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Frères de Saint-Jean Province de France
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Our charism

The Congregation of Saint John is an apostolic religious institute founded in 1975, the day Evangelii Nuntiandi was promulgated. The brothers (whether ordained or not) place themselves at the service of the Church by following the chaste, poor and obedient Christ in a life of consecration and fraternal communion with a view to mission. Together with the Apostolic Sisters of Saint John, the Contemplative Sisters and the Secular Oblates, we form the Family of Saint John.

Our charism takes its inspiration from the figure and writings of the disciple Saint John. It is summed up in the following words: Like the apostle John, living together as friends of Christ and witnessing to his light and his love.

Our Spirituality

We receive God’s call to follow Christ by leading a religious life in the spirit of the beloved disciple, St John the Evangelist. Like John, we want to follow the Lamb and remain close to him. By contemplating Christ, we seek to unite ourselves to his priestly work for the glory of the Father and the salvation of mankind, until he comes again.

A privileged witness to the Paschal Mystery, John rested his head on the Lord’s breast; he saw with his own eyes the blood and water flowing from the side of the crucified Christ; and at the empty tomb, he believed in the resurrection. His writings, interpreted alongside the whole of Scripture and within the living Tradition of the Church, nourish our consecration and renew our missionary drive.

Following Jesus like St John is a calling to become disciples who live in personal friendship with Jesus, keeping his commandments – especially that of fraternal charity.

With John, we receive Mary as our Mother at the Cross; it is from her that we learn to be faithful to our calling on a daily basis.

We hear the call to be consecrated in the Truth, that is, to give our whole person over to the Truth, allowing ourselves to be sanctified in all our capacities: affective, intellectual and moral; to seek the truth in every dimension of our lives, in study as well as in community and apostolic life.

The charism of the Brothers of Saint John

Our witness

Our vocation draws us into friendship with Christ, to the search for truth and to fraternal communion. We want to bear witness to this to the people to whom we are sent.

Friendship with Christ

Our desire is to help everyone discover that an encounter with Christ, lived out in a living faith, blossoms into friendship with him. We believe that everyone is called to follow him and enter into communion with him.

The search for truth

We desire to share in the search for wisdom with those whom we meet. By reflecting with them on what it is to be human and on the human person’s vocation, we give an account of the hope that is within us.

Fraternal communion

We seek to make our bond with Christ flourish in fraternal communion. In this way, we hope to be witnesses to the charity to which God invites all people and which is realised in the mystery of the Church.

Video presentation of our charism by Brother Thomas:

Delve a little deeper

Who is Saint John ?

The son of Zebedee, brother of James the Great and a fisherman on the lake of Tiberias…

Saint John was originally a disciple of Saint John the Baptist. John the Baptist led him to Jesus and then stepped back to let John follow Christ.
Tradition attributes the Book of the Apocalypse, three canonical letters and the fourth Gospel to Saint John. His tomb is at Ephesus.

The importance of Our Lady

‘When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!”

And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home’ (Jn 19:26-27). Like John, we want to receive Mary into our lives and receive her from Jesus as the mother of our life of grace. We consecrate ourselves daily to Our Lady and the rosary is part of both our habit and our spirituality.

What is a religious?

A Brother of Saint John is a religious. ‘Religious’ means ‘fastened to’ or ‘bound to’ (from the Latin religare). A religious is someone who has received a call from Jesus to bind themselves to Him through vows and the common life.

A religious is a baptised person who has received a particular call from Jesus to bind themselves to Him through vows and in the common life. Thus he or she is bound to, or ‘fastened to’ God, by following Jesus in poverty, chastity and obedience, and by keeping His new commandment to “love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn 13 :34-35). In order to live this relationship with God and with our brothers and sisters, we rely on the Church, founded by Jesus upon Peter and the apostles.

To see the whole video :

Brother Thomas presents the charism of the Brothers of Saint-John.