The following article aims to present the work and mission of religious orders, monasteries and communities. In the territory of the Diocese of Katowice there were institutions of the following male religious orders and communities: the Brothers of St John of God, the Franciscans, the Camillians, the Jesuits, the Oblates, the Verbivists, the Salesians and the Salvatorians. The Brothers of St John of God cared for the sick in their own hospitals. The Franciscans devoted themselves mainly to preaching missions and retreats for the people, and secondarily to pastoral care and religious services in parishes. The Camillians were responsible for detoxifying alcoholics in hospitals and promoting abstinence. The Jesuits organised retreats for the Catholic Lay Marian Association and ran the parish. The Oblates, Verbivists, Salesians and Salvatorians preached missions and retreats and carried out the apostolate of the press. The Second World War interrupted this work and caused great material and personal losses in some monasteries. After the war, religious orders and communities resumed pastoral work in their own monastic parishes, which had been entrusted to them by the bishop's curia.