Ecclesiastical Province - Religious Institutes

Religious Institutes

The term province, or occasionally religious province, also refers to a geographical and administrative subdivision in a number of orders and congregations. This is true of most, though not all, religious communities founded after the year AD 1000, as well as the Augustinians, who date from earlier.

A province of a religious institute is typically headed by a provincial superior. The title differs by each institute's tradition (provincial minister for Franciscans; provincial prior for Dominicans; provincial for the Augustinians, simply "provincial" or "provincial father" for the Jesuits and many others, for instance).

The borders of a religious institute's provinces are determined independently of any diocesan structure, and so the borders often differ from the 'secular', or diocesan, ecclesiastical provinces. The orders' provinces are usually far larger than a diocese, a secular province, or even a country, though sometimes they are smaller in an institute's heartland.

Most monastic orders are not organized by provinces. In general, they organise their administration through autonomous houses, in some cases grouped in larger families. For example, each Benedictine abbey is an independent foundation, but will often choose to group themselves into congregations based on historical connections.