Talk:Oblate

General comments
1) It must be made immediately obvious to the non-specialist reader (e.g. in the title) that this article deals with Oblates secular, not Oblates regular. Oblates regular merit a separate article, at the very least a separate chapter.

2) Re: "Oblates promise..." - Some editing needed, for example:


 * After a time of preparation, the successful candidate will be permitted by the superior of the Benedictine House of his/her choice to make an act of Oblation, a rite approved by the Church, which takes the form of a promise. Although appropriately, but not necessarily, it may be made during Holy Mass and thus in the presence not only of sponsors/witnesses but any number of faithful, it is technically a private promise that has no force in Canon Law. The Oblate Promise is usually annually renewable, depending on the custom of the House; and if an Oblate at some stage decides not to renew it, it is not a sin according to Church Law. By his/her promise the Oblate becomes affiliated with that particular Benedictine House and commits himself/herself to apply to his/her life the letter and spirit of the Rule of St Benedict insofar as his/her circumstances and prior commitments permit.

(It may be thought helpful to state the difference between a private promise and a public vow.)

3) The author of the article refers to whole families being affiliated with a Benedictine House. This may well be the case. However, it should be made clear that this is not like taking out a family membership! There is no "collective free will decision". Each individual member of such a family would have had to make his/her own private promise.

4) Titles ought to be quoted according to convention, i.e. with place and year of publication (ISBN optional). Total number of pages not a convention.

Portress 09:10, 13 May 2005 (UTC)

P.S.: Apologies: please delete "wikifying" from previous edit comment.

Portress 09:25, 13 May 2005 (UTC)

COPYRIGHT WARNING
Most of this article is copyrighted material imported wholesale from the website of the Order of St Benedict. I am replacing the text with material from the public domain Catholic Encyclopedia and moving the whole thing to Oblate (religion) to distinguish from the spheroid with a shorter axis and two equal longer axes and to broaden the scope to include Oblates (secular), Oblates (regular), and non-Benedictine oblates. Please feel free to add non-copyrighted material from earlier edits to the new version. JHCC 16:08, 13 May 2005 (UTC)

The above proposed text (cf. No. 2) has not been purloined. This article is at the bottom of my priority list. Anyone getting to editing it before I have the time for it, please feel free to use part or whole of same text.

Portress / Portress 09:55, 15 May 2005 (UTC)

Limitation to RC Church wrong
A general point that needs to be remembered is the Reformation, that is to say, thereafter the Anglicans in England and the Prostestants on the Continent did not start from scratch in matters of organzisation. The break was doctrinally.

So, as regards oblates, whilst they have a pre-Reformation history, hence a Roman Catholic one, there are today Anglican Houses that have oblates (secular), e.g. Elmore Abbey in Berkshire. A well-known Anglican oblate is the religious author Esther de Waal. A number of other oblate related writings are from the pens of Anglicans. Furthermore, Edgware and Elmore each state in the Benedictine Yearbook 2005 that they have an "Intern Oblate", presumably an Oblate (regular). To the best of my knowledge Lutherans, too, have oblates (e.g. for all I know the scholar Karl Heinrich Rengstorff was one).

Portress 23:10, 4 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate
The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate are a religious order (i.e. "Consecrated Life" according to Church Law) and therefore do not seem to me to belong here (unless this is styled a disambiguation page). They are not oblates like the oblates (secular) and (regular), neither of which are a religious order, not even a "tertiary order" (i.e. not "Consecrated Life" according to Church Law).

Same applies to e.g. the Oblates of St Francis of Rome (founded 1433 in Italy) and the Benedictine Oblates of St Scholastica (founded 1944 in Italy) – both religious orders, thus Consecrated Life.

(Incidentally, occasionally oblates (secular) have organised themselves more formally into a group, not merely a monthly/quarterly get together for instruction by the monastery's Oblate Master/Mistress and annual spiritual retreat, as is usually the case; but such more formal organziation does not seem to be too common. In any case, oblateship is always an individual's affiliation with a monastery, not with the other oblates of the same monastery).

Portress 23:51, 4 Jun 2005 (UTC)


 * Since this page deals with (simply put) religious people called Oblates, I'd suggest having two overall sections:
 * traditional oblates (including Oblates (secular) and Oblates (regular); i.e., oblates who have attached themselves to a monastery or convent, and
 * Orders with "Oblate" in their name, such as the Missionary Oblates, Oblates of St Francis, etc.
 * That way we can keep everything on one page while still preserving the distinction. JHCC 13:19, 6 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Adding a redirect from Obl. ?
My searching for the meaning of "Obl." took a lot of work around to finally get to the "Oblate" article. Possibly a mention of it, or a redirect seems feasible.

Use of the term "Middle Ages"
The paragraph on changes in the meaning of the term conversus begins with a reference to the year 1625. The next sentence, however, begins "Then, in the later Middle Ages". As the "middle ages" are generally agreed to end around the year 1500, this is an incorrect or misleading use of the term. Thus, either the year 1625 is incorrect, or else another term needs to be substituted for "middle ages." Spiritquest (talk) 21:02, 3 February 2010 (UTC)

Anglican oblates ?
Are there really anglican oblates ? Are there even anglican monasteries ? O Kolymbitès (talk) 16:52, 24 June 2011 (UTC)

External links modified
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Before the age of 10
Could someone verify this claim that the church actually ended the practice of accepting child oblates before the age of 10? The fact that a council calls for it is not proof that the church followed the decrees of the council and actually put a practical end to the practice.

I have seen several modern historians that have written about the existence of the practice in the 10th and 11th centuries. Thomas Aquinas was given to Monte Cassino when he was 5 according to the Wikipedia article. So was Eadburh of Winchester given to be raised by nuns at the age of 3. Reesorville (talk) 12:23, 4 November 2017 (UTC)