An Abbess (Latin abbatissa, fem. form of abbas, abbot) is the female superior, or Mother Superior, of an abbey or convent of nuns. The mode of election, position, rights and authority of an abbess correspond generally with those of an abbot. The office is elective, the choice being by the secret votes of the sisters from their own body. The abbess is solemnly admitted to her office by episcopal benediction, together with the conferring of a staff and pectoral cross, and holds for life, though liable to be deprived ...

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History of Christianity Jesus of Nazareth The Apostles Ecumenical councils Great Schism The Crusades Reformation The Trinity God the Father Christ the Son The Holy Spirit The Bible Old Testament New Testament Apocrypha The Gospels Ten Commandments Sermon on the Mount Christian theology Salvation · Grace Christian worship Christian Church Catholicism Orthodox Christianity Protestantism Christian denominations Christi ...

Including:

• Abbey - Benedictine abbeys
• Abbey - Westminster Abbey
• Abbey - York
• Abbey - English Cluniac
• Abbey - Cistercian
• Abbey - Clairvaux Abbey
• Abbey - Citeaux Abbey
• Abbey - Kirkstall Abbey
• Abbey - Fountains Abbey
• Abbey - Austin Canons
• Abbey - Bristol Cathedral
• Abbey - Premonstratensians
• Abbey - Carthusian
• Abbey - Clermont
• Abbey - Mendicant Friars
• Abbey - Norwich, Gloucester
• Abbey - Hulne
• Abbey - Cells
• Abbey - Abbots and abbesses as rulers
• Abbey - Nunnery

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In its application to the Catholic Church, the term hierarchy originally referred to the "holy ordering" of the entire People of God. It is now almost exclusively used to refer to the holy ordering of the clergy of the church, those who have received the sacrament of Holy Orders. All churches that adopt a "catholic principle" of ecclesial order—Catholics, Orthodox, Anglicans, etc.—acknowledge a threefold hierarchical order which was divinely inspired and therefore a permanent structural feature of the church: Bishops ...

Including:

• Catholic church hierarchy - Origin and use of the term Hierarchy
• Catholic church hierarchy - Ecclesiastical offices in the hierarchy of the Catholic Church
• Catholic church hierarchy - Patriarchs
• Catholic church hierarchy - Cardinals
• Catholic church hierarchy - Minor Patriarchs or Titular Patriarchs
• Catholic church hierarchy - Major Archbishops
• Catholic church hierarchy - Primates
• Catholic church hierarchy - Archbishops and Metropolitans
• Catholic church hierarchy - Titular Archbishops
• Catholic church hierarchy - Bishops and Eparchs
• Catholic church hierarchy - Titular Bishops
• Catholic church hierarchy - Superiors General of Religious Orders
• Catholic church hierarchy - Prelate Nullius
• Catholic church hierarchy - Archimandrite
• Catholic church hierarchy - Abbot or Abbess Nullius
• Catholic church hierarchy - Abbot or Abbess
• Catholic church hierarchy - Exarch
• Catholic church hierarchy - Vicar Apostolic
• Catholic church hierarchy - Prefect Apostolic
• Catholic church hierarchy - Diocesean Administrator
• Catholic church hierarchy - Prefect of a Personal Prelature
• Catholic church hierarchy - Vicars General
• Catholic church hierarchy - Vicars Episcopal
• Catholic church hierarchy - Vicars Canonical
• Catholic church hierarchy - Protonotary Apostolic
• Catholic church hierarchy - Provincial Superior
• Catholic church hierarchy - Vicars Forane Deans
• Catholic church hierarchy - Prelates of Honor of His Holiness
• Catholic church hierarchy - Canons
• Catholic church hierarchy - Chaplains of His Holiness
• Catholic church hierarchy - Archpriests
• Catholic church hierarchy - Archdeacons
• Catholic church hierarchy - Pastors
• Catholic church hierarchy - Local Superior
• Catholic church hierarchy - Hieromonks
• Catholic church hierarchy - Parochial Vicars
• Catholic church hierarchy - Deacons
• Catholic church hierarchy - Subdeacons
• Catholic church hierarchy - Diocesean Scholastics
• Catholic church hierarchy - Catechists
• Catholic church hierarchy - Installed Acolyte
• Catholic church hierarchy - Installed Lector
• Catholic church hierarchy - Links

