Somasker

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The Somaskers , regionally also called majolites , are members of a religious order within the Roman Catholic Church ( Lat . : Ordo Clericorum Regularium a Somasca , abbreviation : CRS ). They are also called the Society of Servants of the Poor , called Padri Somaschi in Italy , and were founded in 1534.

history

The mother house in Somasca

The order was founded in 1534 by the Venetian layman Hieronymus Aemiliani (1486–1537) near Milan and in 1540 by Pope Paul III. (1534–1549) confirmed as a community of regular clerics. The order got its name from the town of Somasca near Vercurago ( Lombardy ), where the mother house of the order with the sanctuary of San Girolamo Emiliani is located and which is the place of death of the founder of the order, who was later canonized. In the Pavia region they were called majolites after their patron Cardinal Charles Borromeo had given them the church of S. Majolo in Pavia .

Despite the confirmation by the Pope, the order, to which laypeople can also belong, experienced a difficult initial phase, joined forces several times with other communities with similar objectives and was almost extinct around 1800. In the 19th and 20th centuries a development phase began in which monasteries were also founded in America .

In 1680 the female branch, the Somaskan women, was founded in Genoa , who are also active in the education and care of orphans.

Order rule and life

The Somaskers live according to the Augustine rule and devote themselves mainly to the education, especially of orphans . The order currently has around 500 members. They work in boarding schools , orphanages, poor houses and hospitals. They are widespread in Italy , but also in North , Central and South America . The general superior (ital .: preposito generale ) has his seat in Rome .

General Superior

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Karl Suso Frank: Somasker . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 9 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 2000, Sp. 716 .
  2. ^ Karl Suso Frank: Somasker . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 9 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 2000, Sp. 716 .