The Dominicans promote the benefits of a communal lifestyle. Cork, seen from a window of the priory. Andrew Testa for The International Herald Tribune

CORK, Ireland - The Reverend Gerard Dunne has worked for 12 years as a human-resources recruiter - albeit one in a habit cinched with a dangling wooden rosary - for the ancient order of the Dominican friars.

Other religious orders largely stopped wearing their traditional outfits in recent years, as they tried to attract new followers. But the friars deliberately went on wearing the medieval robes and promoting the spiritual benefits of shared prayer and a communal lifestyle - with a little help, too, from a chatty blog.

"We made a conscious decision a few years ago to wear the habit because we had no vocations and we were in a bad way," said Father Dunne, 46, who estimates that he has traveled nearly 800,000 kilometers along Ireland's country lanes and highways in search of recruits. "If we didn't present ourselves in an authentic manner, who would join us? And that meant going back to the fundamentals."

Those fundamentals - which include a signature white tunic and black capuce fashioned almost 800 years ago - have helped lead to an improbable revival of the Dominican order of preachers. Even as other orders close houses and parish priests in Ireland are vanishing at a time of clerical sexual abuse scandals, the Dominican order is growing.

The friars live in a priory, sharing prayers and meals. Unlike monks, they work in the broader community in preaching and teaching roles in churches, universities and secondary schools.

In tough economic times, the stability of community may be appealing, and the resurgence for the Dominicans has coincided with Ireland's economic crisis. But Father Dunne and others said most potential candidates were already prospering in existing jobs in professional fields, and came to the order with a yearning for greater spirituality.

The revival of the order has been particularly striking in a country where diocesan parish priests have been disappearing. Just 12 men started theology studies for all of Ireland's 26 dioceses last fall - a record low.

In January a Dominican vocations retreat in Cork was oversubscribed at St. Mary's Priory and two more were added in March and April. The early events drew 20 men.

In the fall, the Dublin-based order enrolled five men, joining 20 other Dominican theology students. They will become part of a community of 175 priests in 18 priories or communal houses across Ireland.

At a recent retreat, prospective recruits gathered at the 19th-century St. Mary's Church in Cork, where the order first arrived in 1229.

The guests included a university student, a government lawyer and a schoolteacher drawn by the order's Web site, which is stocked with videos, among them one of a friar snowball fight set to the song "Eye of the Tiger."

Matthew Farrell, 38, a former bartender, said he had sampled other orders, but in the end the Dominicans won out.

"The Dominicans have a lot of enthusiasm and energy," he said, "and I liked the fact that they wore habits."

The New York Times

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