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An abbey-principality is an area that is ruled by the head of an abbey. The ruler of an abbey-principality is a prince-abbot or a princess-abbess. In an abbey-principality, the head of the city's abbey is automatically the ruler. The designated abbey may be a monastery or a convent. Thus, because of the possibility of it being a convent, an abbey-principality is one of the only cases in which the rule can be restricted to female incumbents. There was a fairly even number of prince-abbots and princess-abesses.

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Whitby Abbey is a ruined monastery sited on Whitby's East Cliff. It was founded in 657 AD by the Saxon King of Northumbria, Oswy (Oswiu) as Streanshalh (Streonshalh). He appointed Lady Hilda, niece of Edwin, the first christian king of Northumbria, as Abbess. The double monastery of Benedictine monks and nuns was also home home to the great Saxon poet Caedmon. In 664, the abbey was the site of the Synod of Whitby, at which the ...

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Port-Royal was a Cistercian convent in the Vallée de Chevreuse southwest of Paris that launched a number of culturally important institutions. It was established in 1204, but became famous as an educational institution when its discipline was reformed in 1602 by its abbess Jacqueline Arnauld. The Arnauld family became its patrons and the convent's subsequent history was directed by a number of the holders of that name. In 1625 most of the nuns moved to a new Port-Royal in Paris, which subsequently became Port-Royal de Paris while the older one was known as Port-R ...

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Bath Abbey is the last in a series of monastic churches built in Bath and is still in active use. In 675 Osric, King of the Hwicce, granted the Abbess Berta 100 hides near Bath for the establishment of a convent. The religious house later changed into a monastery, under the patronage of the Bishop of Worcester. But the powerful King Offa of Mercia successfully wrested 'that most famous monastery at Bath' from the bishop in 781. William of Malmesbury tells us that Offa rebuilt the monastic church, which was dedicated to St. Peter. It was fine enough to impress monarchs. In 957 Bath monastery wa ...

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The Bridgettine or Briggittine order. A monastic religious order of Augustinian canonesses founded by Saint Birgitta (Saint Bridget) of Sweden approximately 1350, and approved by Pope Urban V in 1370. The Bridgettine order was open to both men and women, and was dedicated to devotion to the passion of Jesus. It was a ”double order” each convent having attached to it a small community of canons to act as chaplains, but under the government of the abbess. The order spread widely in Sweden and Norway, and played a remar ...

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The Cappadocians are significant figures in the history of Hellenistic Christian philosophies. They were a 4th-century monastic family, led by St Makrina to provide a central place for her brothers to study and meditate, and also to provide a peaceful shelter for their mother. Abbess Makrina fostered the formation and development of three men who collectively became designated the Cappadocian Fathers, Basil the Great who was the older of Makrina's brothers and eventually became a bishop, Gregory Nazianzus, and Gregory of Nyssa who was

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Ely Cathedral - Previous buildings. The first Christian building on the site was founded by Etheldreda, daughter of the Anglo-Saxon king of East Anglia, who was born in 630 at Exning near Newmarket. She acquired the land from her first husband, Tondberct, chief of the South Gyrvians, and after the end of her second marriage to Eegrfrid, a Northumbrian prince, set up and ran a monastery on the site in 673. When she died, a shrine was built to her memory in the Saxon church on the same site. (Incidentally, the comm ...

