AHC: The Carolignian/Carolinian Religious Order

JonasResende

JonasResende

I was watching The Order a.k.a The Sin Eater last night for the umpteemth time and the late Heath Ledger plays a priest of the Carolingian Order. Now, in the movie, the Carolingians are said to be worse than the Jesuits in their thirst for knowledge, and they seem to be a sort of Catholic order specializing in combatting things that go bump in the night (demons, ghosts etc).

Now, such an order doesn't exist, but when I first saw the movie back in the 2000s, I was 11yo and absolutely fascinated by the idea (I even wanted to be a priest for a while, lol, until I found out that there was no such order as the Carolingians :'().

The challenge is to create an order called the Carolingians (pick a Saint Charles for their patron, or create onee if need be). They don't need to be the Church's answer to Sam and Dean Winchester (although if they did have a sort of finesse for exorcisms and the like that'd be cool), but they do need to be interested in acquiring and preserving knowledge (maybe having a rivalry with the Jesuits a la Augustinians and Dominicans).

You can establish them any time you like (Counter Reformation seems like the most likely time, although earlier is also fine. Since the movie also mentions a thirst for "arcane" knowledge, seeing them advocate the preservation of Arabic, Protestant or other non-Christian artifacts/documents could have an interesting side-effect that many texts lost or destroyed by the Church Militan (so an establishment during the Crusades is also possible).

Oh, and they should still be RECOGNIZED as a Catholic Order, not disavowed and seen as heretical renegades. So the usual vows of chastity, hospitality, poverty etc should apply. Maybe with their focus on scholarship and "science" they could be associated with hospitals and orphanages etc as doctors or teachers.

Like I say, suggestions are welcome, I'd love to see what you guys/girls can come up with.
 
LSCatilina

LSCatilina

Okay, this is going to be hard, and imply a late Carolingian survival, because the idea of an imperial supported order outside the rule of St.Benedict is a bit out of there.

What about this?
Carolingians still survives in western Francia and somehow manages to swallow up Upper Lotharingia (and possibly Lower Lotharingia). They still loose the WFrancian crown in the XIth but a minor Carolingian branch manages to hold on parts of Lorraine : one of the rulers pull a Guilhèm I and promotes a monastic reform comparable or parallel to Clunisian movement that is eventually called Carolingian order (altough not using this name formally, at least in a first time) but eventually the Carolingian duke, named Charles, is beatified or sanctified and the order is formally named "Ordo -Laudaunesis- Carolvingis" and known into the Catholic world as Carolingian Order, especially famous for its stress on monastic life and intellectual work.
 
JonasResende

JonasResende

LSCatilina said:
Okay, this is going to be hard, and imply a late Carolingian survival, because the idea of an imperial supported order outside the rule of St.Benedict is a bit out of there.
Click to expand...

I didn't mean it HAS to have imperial (Carolingian) sanction, simply that its founder was called Charles (so it could be Carolinian or Carolean Order too, its just that in the movie its called the Carolingian Order.)

I like your idea, though. Sorry for the confusion, I'll fix the title
 

Kellan Sullivan

Going off wiki here:

St. Carlo Borromeo is regarded as the "big three" of the Counter-Reformation according to wikipedia.

He was a leading figure of the Counter-Reformation combat against the Protestant Reformation together with St. Ignatius of Loyola and St. Philip Neri. In that role he was responsible for significant reforms in the Catholic Church, including the founding of seminaries for the education of priests.
Click to expand...

So that's the teaching part down.
Carlo wasn't popular with the Penitents of St. John the Baptist whose job it was to tend to prisoners and those sentenced to death. Its not impossible that hr somehow "revitalizes/establishes" a "new"order to take over the job.

Add to that the fact that Borromeo stuck around in Milan when the plague hit, ran himself into debt trying to feed the hungry during a famine.
There's the medical part.

And if he needs to be a martyr for his reforms, just have Carlo either die in the assassination attempt on him in the chapel or during the outbreak of the plague/famine.

Although, like St. Ignatius, Carlo will probably think naming the order after himself smacks of arrogance. That doesn't mean that in common parlance the name of whatever order he establishes is called the Carolinians.

Alternatively, the order might not be established by him, but by someone at a later date and placed under HIS auspices.
 
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