minor order

American  

noun

Roman Catholic Church.

1. the degree or grade of acolyte, exorcist, lector, or ostiary.

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Etymology

Origin of minor order

First recorded in 1835–45

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

minor order

Candidates for the Catholic priesthood no longer pass through the minor order of exorcist en route to ordination.

From Time Magazine Archive

The King of Beaver, in a crimson robe, walked the temple aisle, followed by his council, his twelve elders, and seventy ministers of the minor order.

From The King Of Beaver, and Beaver Lights From "Mackinac And Lake Stories", 1899 by Catherwood, Mary Hartwell

The resulting changes were of a minor order, for the main features of the landscape and the principal drainage lines were the same in preglacial time as they are today.

From Drainage Modifications and Glaciation in the Danbury Region Connecticut State of Connecticut State Geological and Natural History Survey Bulletin No. 30 by Sawyer-Harvey, Ruth

In an instant I recognized that she was a member of some religious order, some minor order perhaps, with whose habit we, in Italy, were not acquainted.

From The Czar's Spy The Mystery of a Silent Love by Le Queux, William

This the church, in course of time, discovered, and instituted a "minor order" of ministers, under the title of colporteurs.

From A History of American Christianity by Bacon, Leonard Woolsey