Religious Order

Communities of men or women bound by shared vows and a rule of life under a founder's charism, chiefly the Catholic orders such as the Benedictines, Franciscans, Dominicans, Jesuits and Trappists, alongside the Ramakrishna Order and the Ramanandi and Dashanami Sampradayas of Hindu monasticism. Belongs here: a community organized around vows, a rule and ranked membership that a person is formally professed into. Does not belong here: a fraternity organized by ordination lineage rather than vowed rule, such as the Theravada nikayas grouped under monastic fraternity, and a single independent congregation with no wider order behind it.