Flore, Order of

Flore, Order Of

(Floriacences, Florenses, or Florienses), a monastic order of the Roman Catholic Church, was founded, in 1189, by Joachim de Celico (generally called Joachim of Floris), who resigned his position of abbot of the Cistercian monastery of Corazzo in order to withdraw with some companions into the desert of Flora. Soon a monastery arose there, the statutes of which were sanctioned in 1196 by pope Celestine III. Gradually the statutes were adopted by several monasteries in Naples and the two Calabrias; but, as the. founder was suspected of heresy, the order had repeatedly to suffer persecution. In 1470 began the rule of commendatory abbots, which led to a rapid degeneration. In 1505 most of the monasteries connected with the order joined the Cistercians, while a few others were incorporated with the Carthusians and Dominicans. At the close of the 16th century no more monasteries of the order seem to have been. in existence. There were also a few convents of nuns following the rule of Flore The order differed but little from the Cistercians. — Wetzer und Welte, Kirchen-Lexikon, 4:102.