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Ely Cathedral, Ely Cathedral - History, Ely Cathedral - Previous buildings, Ely Cathedral - The present building, Ely Cathedral - List of abbots and abbesses of the first monastery 673-870, Ely Cathedral - List of abbots and abbesses of the Benedictine monastery 970-1109, Ely Cathedral - Pink Floyd connection

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In 1976, Master Hsing Yun represented a Buddhist group from Taiwan to participate in America's bicentennial celebration. Many American friends asked Master Hsing Yun to build a monastery in the US. Therefore, Fo Guang Shan asked the Venerables Tzu Chuang (the first abbess of Hsi Lai Temple) and Yi Hung to plan and organize the construction of the temple in the Greater Los Angeles area. It was officially registered under the name of International Buddhist Progress Society. Until the temple was complete, Ven. Tzu Chuang bought an old church building, which was to be Hsi Lai's temporary headquarters. The original temple was c ...

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Hsi Lai Temple, Hsi Lai Temple - History, Hsi Lai Temple - University of the West, Hsi Lai Temple - Sites, Hsi Lai Temple - Attraction and services offered, Hsi Lai Temple - Dharma functions, Hsi Lai Temple - Larger Dharma functions held, Hsi Lai Temple - 1996 Presidential Election controversy, Hsi Lai Temple - Past Abbots and Abbesses of Hsi Lai, Hsi Lai Temple - External link

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Monasticism in the West owes its extension and development to Benedict of Nursia (born A.D. 480). His rule was diffused with miraculous rapidity from the parent foundation on Monte Cassino through the whole of western Europe, and every country witnessed the erection of monasteries far exceeding anything that had yet been seen in spaciousness and splendour. Few great towns in Italy were without their Benedictine convent, and they quickly rose in all the great centres of population in England, France and Spain. The number of these monasteries ...

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Abbey, Abbey - Benedictine abbeys, Abbey - Westminster Abbey, Abbey - York, Abbey - English Cluniac, Abbey - Cistercian, Abbey - Abbey Church of St.-Denis, Abbey - Clairvaux Abbey, Abbey - Citeaux Abbey, Abbey - Kirkstall Abbey, Abbey - Fountains Abbey, Abbey - Austin Canons, Abbey - Bristol Cathedral, Abbey - Premonstratensians, Abbey - Carthusian, Abbey - Clermont, Abbey - Mendicant Friars, Abbey - Norwich Gloucester, Abbey - Hulne, Abbey - Cells, Abbey - Abbots and abbesses as rulers, Abbey - Nunnery

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St Mary's Abbey, York, of which the ground-plan is annexed, exhibits the usual Benedictine arrangements. The precincts are surrounded by a strong fortified wall on three sides, the river Ouse being sufficient protection on the fourth side. The entrance was by a strong gateway (U) to the north. Close to the entrance was a chapel, where is now the church of St Olaf (W), in which the new-comers paid their devotions immediately on their arrival. Near the gate to the south was the guest-hall or hospitium (T). The buildings are completely ruined, ...

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Abbey, Abbey - Benedictine abbeys, Abbey - Westminster Abbey, Abbey - York, Abbey - English Cluniac, Abbey - Cistercian, Abbey - Abbey Church of St.-Denis, Abbey - Clairvaux Abbey, Abbey - Citeaux Abbey, Abbey - Kirkstall Abbey, Abbey - Fountains Abbey, Abbey - Austin Canons, Abbey - Bristol Cathedral, Abbey - Premonstratensians, Abbey - Carthusian, Abbey - Clermont, Abbey - Mendicant Friars, Abbey - Norwich Gloucester, Abbey - Hulne, Abbey - Cells, Abbey - Abbots and abbesses as rulers, Abbey - Nunnery

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The next great monastic revival, the Cistercian, arising in the last years of the 11th century, had a wider diffusion, and a longer and more honourable existence. Owing its real origin, as a distinct foundation of reformed Benedictines, in the year 1098, to Stephen Harding (a native of Dorset, educated in the monastery of Sherborne), and deriving its name from Citeaux (Cistercium), a desolate and almost inaccessible forest solitude, on the borders of Champagne and Burgundy, the rapid growth and wide celebrity of the order are undoubtedly to ...

