Saint Francis of Assisi

The Register of Pope Honorius II

2010-09-05T21:19:00.001-04:00

(APPROVAL OF THE FRANCISCAN RULE)
[1222‑1224] From Vatican Records

Parchment, volume, 352x280mm, ff. 213 (a foliation, in Roman numerals that has ff. CCXI), bound in dark red leather. On the back of the book, inside some borders made of golden ornaments between the bands, there is coat of arms Innocent XII and above: HONOR. III. BULLAR. AN. VII. VIII. TOM. IV.
ASV, Reg. Vat., 12, f. 156r (ol. CLVr)

The code, which belongs to the series of the Registra Vaticana, perhaps externally less accurate than the previous ones, groups the record of Honorius III’s selected correspondence between 1222 and 1224, divided in books, each one corresponding to his years of pontificate. The single recorded passages have a continuous and independent numbering (in the margin and in Roman numerals) for each book in the record. On folios 155r-156v there is a letter by Honorius III to St. Francis of Assisi, where the pope confirms the Minorites rule, already orally approved by Innocent III. The long passage, addresed to fratri Francisco et aliis fratibus de ordine fratrum minorum (sixth line) and dated Lateran, 29^th November 1223, includes the Franciscan rule, as it was received by the Holy See and then certainly modified for the pope’s approval. The franciscan historians usually call this passage “Regola Bollata” (at the beginning of the Rule, on line 9: In nomine Domini incipit vita minorum fratrum. Regula et vita minorum fratrum hec est, scilicet domini nostri Iesu Christi sanctumevangelium observare, vivendo in obedientia, sine proprio, et in castitate. Frater Franciscus promittit obedientiam et reverentiam domino pape Honorio ac successoribus eius canonice intrantibus et ecclesie Romane). The famous verses of Dante refer to Honorius III’s approval of the Rule: «di seconda corona redimita / fu per Onorio da l’Etterno Spiro / la santa voglia d’esto archimandrita» (Par., XI, 97‑99).

Saint Clare

2010-08-11T17:33:00.005-04:00

Clare’s father was a count, her mother the countess Blessed Orsolana. Her father died when the girl was very young. After hearing Saint Francis of Assisi preach in the streets, Clare confided to him her desire to live for God, and the two became close friends. On Palm Sunday in 1212, her bishop presented Clare with a palm, which she apparently took as a sign. With her cousin Pacifica, Clare ran away from her mother’s palace during the night to enter religious life. She eventually took the veil from Saint Francis at the Church of Our Lady of the Angels in Assisi, Italy.
Clare founded the Order of Poor Ladies (Poor Clares) at San Damiano, and led it for 40 years. Everywhere the Franciscans established themselves throughout Europe, there also went the Poor Clares, depending solely on alms, forced to have complete faith on God to provide through people; this lack of land-based revenues was a new idea at the time. Clare’s mother and sisters later joined the order, and there are still thousands of members living lives of silence and prayer.
Clare loved music and well-composed sermons. She was humble, merciful, charming, optimistic, chivalrous, and every day she meditated on the Passion of Jesus. She would get up late at night to tuck in her sisters who’d kicked off their blankets. When she learned of the Franciscan martyrs in Morrocco in 1221, she tried to go there to give her own life for God, but was restrained.

Once when her convent was about to be attacked, she displayed the Sacrament in a monstrace at the convent gates, and prayed before it; the attackers left, the house was saved, and the image of her holding a monstrance became one of her emblems. Her patronage of eyes and against their problems may have developed from her name which has overtones from clearness, brightness, brilliance - like healthy eyes.
Toward the end of her life, when she was too ill to attend Mass, an image of the service would display on the wall of her cell; thus her patronage of television. She was ever the close friend and spiritual student of Francis, who apparently led her soul into the light at her death. During her life and after her death there was disagreement at intervals between the Poor Clares and the Brothers Minor as to their correct relations. The nuns maintained that the friars were under obligation to serve their needs in things both spiritual and temporal. When in 1230 Pope Gregory IX forbade the friars to visit the convents of the nuns without special license, Clare feared the edict might lead to a complete severing of the ties established by Francis. She thereupon dismissed every man attached to her convent, those who served their material needs as well as those who served them spiritually; if she could not have the one, she would not have the other. The Pope wisely referred the matter to the minister general of the Brothers Minor to adjust. After long years of sickness borne with sublime patience, Clare's life neared its end in the summer of 1253.

Pope Innocent IV came to Assisi to give her absolution, remarking, "Would to God I had so little need of it!" To her nuns she said, "Praise the Lord, beloved daughters, for on this most blessed day both Jesus Christ and his vicar have deigned to visit me." Prelates and cardinals gathered round, and many people were convinced that the dying woman was truly a saint. Her sister Agnes was with her, as well as three of the early companions of Francis-Leo, Angelo, and Juniper. They read aloud the Passion according to St. John, as they had read it at the death-bed of Francis twenty-seven years before. Someone exhorted Clare to patience and she replied, "Dear brother, ever since through His servant Francis I have known the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, I have never in my whole life found any pain or sickness that could trouble me." To herself she was heard to say, "Go forth without fear, Christian soul, for you have a good guide for your journey. Go forth without fear, for He that created you has sanctified you, has always protected you, and loves you as a mother." READ MORE

...fiore di San Francesco...rosa purpurea...CHIARA

...oggi le campane suonavano all'impazzata...segno di festa...ma si sente che sotto c'è un motorino...ah, direte voi, la solita criticona, ora di Assisi manco le campane le vanno più bene!...Beh ho vissuto a Jork in Inghilterra dove la tradizione dei campanari è, forse, secolare e le campane...ah come sono suonate bene! Qui se è festa le suonano tutte e fanno una specie di cacofonia che, meno elegantemente, chiamerei casino....comunque...

La festa di Chiara, presto, presto mentre annaffiavo le mie piantine, il roseto che "il vicino assassino" mi ha potato così malamente che non spero più che dia rose... pensavo a cosa vuole dire morire l'11 agosto...ci penso così spesso alla morte che mi sono trovata a pensare: "Buon giorno per morire a san Damiano..." le finistrine aperte, le sorelle amate attorno, i pochi fratelli fedelissimi e....tutto quello che pochi vedevano: gli Angeli...il camerone sulla chiesina forse non era umido e freddo e dala finistrina veniva di certo il profumo di erbe e fiori....quel saluto estremo così semplice...

“Va’ sicura anima mia, perché colui che ti ha amata, ti ha santificata, e sempre guardandoti come una madre il suo figlio piccolino, ti ha amata con tenero amore. E tu Signore sii benedetto che mi hai creata”.

C'è modo migliore per morire?!? Non credo, in queste semplici parole annegano tutte le teologie, tutti i pensieri, tutte le pomposità...vorrei morire così, vorrei sentire nel mio cuore queste parole e poi andarmene felice, vorrei vedere il cielo su di me...e andarmene a Casa...là dove aspettare la mia rosa compagna....me ne andrò prima io...Lei, Chiara, era attesa dalla Sua di Rose Purpuree coperte di rugiada divina e immersa nella luce...poi ci hanno scritto le agiografie, poi ci hanno disquisito sopra...ma se si ascolta solo l'intelligenza del cuore si sente solo amore, Amore, AMORE, AMORE nient'altro che quello, per sempre!

Tau – Franciscan Cross

2010-08-07T21:18:00.004-04:00

A Franciscan Cross

By Ken Norian, TSSF
The first recorded reference to the TAU is from Ezekiel 9:4, “Go through the city of Jerusalem and put a TAU on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it.” The TAU is the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet and looks very much like the letter “T”.
At the Fourth Lateran Council, on November 11, 1215, Pope Innocent made reference to the TAU and quoted the above verse in reference to the profaning of the Holy Places by the Saracens. It is widely accepted that St. Francis was present at the Fourth Lateran Council and that he heard the words of Pope Innocent III when he said, “The TAU has exactly the same form as the Cross on which our Lord was crucified on Calvary, and only those will be marked with this sign and will obtain mercy who have mortified their flesh and conformed their life to that of the Crucified Savior. From then on, the TAU became Francis’ own coat of arms.

