Consecrated life
"[2] The Code of Canon Law defines it as "a stable form of living by which the faithful, following Christ more closely under the action of the Holy Spirit, are totally dedicated to God who is loved most of all, so that, having been dedicated by a new and special title to his honour, to the building up of the Church, and to the salvation of the world, they strive for the perfection of charity in the service of the kingdom of God and, having been made an outstanding sign in the Church, foretell the heavenly glory.
The members do not take religious vows, but live in common, striving for perfection through observing the "constitutions" of the society to which they belong.
Some societies of apostolic life, but not all of them, define in their constitutions "bonds" of a certain permanence whereby their members embrace the evangelical counsels.
The Middle Ages saw the emergence of a variant of the hermit, the anchorite; and life in Carthusian and Camaldolese monasteries has an eremitic emphasis.
The Code of Canon Law 1983 recognises as diocesan hermits persons who - without being members of a religious institute - publicly profess the three evangelical counsels, confirmed by vow or other sacred bond in the hands of their respective diocesan bishop, as Christian faithful that live the consecrated life (cf.
Canons regular are members of certain bodies of priests living in community under the Augustinian Rule (regula in Latin), and sharing their property in common.
The number of these congregations increased further in the upheavals brought by the French Revolution and subsequent Napoleonic invasions of other Catholic countries, depriving thousands of monks and nuns of the income that their communities held because of inheritances and forcing them to find a new way of living their religious life.
Their unusually long formation, typically thirteen years, prepared them to represent the intellectual tradition of the Church even in isolation.
The French government had required all priests and bishops to swear an oath of fidelity to the new order or face dismissal from the Church, and had forbidden any form of religious life.
Fr Pierre-Joseph de Clorivière, a Jesuit, founded a new society of diocesan priests, the Institute of the Heart of Jesus.
While living a life of perfection, they did not take vows, remaining a secular institute to avoid being considered a religious society by the government.
On 2 February 1947 Pope Pius XII issued the apostolic constitution Provida Mater Ecclesia recognizing secular institutes as "a new category of the state of perfection" (Latin: nova categoria status perfectionis).
In 1997, Pope John Paul II instituted the World Day of Prayer for Consecrated Life, fixed annually on 2 February, the feast of the Presentation of the Lord.