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Abbey, Abbey - Benedictine abbeys, Abbey - Westminster Abbey, Abbey - York, Abbey - English Cluniac, Abbey - Cistercian, Abbey - Abbey Church of St.-Denis, Abbey - Clairvaux Abbey, Abbey - Citeaux Abbey, Abbey - Kirkstall Abbey, Abbey - Fountains Abbey, Abbey - Austin Canons, Abbey - Bristol Cathedral, Abbey - Premonstratensians, Abbey - Carthusian, Abbey - Clermont, Abbey - Mendicant Friars, Abbey - Norwich Gloucester, Abbey - Hulne, Abbey - Cells, Abbey - Abbots and abbesses as rulers, Abbey - Nunnery

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The buildings of the Austin canons or Black canons (so called from the colour of their habit) present few distinctive peculiarities. This order had its first seat in England at Colchester, where a house for Austin canons was founded about A.D. 1105, and it very soon spread widely. As an order of regular clergy, holding a middle position between monks and secular canons, almost resembling a community of parish priests living under rule, they adopted naves of great length to accommodate large congregations. The choir is usually long, and is so ...

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Abbey, Abbey - Benedictine abbeys, Abbey - Westminster Abbey, Abbey - York, Abbey - English Cluniac, Abbey - Cistercian, Abbey - Abbey Church of St.-Denis, Abbey - Clairvaux Abbey, Abbey - Citeaux Abbey, Abbey - Kirkstall Abbey, Abbey - Fountains Abbey, Abbey - Austin Canons, Abbey - Bristol Cathedral, Abbey - Premonstratensians, Abbey - Carthusian, Abbey - Clermont, Abbey - Mendicant Friars, Abbey - Norwich Gloucester, Abbey - Hulne, Abbey - Cells, Abbey - Abbots and abbesses as rulers, Abbey - Nunnery

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The Premonstratensian regular canons, or White canons, had as many as 35 houses in England, of which the most perfect remaining are those of Easby, Yorkshire, and Bayham, Kent. The head house of the order in England was Welbeck. This order was a reformed branch of the Austin canons, founded, A.D. 1119, by Norbert (born at Xanten, on the Lower Rhine, c. 1080) at Premontre, a secluded marshy valley in the forest of Coucy in the diocese of Laon. The order spread widely. Even in the founder's lifetime it possessed houses in Syria and Palestine. ...

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Abbey, Abbey - Benedictine abbeys, Abbey - Westminster Abbey, Abbey - York, Abbey - English Cluniac, Abbey - Cistercian, Abbey - Abbey Church of St.-Denis, Abbey - Clairvaux Abbey, Abbey - Citeaux Abbey, Abbey - Kirkstall Abbey, Abbey - Fountains Abbey, Abbey - Austin Canons, Abbey - Bristol Cathedral, Abbey - Premonstratensians, Abbey - Carthusian, Abbey - Clermont, Abbey - Mendicant Friars, Abbey - Norwich Gloucester, Abbey - Hulne, Abbey - Cells, Abbey - Abbots and abbesses as rulers, Abbey - Nunnery

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The whole establishment is surrounded hy a wall, furnished at intervals with watch towers (R). The enclosure is divided into two courts, of which the eastern court, surrounded by a cloister, from from which the cottages of the monks (I) open, is musch the larger. The two courts are divided by the main buildings of the monastery, including the church, the sanctuary (A), divided from B, the monks' choir, by a screen with two altars, the smaller cloister to the south (S) surrounded by the chapter-house (E), the refectory (X)---these buildings o ...

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Abbey, Abbey - Benedictine abbeys, Abbey - Westminster Abbey, Abbey - York, Abbey - English Cluniac, Abbey - Cistercian, Abbey - Abbey Church of St.-Denis, Abbey - Clairvaux Abbey, Abbey - Citeaux Abbey, Abbey - Kirkstall Abbey, Abbey - Fountains Abbey, Abbey - Austin Canons, Abbey - Bristol Cathedral, Abbey - Premonstratensians, Abbey - Carthusian, Abbey - Clermont, Abbey - Mendicant Friars, Abbey - Norwich Gloucester, Abbey - Hulne, Abbey - Cells, Abbey - Abbots and abbesses as rulers, Abbey - Nunnery

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Catholic church hierarchy - Patriarchs. Patriarch is the title for the highest-ranking bishop of an autonomous church or federation of local eparchies (dioceses) with effective jurisdiction over all its bishops. The Pope, as bishop of Rome, is the Patriarch of the Latin Rite (Roman) Catholic Church. As such he is also the first ranked among the patriarchs and head of the college of bishops in the entire Catholic Church. Most of his authority and the daily activity of the roman curia are in fact ...