Francis used the TAU in his writings, painted in on the walls and doors of the places where he stayed, and used it as his only signature on his writings.
St. Bonaventure said, “This TAU symbol had all the veneration and all the devotion of the saint: he spoke of it often in order to recommend it, and he traced it on himself before beginning each of his actions.”
Celano, another Franciscan historian writes, “Francis preferred the Tau above all other symbols: he utilized it as his only signature for his letters, and he painted the image of it on the walls of all the places in which he stayed.”
In the famous blessing of Brother Leo, Francis wrote on parchment, “May the Lord bless you and keep you! May the Lord show His face to you and be merciful to you! May the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace! God bless you Brother Leo!” Francis sketched a head (of Brother Leo) and then drew the TAU over this portrait.
Due, no doubt, in large part to Francis’ own affection for and devotion to the TAU, it has been a well recognized and accepted Franciscan symbol among Franciscans of various denominations and of all orders within those denominations for centuries. It remains so today. The TAU carries with it all of the symbolism of the Cross of Christ as well as Francis’ ideal of life and dream for himself and his followers.

Sources: Englebert, Omer. St. Francis of Assisi. (Ann Arbor: Servant Books, 1965) Miller, Tamela, SFO. “The Tau: A Franciscan Symbol” Vorreux, Damien. Un Symbole Franciscain: Le Tau. (Paris: Editions Franciscaines, 1977)

Artigianalmente, con buona volontà, pennello e barattolo di vernice in mano, il percorso è stato, parzialmente per ora, segnato con Tau gialli su alberi e rocce, e con frecce.
La scelta del segno e del suo colore è precisa e meditata. Sul cammino di Santiago è la conchiglia che lo marca, sul cammino di San Francesco il contrassegno non poteva che essere la sua firma; il Tau. Il colore giallo, da Santiago in poi, è riconosciuto dai pellegrini di tutto il mondo come “il colore dei cammini”.
il TAU Le due lingue originali della Bibbia, l'ebraico ed il greco, hanno in comune una lettera dell'alfabeto il Tau. Nell’interpretazione ebraica è l’ultima lettera dell’alfabeto e significa il compimento della Parola rivelata. E’ il segno dei salvati (Ezechiele (9-4) ed è anche l’iniziale della parola Torah, la Legge.  La forma del Tau ricorda però la croce di Cristo e qui i simboli si intrecciano. Prima dell’avvento dei numeri arabi si utilizzavano le lettere e il Tau nell’alfabeto greco corrisponde al numero 300, nella Bibbia il numero si ritrova nella storia di Noé (l’arca era lunga 300 cubiti) ma tantissimi altri riferimenti biblici riportano a questo numero. Nel Vangelo 300 erano i denari per cui si poteva vendere il profumo della Maddalena…
Diverse interpretazioni dell’Apocalisse di San Giovanni (7-2,3) lo identificano come il sesto sigillo impresso sulla fronte dei Servi di Dio e nell’interpretazione di Ubertino da Casale e anche di San Bernardino da Siena, l’angelo del sesto sigillo sarebbe lo stesso Francesco… Al tempo di Francesco il Tau era considerato un segno che proteggeva dalla peste e lo si portava addosso come un amuleto.  Ma per Francesco, che lo adottò come firma, era la Croce.
Tommaso da Celano nel trattato dei miracoli (II – 828) riferisce: "Familiare gli era la lettera Tau, fra le altre lettere, con la quale soltanto firmava i biglietti e decorava le pareti delle celle. Infatti anche l’uomo di Dio, Pacifico, contemplatore di celesti visioni, scorse con gli occhi della carne sulla fronte del beato padre, una grande lettera Tau, che risplendeva di aureo fulgore." 1727. (Angela Seracchioli)

The TAU Cross

The TAU (19th letter of the Greek Alphabet) has become perhaps the most recognizable symbol in the Franciscan Family but it is worn by many who are not formally linked to Franciscans. Today the TAU cross is very often seen worn around the neck on a thin brown cord with three knots. Visitors to Assisi buy the TAU cross and cord as a memento. The devotion to Francis, the man of peace, has been strengthened by the meetings in Assisi which John Paul II held with religious leaders of every faith.
The early biographies of Francis tell us that he used the TAU very often as an expression of his devotion to the Cross of Jesus.

It was his custom, established by a holy decree also for his first sons, that wherever they saw the likeness of the cross they would give it honor and due reverence. He favoured the sign of the TAU above all others. With it alone he signed letters he sent, and painted it on the walls of cells everywhere. The man of God, Pacifico, seer of heavenly visions, saw with his bodily eyes a great sign of the TAU on the forehead of the blessed father. It was many coloured and flashed with the brightness of gold. (1)

The source of Francis’ devotion can be traced to Ezekiel 9:4.

Go through the whole city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the forehead of everyone who is distressed and troubled because of all the disgusting things being done in the city. (2)

In early translations of this passage the phrase “put a mark on the forehead” is translated “mark a cross on the foreheads of all”. (3)
Francis adopted the sign of the TAU because the very shape of the letter is the same as that of the Cross, and a reminder to him of his crucified Lord. He honoured and embraced it as representing God’s love for us.
Another connection of Francis with the sign of the TAU is his service to the lepers and the Brothers of St Anthony the Hermit who administered the lazarettos. On their habits was sewn the emblem of the TAU, and this reminded Francis of that special moment in his conversion when he embraced the leper. He chose the shape of the TAU for the habit which is still worn by the Friars.
When Pope Innocent III opened the 4th Lateran Council on November 11, 1215, he made a dramatic call for a crusade of Penance and Conversion. Francis was present at this Council, and obedient to the Pope’s call, he signed himself with the TAU of penance.
Throughout his life the TAU remained Francis’ favourite symbol and it is found carved in caves and chapels where he prayed. Painted in red, it is still visible in the Maddelena Chapel at Fonte Colombo in the Rieti Valley. His devotion to it was a reminder to him and his Friars of their vocation to preach penance and conversion to everyone they encountered on their travels.

Maddelena Chapel

References:

Thomas of Celano, The Treatise on the Miracles of Saint Francis (1250-1252), Francis of Assisi – Early Documents, Volume II, Edited by Regis J Armstrong OFM et al, 1999, New City Press, New York
Good News Bible – Today’s English Version, The Bible Society in Australia, Canberra, 1971
The Jerusalem Bible, Standard Version, Darton, Longman and Todd, London, 1966

Knights of Columbus

2010-08-06T07:06:00.022-04:00

Resurrection Council 13097 in Dania Beach and its women’s auxiliary parked cars at an annual citywide flea market, raising $2,000 for its parish. The groups also visit two nursing homes regularly, where they help residents to Mass and provide an occasional meal or dessert.

For the fifth year, Resurrection Council 13097 in Dania Beach packed complete turkey dinners for delivery to poor families at Christmas.

The Resurrection Knights of Columbus Council 13097, Dania Beach is continuing its project of providing turkeys for needy families for Thanksgiving dinner.again this year. Al Kaulakis, the council's financial secretary, said that his Council has been donating turkeys for the needy families of Dania Beach for many years. He said that the recipients are selected by the St.Vincent dePaul Society and the turkeys are picked up or delivered to the families prior to Thanksgiving. Call Gary for more information at 954 540-2320.

Resurrection Council 13097 and American Legion Post 304, both in Dania Beach, co-sponsored a community blood drive at the Winn Dixie Shopping Center.

For the fifth year, Resurrection Council 13097 in Dania Beach packed complete turkey dinners for delivery to poor families at Christmas.

from right, Father Tony Tommasulo, Gary Garafalo GK

A Farewell to Fr. Tony

Anthony J. Tomasulo, OSA
May 5, 1934—June 11, 2009

As you all know by now, our beloved Fr. Tony passed peacefully in his sleep on June 11 from this life to be with our Lord Jesus Christ. His funeral Mass was last Wednesday at Villanova University in Philadelphia. Here at St. John Neumann Parish, we will celebrate a memorial Mass at 7 p.m. Wednesday for Fr. Tony.

