Mothers Superior

While waiting for the next book to be published I'm rereading Hell's Foundations Quiver. In the first chapter Aivah informs Merlin that the Sisters of Seijin Kohdy don't have a Mother Abbess, but a Mother Superior, and she's it. I looked up 'Mother Superior' on Wikipedia, but found it to be uninformative. What's the import of having a Mother Superior? What is she telling Merlin?

~Tonto

Tonto Silerheels wrote:While waiting for the next book to be published I'm rereading Hell's Foundations Quiver. In the first chapter Aivah informs Merlin that the Sisters of Seijin Kohdy don't have a Mother Abbess, but a Mother Superior, and she's it. I looked up 'Mother Superior' on Wikipedia, but found it to be uninformative. What's the import of having a Mother Superior? What is she telling Merlin?

~Tonto

My own guess is that they are pretty much one and the same thing; different titles without meaningful distinction. Anybody out there with better info??

Don

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I believe the distinction is that a Mother Superior is head of a community of nuns and an Abbess is head of an Abbey. An Abbey is in a fixed location, while a community is not necessarily fixed to one location. So Nynian was emphasizing that she is head of an organization that is much broader than nuns living in one place.

PeterZ wrote:I believe the distinction is that a Mother Superior is head of a community of nuns and an Abbess is head of an Abbey. An Abbey is in a fixed location, while a community is not necessarily fixed to one location. So Nynian was emphasizing that she is head of an organization that is much broader than nuns living in one place.

Right. A Mother Superior may be the head of a particular abbey, but the abbey isn't strictly necessary. (Being Nynian, she was being subtle.)

JeffEngel wrote:

PeterZ wrote:I believe the distinction is that a Mother Superior is head of a community of nuns and an Abbess is head of an Abbey. An Abbey is in a fixed location, while a community is not necessarily fixed to one location. So Nynian was emphasizing that she is head of an organization that is much broader than nuns living in one place.

Right. A Mother Superior may be the head of a particular abbey, but the abbey isn't strictly necessary. (Being Nynian, she was being subtle.)

A Mother Superior and a Mother Abbess are pretty much the same thing but in this instance a Mother Superior is the head of the entire order.

saber964 wrote:

JeffEngel wrote:Right. A Mother Superior may be the head of a particular abbey, but the abbey isn't strictly necessary. (Being Nynian, she was being subtle.)

A Mother Superior and a Mother Abbess are pretty much the same thing but in this instance a Mother Superior is the head of the entire order.

In the Catholic tradition, an Abbey is also part of the church hierarchy, either at a position specified by its charter (eg Franciscans were under diocesan authority while jesuits obeyed only to the Pope for a long time) or depending of a given order. Said hierarchy will then have oversight on the Abbey.

Think of the feminine orders of the XVII° which were theoretically independents but whose charters depended of a Papal bull imposing jesuit confessors. The charters were later revoked and the orders dispersed.

Being a secret congregation outside the church, the head can so only be a mother superior.