Lay-brother

The architecture of the cathedral, and of most of the churches, is likewise ascribed to the lay-brothers of that community.

This image was in great veneration some years ago, and the lay-brethren of that convent were very much respected by all the people of that city, because they had given out that there was always one lay-brother in that convent so godly that he was in high esteem and favor with the virgin de la Aurora, but unhappily for that image, for the convent, and for the lay-brethren of it; […]

By this writer we are informed that the map was planned, drawn, and magnificently illuminated by one of the lay-brethren of that community, an able cosmographer and ingenious artist, about the year 1450, or a century and a half later than the appearance of our author’s Travels.

“Ay, ruin follows us every where,” said an old man, with a spade in his hand, and dressed like a lay-brother, of whose presence, in the vehemence of his exclamation, the Abbot had not been aware—[…]

Indeed, the continual rounds performed by the lay-brothers of that and by those of the later reformed Franciscans, give these societies an immediate access to the people, not possessed by the Dominicans and other friars who do not go abroad to beg.

It has always struck us that the life of the lay-brethren of that great order which has done so much for the Church of God is one of the most striking features of its history; and this was a lay-brother indeed.