Anthony Joseph Tomasulo, OSA, was born in Elizabeth, N.J., the son of Joseph and Grace (Calabro)
Tomasulo. He has one sister, Marie. He was baptized at the Church of Assumption, in Roselle Park, N.J., on July 1, 1934. He attended Alden School, Roselle Park Junior High and Roselle Park High, and then Del-barton School (Morristown, N.J.) for his primary and secondary education (1940-1953).
He attended Villanova University and during his years there, he applied for entrance into the Order. He was received as a novice on Sept, 5, 1955, and after a year at Good Counsel Novitiate (New Hamburg, N.Y.), he professed first vows on Sept. 10, 1956. He then went to Augustinian College in Wash-
ington for his theological studies, professed solemn vows Sept. 10, 1959, and was ordained into the priesthood on June 3, 1961, at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington.
Fr. Tony was assigned first to St. Joseph Friary and Monsignor Bonner High School in Drexel Hill, Pa. (1962-1975). While there, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. The operation was successful, but this near-death experience gave Tony an understanding that every day he lived beyond the operation was a gift from God to be enjoyed, celebrated and shared with others. He spent a year at the Augustinian Collegiate Seminary at Villanova from 1975-76 and then spent the rest of his ministerial life
serving where he said he found his greatest joy — in parish ministry.

Those parishes were:
St. Rita of Cascia, Philadelphia (1976-82);
Immaculate Conception, Hoosick Falls, N.Y. (1982-90);
Assumption/St. Paul Parish, Mechanicsville, N.Y. (1990-91);
St. John the Baptist, Schaghticoke, N.Y. (1991-97);
Our Mother of Consolation, Chestnut Hill, Pa. (1997-99);
Resurrection of Our Lord, Dania Beach, Fla. (1999-2007);
and then at St. John Neumann since 2007.

His appreciation of life pervaded his ministry and gave Tony a joy-filled sense of humor and an affirming attitude toward every person or situation he met, for the rest of his life. He often said that his greatest love in life were his family, his life and experience of brotherhood as an Augustinian, his opportunity to be an instrument of God’s peace as a priest, and his friendship with Jesus Christ. His ability to laugh at life and at himself drew others close to him and helped him minister to them as friend, brother and priest.

Fourth Degree Brothers: Mickey, Alex, Pasquale, Mark

4th Degree Ceremony Miami 2004

Peace Prayer

2010-08-05T18:59:00.000-04:00

Who Wrote the  Peace Prayer of St. Francis?
by Friar Jack Wintz, O.F.M.

A bronze Francis sits peacefully at prayer near Assisi. Photo by Jack Wintz, O.F.M.
Few prayers are more popular around the world and better loved than the “Peace Prayer of St. Francis.” Nearly everyone recognizes a happy harmony between the words of this prayer and the generous, joy-filled and peace-loving spirit of St. Francis of Assisi. As we prepare for the October 4 Feast of St. Francis (this Sunday), let us look at this prayer more closely. What will surprise many readers is that no serious scholar today, Franciscan or otherwise, would place the Peace Prayer among the authentic writings of St. Francis. In recent decades it has become evident that the prayer originated during the early years of the 1900’s, but until recently no one has pointed out the exact year. Finally, researchers are getting to the bottom of the mystery. About eight years ago, a Franciscan confrere gave me the e-mail address of French scholar Dr. Christian Renoux of the University of Orleans in France, who had come to know a lot about this issue. In 2001, Renoux authored a book in French, entitled La priere pour la paix attribuee a Saint Francois. Une enigme a resoudre (The Peace Prayer Attributed to St. Francis: A Riddle to Be Solved). While working on a writing project about 7 years ago, I asked Dr. Renoux if he could summarize his findings for me. Dr. Renoux kindly agreed to do so.

Peace Prayer Takes a Circuitous Path
“The first appearance of the Peace Prayer,” according to Dr. Renoux, “occurred in France in 1912 in a small spiritual magazine called La Clochette (the little bell). It was published in Paris by a Catholic association known as La Ligue de la Sainte-Messe, “The Holy Mass League,” founded in 1901 by a French priest, Father Esther Bouquerel (1855-1923). The prayer bore the title of Belle priere a faire pendant la messe; “A Beautiful Prayer to Say During the Mass” and was published anonymously. The author could have possibly been Father Bouquerel himself, but until now the identity of the author remains a mystery. “The prayer was sent in French to Pope Benedict XV in 1915. This was soon followed by its 1916 appearance, in Italian, in the Osservatore Romano. Around 1920, the prayer was printed by a French Franciscan priest on the back of an image of St. Francis with the title Priere pour la paix, “Prayer for Peace,” but without being attributed to the saint. Between the two World Wars, the prayer circulated in Europe and was translated into English. “The first translation in English that we know of appeared in 1936 in Living Courageously, a book by Kirby Page (1890-1957), a Disciples of Christ minister. Page attributed the text to St. Francis of Assisi. During the Second World War and immediately after, this prayer for peace began circulating widely as the Prayer of St. Francis and over the years has gained a worldwide popularity with people of all faiths.”

Reflections on the Peace Prayer
Though written in simple language, the Peace Prayer provides rich material for spiritual reflection. The following are some of my thoughts on the Peace Prayer inspired by the lines (printed in bold type) of this prayer and by the example of St. Francis.  

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. 
Like that of Christ, our mission on earth is to bring to others God’s peace--God’s state of “perfect well-being” and completeness. Shalom is the Hebrew word for this rich concept of “peace.” Often used as a greeting of peace, Shalom is a wish that those so greeted will find healing and fullness of life. St. Francis saw this as his mission, too. In Chapter 3 of his Rule of 1223, he advised his followers that in going about the world “they should not be quarrelsome or take part in disputes with words…or criticize others; but they should be gentle, peaceful and unassuming, courteous and humble, speaking respectfully to everyone….Whatever house they enter, they should first say, ‘Peace to this house’”(Cf. Luke 10:5). Surely, Francis was an instrument of peace.  

Where there is hatred, let me sow love,
In his 9th Admonition, called Charity, St. Francis tells his followers, “Our Lord says in the Gospel, Love your enemies (Matthew 5: 44). A man really loves his enemy when he is not offended by the injury done to himself, but for love of God feels burning sorrow for the sin his enemy has brought on his own soul, and proves his love in a practical way.”  

Where there is injury, pardon, 
During the violence-ridden Crusades, St. Francis discovered a path of peace, pardon and non-violence. The “little poor man” went to Egypt to engage in a peaceful dialogue with the sultan (head of the Muslim forces), a meeting in which a spirit of forgiveness, respect and understanding prevailed. Francis would have the same message for those in our times who are so quick to see violence as the only cure for terrorism.  Where there is doubt, faith, When, as a young man, Francis found himself in a fog of doubt as to the nature of God’s care for him, he sought the face of God through prayer in solitary places. God opened Francis’ eyes of faith. The saint saw a vision of Christ gazing at him from the Cross with such a look of love that Francis’ “soul melted,” to use the words of his biographer, St. Bonaventure. The fog of doubt lifted for Francis, and he went through the world setting others free from their own burdens of doubt.  

Where there is despair, hope/Where there is darkness, light, 
Think of St. Francis embracing lepers and lovingly washing their sores. Surely, many of those suffering souls felt an inner surge of hope and human dignity when they experienced Francis’ care.   

And where there is sadness, joy.
The secret of St. Francis’ joyful spirit was his vibrant belief in a God of overflowing goodness and love. St. Francis was so in love with God that at times he would pick up two sticks from the ground, tuck one under his chin like a violin and move the other over it like a bow. Then, in an ecstasy of joy, he would sing in French songs of love and praise to God. Francis used to say that he wanted his followers to go about the world like strolling minstrels, “to inspire the hearts of people and stir them to spiritual joy.” They give us an example to follow in our own day!  

