(from Aramaic: abba, father)
Title definitely fixed by Saint Benedict and given to the superior of a monastery of monks having the nature of a private family and settle location, as the several branches of the Order of Saint Benedict, including the Black Monks of Saint Benedict, the Cistercians of the Three Observances, the Camaldolese, Vallumbrosans; Silvestrians; Olivetans, some houses of Canons Regular, of the Antonians, of the Armenian Benedictines, and of the Basilians, and the Premonstratensians. The office is elective and for life, the choice being made by secret ballot of the professed members of the community. The authority of an abbot is twofold: one, paternal, by which he administers the property of the abbey and maintains discipline and the observance of the rule and constitutions of the order; the other, quasi-episcopal. See also
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