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Catholic church hierarchy, Catholic church hierarchy - Origin and use of the term Hierarchy, Catholic church hierarchy - Ecclesiastical offices in the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, Catholic church hierarchy - Patriarchs, Catholic church hierarchy - Cardinals, Catholic church hierarchy - Minor Patriarchs or Titular Patriarchs, Catholic church hierarchy - Major Archbishops, Catholic church hierarchy - Primates, Catholic church hierarchy - Archbishops and Metropolitans, Catholic church hierarchy - Titular Archbishops, Catholic church hierarchy - Bishops and Eparchs, Catholic church hierarchy - Titular Bishops, Catholic church hierarchy - Superiors General of Religious Orders, Catholic church hierarchy - Prelate Nullius, Catholic church hierarchy - Archimandrite, Catholic church hierarchy - Abbot or Abbess Nullius, Catholic church hierarchy - Abbot or Abbess, Catholic church hierarchy - Exarch, Catholic church hierarchy - Vicar Apostolic, Catholic church hierarchy - Prefect Apostolic, Catholic church hierarchy - Diocesean Administrator, Catholic church hierarchy - Prefect of a Personal Prelature, Catholic church hierarchy - Vicars General, Catholic church hierarchy - Vicars Episcopal, Catholic church hierarchy - Vicars Canonical, Catholic church hierarchy - Protonotary Apostolic, Catholic church hierarchy - Provincial Superior, Catholic church hierarchy - Vicars Forane Deans, Catholic church hierarchy - Prelates of Honor of His Holiness, Catholic church hierarchy - Canons, Catholic church hierarchy - Chaplains of His Holiness, Catholic church hierarchy - Archpriests, Catholic church hierarchy - Archdeacons, Catholic church hierarchy - Pastors, Catholic church hierarchy - Local Superior, Catholic church hierarchy - Hieromonks, Catholic church hierarchy - Parochial Vicars, Catholic church hierarchy - Deacons, Catholic church hierarchy - Subdeacons, Catholic church hierarchy - Diocesean Scholastics, Catholic church hierarchy - Catechists, Catholic church hierarchy - Installed Acolyte, Catholic church hierarchy - Installed Lector, Catholic church hierarchy - Links

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Of the convents of the Carmelite or White Friars we have a good example in the Abbey of Hulne, near Alnwick, the first of the order in England, founded A.D. 1240. The church is a narrow oblong, destitute of aisles, 123 ft. long by only 26 ft. wide. The cloisters are to the south, with the chapter-house, etc., to the east, with the dormitory over. The prior's lodge is placed to the west of the cloister. The guest-houses adjoin the entrance gateway, to which a chapel was annexed on the south side of the conventual area. The nave of the ...

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Abbey, Abbey - Benedictine abbeys, Abbey - Westminster Abbey, Abbey - York, Abbey - English Cluniac, Abbey - Cistercian, Abbey - Abbey Church of St.-Denis, Abbey - Clairvaux Abbey, Abbey - Citeaux Abbey, Abbey - Kirkstall Abbey, Abbey - Fountains Abbey, Abbey - Austin Canons, Abbey - Bristol Cathedral, Abbey - Premonstratensians, Abbey - Carthusian, Abbey - Clermont, Abbey - Mendicant Friars, Abbey - Norwich Gloucester, Abbey - Hulne, Abbey - Cells, Abbey - Abbots and abbesses as rulers, Abbey - Nunnery

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