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek  to be consoled as to console; 

to be understood as to understand;

 to be loved as to love;

 for it is in giving that we receive,

 it is in pardoning that we are pardoned ,

 and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Francis of Assisi may not have written the words of the prayer attributed to him, but he certainly lived them. Everyone who is able to read and understand these words, moreover, readily sees that they communicate the heart of the Gospels and capture what is most essential in the world’s great religions. So we see, the Peace Prayer of St. Francis is a deep well of spiritual wisdom. We are wise to visit this well often.

The Roman Missal

2010-08-05T17:32:00.004-04:00

The Roman Missal (Missale Romanum) is the liturgical book that contains the texts and rubrics for the celebration of the mass in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church.

Situation before the Council of Trent

Before the high Middle Ages, several books were used at Mass: a Sacramentary with the prayers, one or more books for the Scriptural readings, and one or more books for the anthiphons and other chants. Gradually, manuscripts came into being that incorporated parts of more than one of these books, leading finally to versions that were complete in themselves. Such a book was referred to as a Missale Plenum ("Full Missal"). In 1223 Saint Francis of Assisi instructed his friars to adopt the form that was in use at the Papal Court (Rule, chapter 3). They adapted this missal further to the needs of their largely itinerant apostolate. Pope Gregory IX considered, but did not put into effect, the idea of extending this missal, as revised by the Franciscans, to the whole Western Church; and in 1277 Pope Nicholas III ordered it to be accepted in all churches in the city of Rome. Its use spread throughout Europe, especially after the invention of the printing press; but the editors introduced variations of their own choosing, some of them substantial. Printing also favoured the spread of other liturgical texts of less certain orthodoxy. The Council of Trent recognized that an end must be put to the resulting confusion. READ MORE

The Roman Missal, Third Edition, the ritual text containing prayers and instructions for the celebration of the Mass, has been approved by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. The complete text of the Roman Missal is still undergoing final editing by Vatican officials. It is expected to be forwarded to Conferences of Bishops later this spring, at which time it will be prepared for publication.
Pope John Paul II announced a revised version of the Missale Romanum during the Jubilee Year 2000. Among other things, the revised edition of the Missale Romanum contains prayers for the observances of recently canonized saints, additional prefaces for the Eucharistic Prayers, additional Votive Masses and Masses and Prayers for Various Needs and Intentions, and some updated and revised rubrics (instructions) for the celebration of the Mass. The English translation of the Roman Missal will also include updated translations of existing prayers, including some of the well–known responses and acclamations of the people.
This website has been prepared to help you prepare for the transition. Here you will find helpful resources for the faithful, for the clergy, and for parish and diocesan leaders, so that all of us will be ready to implement the new text late next year (2011). The receipt of the recognitio marks the beginning of the proximate preparation for the implementation of the Roman Missal. During the time leading up to actual first Sunday of use of the new text, pastors are encouraged to make use of the wide variety of resources available to prepare parishioners for the reception of the new text.
May this process of the implementation of the revised Roman Missal be a time of deepening, nurturing, and celebrating our faith through our worship and the celebration of the Sacred Liturgy. [General Instruction of the Roman Missal]

Prayers and The Rosary

2010-08-05T16:19:00.005-04:00

Prayer of St. Francis for Peace:

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love; for it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

How to Pray the Rosary:
1. Looking at the cross, we hold it while we make the sign of the cross and pray the Apostles's Creed which is a summary of all the things we believe as Catholics.
2. On this separate bead, we pray an Our Father, the prayer that Jesus taught us.
3. On each of the next three beads, we pray the Hail Mary.
4. On this separate bead, we announce the first mystery. (e.g.. Joyful) We reflect on what happened to Jesus at this time and we think about what it means in our lives today. We pray the Our Father.
5. We pray one Hail Mary on each of the next 10 beads. Then we pray the Glory Be.
6. On this separate bead, we announce the second mystery, reflect, and pray the Our Father.
7. We pray one Hail Mary on each of the next ten
beads. Then we pray the Glory Be.
8. On this separate bead, we announce the third
mystery, reflect, and pray the Our Father.

9. We pray one Hail Mary on each of the next ten beads. Then we pray the Glory Be.
10. On this separate bead, we announce the fourth mystery, reflect, and pray the Our Father.
11. We pray one Hail Mary on each of the next ten beads. Then we pray the Glory Be.
12. On this separate bead, we announce the fifth mystery, reflect, and pray the Our Father.
13. We pray 1 Hail Mary on each of the next ten beads. Then we pray the Glory Be.
14. We have now reached the end of the Rosary. On the medal that connects the beads we pray the Hail Holy Queen.
15. Please follow your local custom for other prayers at this point.

The Prayers of the Rosary:

The Sign of the Cross
In the name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

The Apostles' Creed
I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord; Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell; the third day He arose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven,and sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen.

The Our Father
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name: Thy kingdom come: Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread: and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation: but deliver us from evil. Amen.

The Hail Mary
Hail Mary, full of grace; the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Glory Be to the Father
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

The Fatima Prayer
"O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, and lead all souls to Heaven, especially those in most need of Your Mercy". (Our Lady at Fatima, 13th July 1917)

The Hail, Holy Queen
Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy; our life, our sweetness, and our hope! To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve; to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley, of tears. Turn, then, most gracious Advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us; and after this our exile show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus; O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary. Pray for us oh holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
"O God whose only begotten Son has purchased for us the rewards of eternal life, Grant that we beseech Thee while meditating upon these mysteries of the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we may both imitate what they contain and obtain what they promise, through the same Christ our Lord Amen."

The Mysteries and Biblical Reference of the Rosary
The Joyful Mysteries - Pray: Monday and Saturday
The Annunciation
The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth. And coming to Mary, he said, "Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you." (Lk 1:26-28)
The Visitation
Mary set out and traveled to the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, "Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb." (Lk 1:39-45)
The Birth of Our Lord
And Mary gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger . . . And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests." (Lk 2:1-20)
The Presentation in the Temple
Mary and Joseph took the baby Jesus to the Temple to present him to the Lord. At the temple Simeon and Anna came forward, gave thanks to God and spoke about Jesus to all who were present. (Lk 2:22-38)
The Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple
The boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. (Lk 2:41-50)

The Sorrowful Mysteries: Pray: Tuesday and Friday
The Agony in the Garden
Jesus went to a place called Gethsemane to pray. "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet, not as I will, but as you will." (Mt 26:36-46)
The Scourging at the Pillar
The chief priests with the elders and the scribes held a council. They bound Jesus, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate. Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, had Jesus scourged and handed him over to be crucified. (Mk 15:1-16)
The Crowning with Thorns
They stripped off his clothes and threw a scarlet military cloak about him. Weaving a crown out of thorns, they placed it on his head, and a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!" (Mt 27:27-31)
The Carrying of the Cross
Jesus, weak from being beaten, was unable to carry His cross to Golgotha alone. Simon, a Cyrenian, helped him. (Mk 15:20-22)
The Crucifixion
When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him and the criminals there, one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do."
(Lk 23:33-46)

The Glorious Mysteries: Pray: Wednesday and Sunday
The Resurrection
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. An angel appeared and said, "Do not be afraid! I know that you are seeking Jesus the crucified. He is not here, for He has been raised just as He said." (Mt 28:1-10)
The Ascension of Our Lord
As Jesus blessed them He parted from them and was taken up to heaven. (Lk 24:44-53)
The Descent of the Holy Spirit
Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, "Peace be with you. Receive the Holy Spirit." (Jn 14:15-21)
The Assumption of Our Lady into Heaven
"Finally the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory." (from Munificentissimus Deus (1950):DS 3903)
The Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
"We believe that the Holy Mother of God, the new Eve, Mother of the Church, continues in heaven to exercise her maternal role on behalf of the members of Christ." (from the Solemn Profession of Faith: Credo of the People of God)

The Mysteries Of Light: Pray: Thursday
The Baptism in the Jordan
And a voice came from the heavens, saying, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased." (Mt. 3:17)
The Wedding at Cana
"Women, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come." His mother said to the servers, "Do whatever he tells you." (Jn 2:1-12)
The Proclamation of the Kingdom of God
"This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel." (Mk 1:15)
The Transfiguration
While he was praying his face changed in appearance and his clothing became dazzling white. (Lk9:29)
The Institution of the Eucharist
Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father. He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end. (Jn 13:1)

Churches of Umbria

2010-08-05T07:00:00.005-04:00

From Bill Thayer Web Site

The San Damiano Cross

2010-08-04T21:16:00.005-04:00

The Cross that spoke to St. Francis of Assisi
The San Damiano Cross can be found in every friary, in Franciscan Universities, and in the home of, probably, every Secular Franciscan home in the world.
This cross is a reproduction of the crucifix through which God spoke to Saint Francis of Assisi in the year 1205, saying “Go, Francis, and repair my Church which, as you see, is falling into ruin.” At first Francis misunderstood and proceeded to repair only the San Damiano Chapel, where this crucifix was located. Eventually his acts of poverty, humility and charity brought about repairs to the entire Catholic Church.
The San Damiano Cross is a painting containing images of Christ’s passion, death, resurrection and ascension into glory. Its thematic colors are red and black. Red, the color of Christ’s blood which he shed for us, symbolizes God’s love. Black is the color of death. The artist left us very little written explanation of his work, just names under the figures standing around the cross. The following interpretation of what his pictures represent is drawn mainly from several descriptions.

