Editing Dominican Order (section)

===Dominican laity (tertiary/third order)===
[[File:Giovanni di Paolo The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine of Siena.jpg|thumb|''The [[Mystic Marriage]] of Saint [[Catherine of Siena]]'' (1347–1380) by [[Giovanni di Paolo]], {{circa|1460}} ([[Metropolitan Museum of Art]], [[New York City|New York]])]]

Lay Dominicans are governed by their own rule, the Rule of the Lay Fraternities of St. Dominic, promulgated by the Master in 1987.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.op.org/sites/www.op.org/files/public/documents/fichier/RULELatinEnglish_0.pdf|title=Information from the Laity Office at Rome|access-date=2013-03-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150909220725/http://www.op.org/sites/www.op.org/files/public/documents/fichier/RULELatinEnglish_0.pdf|archive-date=2015-09-09|url-status=dead}}</ref> It is the fifth Rule of the Dominican Laity; the first was issued in 1285.<ref>See also the [http://laity.op.org/eng/library Lay Dominican Web Library]. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110819183956/http://laity.op.org/eng/library |date=August 19, 2011 }}</ref> Lay Dominicans are also governed by the Fundamental Constitution of the Dominican Laity, and their provinces provide a General Directory and Statutes. According to their Fundamental Constitution of the Dominican Laity, sec. 4, "They have a distinctive character in both their spirituality and their service to God and neighbor. As members of the Order, they share in its apostolic mission through prayer, study and preaching according to the state of the laity."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://laydominicans.org/|title=Dominican Laity – Lay Fraternities of St. Dominic – Dominican Third Order|website=Dominican Laity – Lay Fraternities of St. Dominic – Dominican Third Order|access-date=2017-12-23|archive-date=2017-12-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171224101445/http://laydominicans.org/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Pope Pius XII, in Chosen Laymen, an Address to the Third Order of St. Dominic (1958), said, "The true condition of salvation is to meet the divine invitation by accepting the Catholic 'credo' and by observing the commandments.  But the Lord expects more from you [Lay Dominicans], and the Church urges you to continue seeking the intimate knowledge of God and His works, to search for a more complete and valuable expression of this knowledge, a refinement of the Christian attitudes which derive from this knowledge."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.3op.org/chosen-laymen.php|title=Chosen Laymen|website=Wayback Machine|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130113161821/http://www.3op.org/chosen-laymen.php|archive-date=2013-01-13}} See the official transcript, in French {{cite web|url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/aas/documents/AAS-50-1958-ocr.pdf|title=Acta Apostolicae Sedis|website=The Holy See|access-date=2020-03-15|archive-date=2020-06-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200621094907/https://www.vatican.va/archive/aas/documents/AAS-50-1958-ocr.pdf|url-status=live}} beginning at page 674.</ref>

The two greatest saints among them are [[Catherine of Siena]] and [[Rose of Lima]], who lived [[asceticism|ascetic]] lives in their family homes, yet both had widespread influence in their societies.{{Cn|date=April 2025}}