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Mothers Superior

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Mothers Superior
Post by Tonto Silerheels   » Tue Nov 24, 2015 5:17 pm

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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
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Re: Mothers Superior
Post by n7axw   » Tue Nov 24, 2015 5:41 pm

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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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When any group seeks political power in God's name, both religion and politics are instantly corrupted.
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Re: Mothers Superior
Post by PeterZ   » Tue Nov 24, 2015 5:43 pm

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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.
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Re: Mothers Superior
Post by JeffEngel   » Tue Nov 24, 2015 6:05 pm

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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.)
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Re: Mothers Superior
Post by saber964   » Tue Nov 24, 2015 6:52 pm

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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.
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Re: Mothers Superior
Post by alj_sf   » Wed Nov 25, 2015 5:42 pm

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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.
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