQWTraT4CQ&q=catholic+reform&oq=catholic+reform&gs_l=img.3...96414127.96416593..96416952...0.0..0.0.0.......16....1..gws-wiz-img.CzP11fnAzTk#imgrc=8MPdXTyFgsCS2M:, and Monks and Nuns, at https://www.google.com/search?rlz=2C1SAVS_enUS0537US0539&biw=1517&bih=640&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=qEvGXMnyFIyesQWzv7vACw&q=monks+and+nuns&oq=monks+and+nuns&gs_l=img.3..0l3j0i5i30l4j0i24l3.510770.515555..516000...0.0..0.1123.5844.0j2j3j5j1j0j2j1......1....1..gws-wiz-img.......0i67.rbxohacmHuw#imgdii=7VQ1c9IjmKqTrM:&imgrc=2GV0rlfdXvOk5M:, and Nuns, athttps://www.google.com/search?rlz=2C1SAVS_enUS0537US0539&biw=1517&bih=640&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=rk3GXNqsJY6IsQWZ9qHIBQ&q=nuns&oq=nuns&gs_l=img.3...52083.52083..52336...0.0..0.0.0.......1....1..gws-wiz-img.9od_3mGqPSk#imgrc=lraLK2fX9UaODM:, and Teresa of Avila, at https://www.google.com/search?rlz=2C1SAVS_enUS0537US0539&biw=1517&bih=640&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=UFjGXJb8IIGGsAXooIdY&q=teresa+of+avila&oq=teresa+of+avila&gs_l=img.3..0l10.470524.473524..473666...0.0..0.518.4602.0j1j3j4j4j1......1....1..gws-wiz-img.......0i67.zWDp_ch-voQ.