lay-brother

plural lay-brothers · plural lay-brethren

1. archaicArchaic form of lay brother.

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

   1809, “Art. X. History of the Viceroyalty of Buenos Ayres; […]. By Samuel Hull Wilcocke […]”, in The Monthly Review; or Literary Journal, Enlarged: […], volume LX, London: […] Becket and Porter, […], page 91

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   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; […]

   1812, Anthony Gavin [i.e., Antonio Gavin], A Master-Key to Popery, Giving a Full Account of All the Customs of the Priests and Friars, and the Rites and Ceremonies of the Popish Religion, in Four Parts, […], […] for the Publisher, page 271

   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.

   1818, Marco Polo, translated by William Marsden, The Travels of Marco Polo, a Venetian, in the Thirteenth Century: Being a Description, by That Early Traveller, of Remarkable Places and Things, in the Eastern Parts of the World, London: […] [F]or the Author, by Cox and Baylis, […], page xli

   “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—[…]

   1820, [Walter Scott], chapter XI, in The Abbot. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne & Co.] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and for Archibald Constable and Company, and John Ballantyne, […], →OCLC, page 349

   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.

   1845, William Spalding, Italy and the Italian Islands, from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time, 3rd edition, volume III, Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, […]; and Simpkin, Marshall, & Co., London, page 237

   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.

   1873, “[Notices of Books.] The Life of B. Alphonsus Rodrigues, Lay-Brother of the Society of Jesus. By a Lay-Brother of the same Society. […]”, in The Dublin Review, volume XXI, London: Burns, Oates, & Co., […], page 501