Tag: Chapter

Chapter (Latin capitulum) designates certain corporate ecclesiastical bodies in the Roman Catholic, Anglican and Nordic Lutheran churches.
The word is said to be derived from the chapter of the rule book: it is a custom under the Rule of Saint Benedict that monks gather daily for a meeting to discuss monastery business, hear a sermon or lecture, or receive instructions from the abbot, and as the meeting begins with a reading of a chapter from the Rule, the meeting itself acquired the name “chapter”, and the place where it is held, “chapter house” or “chapter room”.
The term was then extended to apply to other meetings. The term general chapter designates a monastic general assembly, usually of representatives from all of the monasteries of an order or congregation. The “Chapter of Mats” is the term for a similar meeting of representatives of various provinces and subgroups of the Franciscan family of communities. A “chapter of faults” is held regularly by many religious communities at…