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Aprovincial superior is an officer of areligious institute (includingreligious orders) acting under the institute'sSuperior General. A provincial superior exercises general supervision over all the members of that institute in a territorial division of the order called aprovince, which is similar to, but not to be confused with, anecclesiastical province. Instead, the province under a provincial superior is one made up ofparticular churches ordioceses under the supervision of aMetropolitan Bishop. The division of a religious institute into provinces is generally along geographical lines and may consist of one or more countries, or of only a part of a country. There may be, however, one or more houses of one province situated within the physicalterritory of another since thejurisdiction over the individualreligious is personal, rather than territorial. The title of the office is often abbreviated toProvincial.
Among thefriars andThird OrderReligious Sisters of theAugustinian,Carmelite andDominican orders, the title"Prior Provincial" orPrioress Provincial is generally used. TheFriars Minor, in contrast, use the title"Minister Provincial", in line with their emphasis on living as brothers to one another.
The oldorders had no provincial superiors; even when themonasteries were united to form congregations, thearch-abbot of eachcongregation was in the position of a superior general whose powers were limited to particular cases, almost like the powers of a metropolitan archbishop over thedioceses of hissuffragans. Provincial superiors are found in the institutes of more recent formation, which began with themendicant orders. TheHoly See hesitated for a long time before allowing the division of congregations with simplevows, especially congregations of women, into different provinces as a regular institution, and some congregations have no such division.
The provincial superior is ordinarilyelected by theProvincial Chapter, subject to confirmation by the Superior General or theGeneral Chapter, depending on the regulations of the particular groups (in theSociety of Jesus he is directly appointed by the Father General). The "Regulations" (Normae) of 18 June 1901, vest the appointment of the provincial in the general council. The provincial superior is never elected for life, but ordinarily for three or six years. In religious orders withclerics, he is a regularprelate, and has the rank of ordinary with quasi-episcopal jurisdiction. Inreligious institutes whether of men or of women, the provincial superior appoints the regularconfessors, calls together the Provincial Chapter, presides over its deliberations, and takes care that the orders of the General Chapter and the Superior General are properly carried out. The provincial superior is anex officio member of the chapter. The principal duty of the provincial superior is to make regularvisitations of the houses of the province in the name of the General and to report to the latter on all the religious and the property of the order; authority over the various houses and local superiors differs in different orders. The provincial superior has, in many cases, the right of appointment to the less important offices. For institutes of men, at the end of histerm of office, the provincial is bound, according to the Constitution "Nuper" ofInnocent XII (23 December 1697), to prove that he has complied with all the precepts of that decree concerningMasses; if he fails to do so, he loses his right to be elected and to vote in the general chapter.
A unique case was eastern Paraguay, where the Spanish colonial authorities allowed the Jesuit missionaries to establish both the Catholic faith and a unique, humane regime for the localGuarani Indian tribes, making their provincial superior thegovernor of the first autonomous Indian reserve, known as the (Jesuit) Misiones orReducciones, until 1667, ten years after a Guarani rebellion against increased abuse by the regular colonial authorities: the territory lost its status and was divided up between Spain (then under theviceroyalty of la Plata, previously part of Upper Peru) and Portugal (Brazil).
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Provincial".Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
