For the Premonstratensians, the circary was a region assigned to the care of a circator. Today, one would say a province under the vigilance of a visitor or inspector. The word is derived from the Latin circumire which means “go around something”, “make a round” and even, in military language “patrol”. It was, initially, a geographical entity grouping several monasteries or priories allowing the circator to go conveniently from one to the other to accomplish his task of control in the name of the general chapter.
A Premonstratensian abbey, like a Cistercian, founds one or several others, or receives a monastery that wants to be integrated into the order: thus an affiliation system is instituted (a mother abbey, one or several daughter abbeys and therefore sister abbeys) which determines at the beginning the first circaries. Today, the circary is rather a linguistic entity, still sometimes geographically distinct, which corresponds more to a cultural than an administrative division of the order. At the head of each today, we find a vicar (a sort of lieutenant) appointed by the abbot general. His function is primarily one of co-ordinating initiatives and developing fraternal relations, though the role of inspection still remains: the vicar makes a report to the abbot general about what is going on and assists him in his different local contacts, for example during the election of an abbot.
At present, the order counts six circaries: the English language cicary (abbeys and priories in England, Australia, the United States, India and Ireland), the circary of Bohemia (a former geographical entity grouping the houses of the Czech Republic and Slovakia), the circary of Brabant (a former geographical entity comprising the houses of Dutch-speaking Belgium and the Netherlands), the French language circary (Africa and French-speaking Belgium, France, Canada), the German language circary (Germany and Austria) and the Hungarian circary (former geographical entity covering previously the houses of Hungary and Rumania).
The canonry is constituted of an abbey (an autonomous house with usually an abbot at its head) or an autonomous priory (with a prior at its head) and its various dependent houses (priories, houses of study, centres of training, colleges or other institutions). The term is also used to designate the totality of the members of the entity thus defined. The circary thus includes a certain number of canonries, sometimes geographically quite distant, and even culturally (such as the Unites States and India) though having normally a common language.
[updated on the 28.11.05]
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Circary
For the Premonstratensians, the circary is a linguistical provincie assigned to the care of a visitor appointed by the abbot general. (read more)
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