The Passion
On the lower part of the cross, near Jesus’ left shin, is a very small picture of a rooster, reminding us of Peter’s denial during Christ’s Passion, and his subsequent repentance and conversion.
“And the Lord said ‘Simon, Simon, behold Satan has desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith may not fail; and do thou, when once thou has turned again, strengthen thy brethren.’ But he said to him, ‘Lord, with thee I am ready to go both to prison and to death!” But he said, “I tell thee, Peter, a cock will not crow this day, until thou hast denied three times that thou knowest me.” (Luke 22: 31-34) . . . “And the Lord turned and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, ‘Before a cock crows, thou wilt deny me three times.’ And Peter went out and wept bitterly.” (Luke 22: 61-62)
The tiny rooster is a small reminder that if Peter could fail any of us can fail. Of much larger importance is that, like Peter, we should repent after we fail and turn again to the Lord, and by this example lend moral strength and encouragement to our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Directly below the rooster is the barely perceptible figure of a person. This may be Saint Peter, looking up at the rooster; or perhaps it is a self portrait of the artist; or perhaps it represents you and me.
The Crucifixion
The square panel below the arms of the cross portrays those present at the crucifixion of Jesus. Under Christ’s right arm the Blessed Virgin Mary stands next to Saint John. Their eyes obey the words Christ spoke to them from the cross: “Woman, behold, thy son” (John 19: 26) and, to John, “Behold, thy mother” (John 19: 27). The blood of salvation falls from the wound in Christ’s side onto John’s mantle. Dressed in scarlet, Mary Magdalene stands in a place of honor next to Christ. Next to her is the other Mary. At the far right stands the Roman Centurion of Capernaum, who, at the crucifixion, voiced his belief in Christ. He holds a piece of wood in his left hand, symbolizing his building of the synagogue (Luke 7: 1-5). The thumb and two fingers of his right hand are raised in a symbol of the Trinity, while the two closed fingers signify the mystery of the two natures of Jesus. Four heads peer over the shoulder of the centurion. Are they the centurion’s servant, healed by Jesus, and soldiers (Luke 7: 6-10)? Or, are they the centurion’s son, healed by Jesus, and household of believers (John 4: 46-54)?
Two minor figures (as indicated by their smaller size) stand at the bottom corners of the crucifixion-scene panel. On our left is the Roman soldier who pierced Jesus’ side with a lance (John 19: 34). On our right is the bystander who offered Jesus a sponge soaked in common wine after Jesus cried out “I thirst” (John 19: 28-29). According to Christian tradition they are named Longinus and Stephaton (or Steven). Drops of Christ’s redeeming blood, dripping from his elbows, bless these witnesses too.
Crucifix Inscription
Above Christ’s head on the cross is the Latin inscription “IHS NAZARE REX IUDEORU” (often abbreviated as “INRI”), meaning “JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.” (John 19: 19)
Forty Hours Of Death
“He descended into hell; the third day he arose again from the dead;” (Apostles’ Creed). Under Christ’s feet we see the black abyss of the dead, and several haloed figures. These are the souls of holy people who died before Christ and were awaiting Salvation before being admitted into Heaven. Blood pours over them from the wounds in Christ’s feet, signifying their long awaited redemption.
The Resurrection
The central figure of the San Damiano Crucifix is Christ risen from the dead on Easter Sunday morning, clad in a formal loin cloth symbolic of both high priest and victim. He stands upright, no longer hanging from nails. His eyes are open again. His face radiates a calm expression of peace in the knowledge that the price of our redemption is paid. His wounds continue to pour out the blood of his love for us.
On the arms of the cross, behind Christ’s outstretched arms, is a black rectangle representing the empty tomb. The red stripe over the black tomb signifies that the red of God’s Love is victorious over the blackness of death. At either side of the empty tomb stands a saint. These are probably the women who discovered the empty tomb early on Easter morning. Some say the figures are Peter and John, who arrived on the scene later, but Peter is usually portrayed with a beard. Beneath each of Christ’s wrists are two angels in heated discussion. Are they angels at the beginning of time, arguing whether to worship the Son of Man? Is this Lucifer debating Saint Michael?
The Ascension
The rectangular panel at the top of the cross represents heaven.
Emerging from a circle of red and entering heaven we see Jesus, fully robed in garments of gold. In his left hand he carries a golden cross which is his royal scepter and a sign of his victory over death. Choirs of angels welcome Jesus into heaven. Within the red semi-circle at the top of the scene we see the right hand of the Father with two fingers extended in benediction, blessing all that Jesus has done. The hand also symbolizes God maintaining Creation and sending us his Holy Spirit, a gift merited by Christ’s sacrifice.
“… He ascended into heaven, sits at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the living and the dead.” (Apostles’ Creed)
HISTORY OF THE ORIGINAL SAN DAMIANO CROSS
The original cross, approximately 6 feet tall by 4 feet wide, is a painting on linen glued to walnut. An unknown artist produced it sometime prior to 1205, the year in which Francis knelt before it in the San Damiano Chapel. The abandoned, neglected and half ruined condition of that chapel in 1205 suggests that the cross may be considerably older. The artist may have been a Syrian monk: the iconography shows a strong Byzantine influence, and local history says there had been Syrian monks in the Assisi area for centuries. In 1257 the followers of Saint Clare of Assisi, the Poor Clares, left San Damiano for San Giorgio and took the Cross with them. They preserved it for seven centuries. In Holy Week of 1957 it went on public view in the Basilica of Saint Clare (Santa Chiara) in Assisi, where it may be seen today.

PRAYER
Saint Francis prayed as follows as he knelt before the crucifix in the San Damiano Chapel:
“All-highest, glorious God, cast your light into the darkness of my heart. Give me right faith, firm hope, perfect charity and profound humility, with wisdom and perception, o Lord, so that I may do what is truly your holy will. Amen.”

San Damiano Crucifix

The Crucifix of San Damiano is an icon of Christ in glory. It is the fruit of long meditation, of contemplation and of fasting.

