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  • religious order
Le Ballet de l'Acier

Religious Orders

Religious orders are communities of consecrated believers who live a common life following a religious rule under the leadership of a religious superior. Members of a religious order may be clergy (ordained priests) or laity, depending on the rule of the order. Some orders pursue a monastic lifestyle marked by a strict enclosure separating them from the world while others are engaged with the larger community of the faith, often performing works like operating schools and hospitals, providing charity to the poor, and serving as missionaries.

There are many religious orders in France; only a handful of the most significant are detailed here.

Religious orders —