[1] Individuals become oblates by undergoing an investiture in which they resolve to follow the Rule of Saint Benedict in their private lives.
[6] The children vowed and given by their parents to the monastic life, in houses under the Rule of St. Benedict, were commonly known by this term during the century and a half after its writing, when the custom was in vogue, and the councils of the church treated them as monks.
[8] At a later date the term "oblate" designated such lay men or women as were pensioned off by royal and other patrons upon monasteries or benefices, where they lived as in an almshouse or homes.
[6] In the 11th century, Abbot William of Hirschau or Hirsau (died 1091), in the old diocese of Spires, introduced two kinds of lay brethren into the monastery: Afterwards, the different status of the lay brother in the several orders of monks, and the ever-varying regulations concerning him introduced by the many reforms, destroyed the distinction between the conversus and the oblatus.
[6] The Cassinese Benedictines, for instance, at first carefully differentiated between conversi, commissi and oblati; the nature of the vows and the forms of the habits were in each case specifically distinct.
[6] In records from 1625, the conversus is reduced below the status of the commissus, inasmuch as he could make only simple vows for a year at a time; he was in fact indistinguishable, except by his dress, from the oblatus of a former century.
Then, in the later Middle Ages, oblatus, confrater, and donatus became interchangeable titles, given to any one who, for his generosity or special service to the monastery, received the privilege of lay membership, with a share in the prayers and good works of the brethren.
These are either clergy or laypeople affiliated in prayer with an individual monastery of their choice, who have made a formal private promise (annually renewable or for life) to follow the Rule of St. Benedict in their private life at home and at work as closely as their individual circumstances and prior commitments permit.
If the person has not done so previously, after a year's probation they make a simple commitment of their lives to the monastery, which is received by the superior in the presence of the whole community.
At the end of the canonical novitiate year, they make their oblation and promise obedience to the abbot, their willingness to share in monastic life and to place their own strengths at the disposal of the monastery and its mission.
While the monks or nuns renounce all their own possessions with the solemn vows, a contract is concluded with the conventual oblates that regulates the mutual obligations.
[19] The Oblates are Christians who desire, for a more secure realization of their personal perfection, to draw near the monks, participate in their life and be pervaded with their spiritOblates seek to live as monks and nuns while being in the world, seeking God and pursuing holiness "in their everyday life, in their family, and in their workplace.
Psalm 119:164) Oblates may pray these individually, with their families, or may join monks or nuns at Benedictine monasteries or convents to do the same.
[25] Benedictine oblates have two mottos: (1) "UT IN OMNIBUS GLORIFICETUR DEUS" - That in all things God may be glorified; (2) "Pax" - Peace.