About the year 1100 this icon was painted on canvas and then applied to a walnut wooden cross. It is the work of an unknown artist of the Umbrian School. It was inspired by the roman style of its time and by oriental iconography.
The San Damiano crucifix is precious to the Franciscan family. One day, soon after his conversion, Francis, led by the Spirit, went into the little church of San Damiano. He was attracted by the crucifix and looking at it intently said to Christ: “Lord, what do you want me to do?” From Christ he heard these words, “Francis, go repair my Church.” It was a decisive inspiration for him. How often he must have returned to San Damiano and contemplated this crucifix, looked closely at its details and let himself be filled again with its message.
The face and body of Christ in this icon are filled with light. The light comes from the interior of his person.
We are looking at a glorified Christ who shows no signs of tension whatsoever. We are here beyond his sufferings, beyond his death. We are contemplating the living Christ, the risen and glorious Christ who reminds us that one day all our sufferings will be transformed into glory.
The face of Christ is serene and calm. According to the tradition in iconography, the eyes are large, the mouth is small and the ears are almost invisible because in the contemplation of the Father in glory, words are no longer necessary; it is enough to see, to look and to love. And so the eyes of Christ who contemplates the Father are opened wide. He looks out to the multitude of peoples … to all generations; and in love, he wants to save them all.
Christ, abandoned to the Father and turned towards peoples: this is the Christ who held Francis enthralled throughout his entire life.
From Missionary Franciscan Sisters

Giotto

2010-08-04T17:06:00.004-04:00

GIOTTO (Ambrogio Bondone, detto) 1267 - 1337
In the field of Christian art, during the later Middle Ages, the Franciscan movement exercised considerable influence, especially in Italy. Several great painters of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, especially Cimabue and Giotto, who, though they were not friars, were spiritual sons of Francis in the wider sense, and the plastic masterpieces of the latter, as well as the architectural conceptions of both himself and his school, show the influence of Franciscan ideals. The Italian Gothic style, whose earliest important monument is the great convent church at Assise (built 1228–53), was cultivated as a rule principally by members of the order or men under their influence. Giotto has become the symbol of a profound renewal in the history of Western figurative arts, and of the first radical renewal since ancient Greece. "He converted the art of painting from Greek to Latin and brought in the modern era" - this is Cennino Cennini's synthesis fifty years after Giotto's death, underscoring the revolutionary character of Giotto's painting.
Born in 1267, he must have been active before the last decade of thirteenth century.

Giotto worked for the Bardi's and the Peruzzi's, the Florentine families who owned the most important European banks of the thirteenth century. He worked for the Basilica of San Francesco in Assisi, which was the most important church of Christianity at the time; he worked for the Pope, for the richest and most influential citizen of Padova (Scrovegni), for the chapel and main altar of the Basilica of San Pietro in Rome, for the king of Napoli and for Azzone Visconti, the master of Milano. At a time when the exceptional Italian economic expansion turned every Italian city in a cultural center with specific characteristics and a potential artistic "school", Giotto placed himself in a super-regional position, becoming a universal reference point.
If we look at the contents of his artistic revolution, we have to agree that the first manifestations are present in the decoration of the Assisi Upper Basilica. These frescos reveal the mind and, in part, the hand of the genius who created the frescos of Scrovegni Chapel in Padua.
It is very probable that Giotto has worked in Assisi about ten years earlier than in Padua, that is to say, around 1290 or a little later.
The concept of space formulated for the first time in Assisi was already known to the ancient Greeks and Romans, but had been lost in Medieval times. This is not just a new way of painting. The idea of an illusionary reconstruction of a three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional surface also implies that the reality perceived through one's senses acquires a new artistic meaning.
The decoration of the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua (between 1303-1305) has been universally recognized as the most significant and most paradigmatic creation of Giotto and one of the capital events in the history of the European painting.
The decoration of the Assisi Lower Basilica (before 1309?), the Peruzzi Chapel, the Bardi Chapel (after 1317) also illustrate Giotto's radical innovations.
Dividing his time between his job as chief architect of the Duomo of Florence (the design of the belltower belongs to Giotto) and the many prestigious commissions (between 1329-1333 he works in Naples for the king Robert of Anjou; in 1335 he works in Milano for Azzone Visconti), the great artist was also in firm control of his "school", which produced a number of works of great artistic value and unique chromatic splendor, such as the large polyptichs of Bologna and the Barroncelli Chapel in Basilica Santa Croce (Florence), both signed by Giotto.

Assisi, Basilica di San Francesco

Assisi, Upper Basilica - Basilica Superiore

Stories of San Francis - Storie di San Francesco I

Stories of San Francis - Storie di San Francesco II

Assisi, Lower Basilica - Basilica Inferiore

Padova, Cappella degli Scrovegni

Padova, The Scrovegni Chapel - La Cappella degli Scrovegni
Stories of St. Joachim - Storie di San Giacchino
Stories of Virgin Mary - Storie della Madonna
Stories of Christ - Storie di Cristo I
Stories of Christ - Storie di Cristo II
Allegories of Virtues and Vices - Allegorie delle Virtù e dei Vizi

Firenze, Basilica di Santa Croce

Basilica di Santa Croce
Cappella Peruzzi
Cappella Bardi

Wooden Panels - Panelli Dipinti

Panels with Stories of Christ - Tavole con Storie di Cristo
Polyptich Panels - Panelli di Polittico
Panels with Madonna - Panelli con Madonna
The Stefaneschi Polyptich - Il Polittico Stefaneschi
The Badia Polyptich - Il Polittico di Badia
The Polyptich of Bologna - Il Polittico di Bologna
The Baroncelli Polyptich - Il Polittico Baroncelli

The Crucifixes - I Crocifissi

Who Was St. Francis?

2010-08-01T20:25:00.002-04:00

Who Was St. Francis?
by Leonard Foley, O.F.M.

Francis of Assisi was a poor little man who astounded and inspired the Church by taking the gospel literally—not in a narrow fundamentalist sense, but by actually following all that Jesus said and did, joyfully, without limit and without a mite of self-importance.
Serious illness brought the young Francis to see the emptiness of his frolicking life as leader of Assisi's youth. Prayer—lengthy and difficult—led him to a self-emptying like that of Christ, climaxed by embracing a leper he met on the road. It symbolized his complete obedience to what he had heard in prayer: "Francis! Everything you have loved and desired in the flesh it is your duty to despise and hate, if you wish to know my will. And when you have begun this, all that now seems sweet and lovely to you will become intolerable and bitter, but all that you used to avoid will turn itself to great sweetness and exceeding joy."
From the cross in the neglected field-chapel of San Damiano, Christ told him, "Francis, go out and build up my house, for it is nearly falling down." Francis became the totally poor and humble workman.
He must have suspected a deeper meaning to "build up my house." But he would have been content to be for the rest of his life the poor "nothing" man actually putting brick on brick in abandoned chapels. He gave up every material thing he had, piling even his clothes before his earthly father (who was demanding restitution for Francis' "gifts" to the poor) so that he would be totally free to say, "Our Father in heaven." He was, for a time, considered to be a religious "nut," begging from door to door when he could not get money for his work, bringing sadness or disgust to the hearts of his former friends, ridicule from the unthinking.
But genuineness will tell. A few people began to realize that this man was actually trying to be Christian. He really believed what Jesus said: "Announce the kingdom! Possess no gold or silver or copper in your purses, no traveling bag, no sandals, no staff" (see Luke 9:1-3).
Francis' first rule for his followers was a collection of texts from the Gospels. He had no idea of founding an order, but once it began he protected it and accepted all the legal structures needed to support it. His devotion and loyalty to the Church were absolute and highly exemplary at a time when various movements of reform tended to break the Church's unity.
He was torn between a life devoted entirely to prayer and a life of active preaching of the Good News. He decided in favor of the latter, but always returned to solitude when he could. He wanted to be a missionary in Syria or in Africa, but was prevented by shipwreck and illness in both cases. He did try to convert the sultan of Egypt during the Fifth Crusade.
During the last years of his relatively short life (he died at 44) he was half blind and seriously ill. Two years before his death, he received the stigmata, the real and painful wounds of Christ in his hands, feet and side.
On his deathbed, he said over and over again the last addition to his Canticle of the Sun, "Be praised, O Lord, for our Sister Death." He sang Psalm 141, and at the end asked his superior to have his clothes removed when the last hour came and for permission to expire lying naked on the earth, in imitation of his Lord.

From Saint of the Day - Franciscan Father Leonard Foley (1913-1994)

2010-08-01T20:12:00.001-04:00

St. Pio of Pietrelcina (25 May 1887 – 23 September 1968), also known as Saint Padre Pio, or simply Padre Pio, was a Capuchin priest from Italy who is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church. He was born Francesco Forgione, and given the name Pio when he joined the Capuchins; he was popularly known as Padre Pio after his ordination to the priesthood. He became famous for his stigmata. On 16 June 2002, he was canonized by Pope John Paul II.

