Lectionary Calendar
Thursday, November 21st, 2024
the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
Attention!
For 10¢ a day you can enjoy StudyLight.org ads
free while helping to build churches and support pastors in Uganda.
Click here to learn more!

Bible Dictionaries
Prior

1910 New Catholic Dictionary

Search for…
or
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z
Prev Entry
Principalities of Evil
Next Entry
Prioress
Resource Toolbox
Additional Links

(Latin: prior, former, elder)

A monastic superior. Before the 13th century the superior corresponding to the term prior could be abbot, provost, dean, or one advanced in years, and in this loose sense it occurs in the Rule of Saint Benedict. Later, substituted specifically for provost (praepositus) in the Benedictine and other orders, it came to signify coadjutor to the abbot (prior claustralis), or independent superior of a monastery having no abbot (prior conventualis); and, where a monastic establishment is a dependency of an abbey, the prior is obedientiary (prior obedientiarius, or prior simplex). Some orders (as the Carmelites, the Servites, and the Augustinian Hermits) have three grades of prior, the conventual, the provincial, and the prior general.

Bibliography Information
Entry for 'Prior'. 1910 New Catholic Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/​dictionaries/​eng/​ncd/​p/prior.html. 1910.
 
adsfree-icon
Ads FreeProfile