Francesco Forgione was born to Orazio Mario Forgione (1860–1946) and Maria Giuseppa de Nunzio Forgione (1859–1929) on 25 May 1887, in Pietrelcina, a farming town in the southern Italian region of Campania.^[1] His parents made a living as peasant farmers.^[2] He was baptized in the nearby Santa Anna Chapel, which stands upon the walls of a castle.^[3] He later served as an altar boy in this same chapel. Restoration work on this chapel was later undertaken by the Padre Pio Foundation of America based in Cromwell, Connecticut.^[4] His siblings were an older brother, Michele, and three younger sisters, Felicita, Pellegrina, and Grazia (who was later to become a Bridgettine nun).^[2] His parents had two other children who died in infancy.^[1] When he was baptised, he was given the name Francesco, which was the name of one of these two.^[3] He claimed that by the time he was five years old he had already taken the decision to dedicate his entire life to God.^[1]^[3] He is also said to have begun inflicting penances on himself and to have been chided on one occasion by his mother for using a stone as a pillow and sleeping on the stone floor.^[5] He worked on the land up to the age of 10, looking after the small flock of sheep the family owned.^[6] This delayed his education to some extent.Pietrelcina was a highly religious town (feast days of saints were celebrated throughout the year), and religion had a profound influence on the Forgione family. The members of the family attended daily Mass, prayed the Rosary nightly, and abstained from meat three days a week in honor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.^[3] Although Francesco's parents and grandparents were illiterate, they memorised the Scriptures and narrated Bible stories to their children. It is claimed by his mother that Francesco was able to see and speak with Jesus, the Virgin Mary and his guardian angel, and that as a child, he assumed that all people could do so. As a youth Pio claimed to have experienced heavenly visions and ecstasies.^[1] In 1897, after he had completed three years at the public school, Francesco was drawn to the life of a friar after listening to a young Capuchin friar who was, at that time, seeking donations in the countryside. When he expressed his desire to his parents, they made a trip to Morcone, a community 13 miles (21 km) north of Pietrelcina, to find out if their son was eligible to enter the Capuchin Order. The monks there informed them that they were interested in accepting Francesco into their community, but he needed more education qualifications.^[3]

Francesco's father went to the United States in search of work to pay for private tutoring for his son Francesco, so that he might meet the academic requirements to enter the Capuchin Order.^[1]^[6] It was in this period that Francesco received the sacrament of Confirmation on 27 September 1899.^[3] He underwent private tutoring and passed the stipulated academic requirements. On 6 January 1903, at the age of 15, he entered the novitiate of the Capuchin Friars at Morcone where, on 22 January, he took the Franciscan habit and the name of Fra (Brother) Pio in honor of Pope Saint Pius V, the patron saint of Pietrelcina.^[3] He took the simple vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.^[1]

To commence his six-year study for priesthood and to grow in community life, he travelled to the friary of St. Francis of Assisi by oxcart.^[3] Three years later on 27 January 1907, he made his solemn profession. In 1910, Brother Pio was ordained a priest by Archbishop Paolo Schinosi at the Cathedral of Benevento. Four days later, he offered his first Mass at the parish church of Our Lady of the Angels. His health being precarious, he was permitted to remain with his family until early 1916 while still retaining the Capuchin habit.^[5]

On 4 September 1916, Padre Pio was ordered to return to his community life. Thus he was moved to an agricultural community, Our Lady of Grace Capuchin Friary, located in the Gargano Mountains in San Giovanni Rotondo. Along with Padre Pio, the community had seven friars. He stayed at San Giovanni Rotondo until his death, except for his military service.

When World War I started, four friars from this community were selected for military service.^[9] At that time, Padre Pio was a teacher at the seminary and a spiritual director.^[9] When one more friar was called into service, Padre Pio was put in charge of the community.^[9] Then, in the month of August 1917 Padre Pio was also called to military service.^[9] Although not in good health, he was assigned to the 4th Platoon of the 100th Company of the Italian Medical Corps.^[9] Although hospitalized by mid-October, he was not discharged until March 1918, whereupon he returned to San Giovanni Rotondo and was assigned to work at Santa Maria degli Angeli (Our Lady of the Angels) in Pietrelcina.^[9] Later, in response to his growing reputation as a worker of miracles, his superiors assigned him to the friary of San Giovanni Rotondo.^[9] In all, his military service lasted 182 days.^[9]

Padre Pio then became a spiritual director, guiding many spiritually, considering them his spiritual daughters and sons. He had five rules for spiritual growth, namely, weekly confession, daily Communion, spiritual reading, meditation, and examination of conscience.^[9]

He compared weekly confession to dusting a room weekly, and recommended the performance of meditation and self-examination twice daily: once in the morning, as preparation to face the day, and once again in the evening, as retrospection. His advice on the practical application of theology he often summed up in his now famous quote, "Pray, Hope and Don’t Worry". He directed Christians to recognize God in all things and to desire above all things to do the will of God.^[9]

BEATIFICATION OF PADRE PIO OF PIETRELCINA - HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS JOHN PAUL II - Sunday, 2 May 1999 “Sing a new song to the Lord!”.

The summons of the entrance antiphon captures well the joy of so many of the faithful who have long awaited the beatification of Padre Pio of Pietrelcina. By his life given wholly to prayer and to listening to his brothers and sisters, this humble Capuchin friar astonished the world. Countless people came to meet him in the friary of San Giovanni Rotondo and, since his death, the flow of pilgrims has not ceased. When I was a student here in Rome, I myself had the chance to meet him personally, and I thank God for allowing me today to enter Padre Pio's name in the book of the blessed. Guided by the texts of this Fifth Sunday of Easter, which provides the context for the beatification, let us this morning trace the main features of his spiritual experience.
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God and believe also in me” (Jn 14:1). In the Gospel just proclaimed, we heard these words of Jesus to his disciples who were in need of encouragement. In fact, his allusion to his imminent departure had thrown them into turmoil. They were afraid of being abandoned, of being alone, and the Lord consoled them with a very specific promise: “I am going to prepare a place for you”, and then, “I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (Jn 14:2-3). Through Thomas, the Apostles reply to this reassurance: “Lord, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?” (Jn 14:5). The remark is apt, and Jesus does not avoid the question which it implies. The answer he gives will remain for ever a light shining for generations still to come: “I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but by me” (Jn 14:6). The “place” that Jesus goes to prepare is in “the house of the Father”; there the disciple will be able to be with the Master for all eternity and share in his joy. Yet there is only one path that leads there: Christ, to whom the disciple must be conformed more and more. Holiness consists precisely in this: that it is no longer the Christian who lives, but Christ himself who lives in him (cf. Gal 2:20). An exhilarating goal, accompanied by a promise which is no less consoling: “Whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do, and greater works than I will they do, because I am going to the Father” (Jn 14:12). We hear these words of Christ and think of the humble friar of Gargano. How clearly were they fulfilled in Bl. Pio of Pietrelcina! “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe ...”. What was the life of this humble son of St Francis if not a constant act of faith, strengthened by the hope of heaven, where he could be with Christ?

“I am going to prepare a place for you ... that where I am you may be also”. What other purpose was there for the demanding ascetical practices which Padre Pio undertook from his early youth, if not gradually to identify himself with the Divine Master, so that he could be “where he was”?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1RlZyvZPyU]

Those who went to San Giovanni Rotondo to attend his Mass, to seek his counsel or to confess to him, saw in him a living image of Christ suffering and risen. The face of Padre Pio reflected the light of the Resurrection. His body, marked by the “stigmata”, showed forth the intimate bond between death and resurrection which characterizes the paschal mystery. Bl. Pio of Pietrelcina shared in the Passion with a special intensity: the unique gifts which were given to him, and the interior and mystical sufferings which accompanied them, allowed him constantly to participate in the Lord's agonies, never wavering in his sense that “Calvary is the hill of the saints”. No less painful, and perhaps even more distressing from a human point of view, were the trials which he had to endure as a result, it might be said, of his incomparable charisms. It happens at times in the history of holiness that, by God's special permission, the one chosen is misunderstood. In that case, obedience becomes for him a crucible of purification, a path of gradual assimilation to Christ, a strengthening of true holiness. In this regard, Bl. Pio wrote to one of his superiors: “I strive only to obey you, the good God having made known to me the one thing most acceptable to him and the one way for me to hope for salvation and to sing of victory” (Letter I, p. 807). When the “storm” broke upon him, he took as his rule of life the exhortation of the First Letter of Peter, that we have just heard: Come to Christ, a living stone (cf. 1 Pt 2:4). He himself thus became a “living stone” for the building of that spiritual house which is the Church. For this we today give thanks to the Lord.

“You too are living stones, built into a spiritual house” (1 Pt 2:5). How fitting are these words if we apply them to the extraordinary ecclesial experience which grew up around the new blessed! So many people, meeting him directly or indirectly, rediscovered their faith; inspired by his example, “prayer groups” sprang up in every corner of the world. To all who flocked to him he held up the ideal of holiness, repeating to them: “It seems that Jesus has no interest outside of sanctifying your soul” (Letter II, p. 155). If God's Providence willed that he should be active without ever leaving his convent, as though he were “planted” at the foot of the Cross, this is not without significance. One day the Divine Master had to console him, at a moment of particular trial, by telling him that “it is under the Cross that one learns to love” (Letter I, p. 339). The Cross of Christ is truly the outstanding school of love; indeed, the very “well-spring” of love. Purified by suffering, the love of this faithful disciple drew hearts to Christ and to his demanding Gospel of salvation. At the same time, his charity was poured out like balm on the weaknesses and the sufferings of his brothers and sisters. Padre Pio thus united zeal for souls with a concern for human suffering, working to build at San Giovanni Rotondo a hospital complex which he called the “House for the Relief of Suffering”. He wanted it to be a first-class hospital, but above all he was concerned that the medicine practised there would be truly “human”, treating patients with warm concern and sincere attention. He was quite aware that people who are ill and suffering need not only competent therapeutic care but also, and more importantly, a human and spiritual climate to help them rediscover themselves in an encounter with the love of God and with the kindness of their brothers and sisters. With the “House for the Relief of Suffering”, he wished to show that God's “ordinary miracles” take place in and through our charity. We need to be open to compassion and to the generous service of our brothers and sisters, using every resource of medical science and technology at our disposal. The echo stirred by this beatification in Italy and throughout the world shows that the fame of Padre Pio, a son of Italy and of Francis of Assisi, has gone forth to embrace all the continents. And I gladly greet those who have gathered here — in the first place the Italian authorities who have chosen to be present: the President of the Republic, the President of the Senate, the Prime Minister, who leads the official delegation, and the many other ministers and distinguished guests. Italy is represented most worthily! But also the many faithful from other nations have gathered here to pay homage to Padre Pio.

My affectionate greeting goes to all who have come from near and far, with a special thought for the Capuchin Fathers. To everyone I offer heartfelt thanks. Let me conclude with the words of the Gospel of this Mass: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Have faith in God”. There is a reference to this exhortation of Christ in the advice which the new blessed never tired of giving to the faithful: “Abandon yourselves fully to the divine heart of Jesus, like a child in the arms of his mother”. May these words of encouragement fill our hearts too and become a source of peace, serenity and joy. Why should we fear, if Christ for us is the Way, and the Truth and the Life? Why should we not trust in God who is the Father, our Father? May “Our Lady of Graces”, whom the humble Capuchin of Pietrelcina invoked with constant and tender devotion, help us to keep our gaze fixed on God. May she take us by the hand and lead us to seek wholeheartedly that supernatural charity flowing forth from the wounded side of the Crucified One. And you, Bl. Padre Pio, look down from heaven upon us assembled in this square and upon all gathered in prayer before the Basilica of St John Lateran and in San Giovanni Rotondo. Intercede for all those who, in every part of the world, are spiritually united with this event and raise their prayers to you. Come to the help of everyone; give peace and consolation to every heart. Amen! ___________________________________________________________________

VIDEOS OF PADRE PIO

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The crypt is located just under Santa Maria della Concezione, a church commissioned by Pope Urban VIII in 1626. The pope's brother, Cardinal Antonio Barberini, who was of the Capuchin order, in 1631 ordered the remains of thousands of Capuchin friars exhumed and transferred from the friary Via dei Lucchesi to the crypt. The bones were arranged along the walls, and the friars began to bury their own dead here, as well as the bodies of poor Romans, whose tomb was under the floor of the present Mass chapel. Here the Capuchins would come to pray and reflect each evening before retiring for the night. The crypt, or ossuary, now contains the remains of 4,000 friars buried between 1500-1870, during which time the Roman Catholic Church permitted burial in and under churches. The underground crypt is divided into five chapels, lit only by dim natural light seeping in through cracks, and small fluorescent lamps. The crypt walls are decorated with the remains in elaborate fashion, making this crypt a macabre work of art. Some of the skeletons are intact and draped with Franciscan habits, but for the most part, individual bones are used to create elaborate ornamental designs.

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LINKS TO WEBSITES:

PadrePio.com -- Shrine of Padre Pio -- Padre Pio Devotions --

OTHER LINKS:

http://www.mostholyfamilymonastery.com/padre_pio.php

The Council of Trent

2010-08-01T14:21:00.000-04:00

The Council of Trent (Latin: Concilium Tridentinum) was the 16th-century Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church. It is considered to be one of the Church's most important[1] councils. It convened in Trent (then capital of the Prince-Bishopric of Trent, inside the Holy Roman Empire, now in modern Italy) between December 13, 1545, and December 4, 1563 in twenty-five sessions for three periods. Council fathers met for the first through eighth sessions in Trent (1545-1547), and for the ninth through eleventh sessions in Bologna (1547) during the pontificate of Pope Paul III.[2] Under Pope Julius III, the council met in Trent (1551-1552) for the twelfth through sixteenth sessions. Under Pope Pius IV the seventeenth through twenty-fifth sessions took place in Trent (1559-1563).
The council issued condemnations on what it defined as Protestant heresies and defined Church teachings in the areas of Scripture and Tradition, Original Sin, Justification, Sacraments, the Eucharist in Holy Mass and the veneration of saints. It issued numerous reform decrees.[3] By specifying Catholic doctrine on salvation, the sacraments, and the Biblical canon, the Council was answering Protestant disputes.[1] The Council entrusted to the Pope the implementation of its work; as a result, Pope Pius V issued in 1566 the Roman Catechism, in 1568 a revised Roman Breviary, and in 1570 a revised Roman Missal, thus initiating what since the twentieth century has been called the Tridentine Mass (from the city's Latin name Tridentum), and Pope Clement VIII issued in 1592 a revised edition of the Vulgate.[4]
The Council of Trent, delayed and interrupted several times because of political or religious disagreements, was a major reform council and the most impressive embodiment of the ideals of the Counter-Reformation.[4] It would be over 300 years until the next Ecumenical Council. When announcing Vatican II, Pope John XXIII stated that the precepts of the Council of Trent continue to the modern day, a position that was reaffirmed by Pope Paul VI.[5]

Monastero Santa Chiara

2010-07-16T21:32:00.002-04:00

La comunità delle clarisse era presente a Nocera presumibilmente, già intorno al 1283.
L’antico Monastero, aderiva alla costa della collina di S. Pantaleone. Travolto da una corrente paurosa di acqua e fango, andò completamente distrutto con tutte le suore. Se ne salvarono soltanto due che, nel buio della notte, con la terra che franava, approdarono all’ospizio dei Frati Minori, una chiesetta con pochi locali. I frati cedettero subito l’ospizio alle clarisse e si trasferirono, nel 1287, presso l’attuale convento S. Antonio di Nocera Inferiore. L’oratorio ceduto dai frati, a più riprese, fu ampliato e circondato da una cinta di mura risalente al 1400 per proteggere la clausura delle monache. Fu costruita, in seguito, un’ala nuova del Monastero detta “quarto nuovo” terminata nel 1796 su disegno di Domenico Vaccaro. Con le leggi eversive del 1861 le monache che amministravano i loro beni con l’assistenza del procuratore furono espropriate dei beni che furono incamerati dallo stato liberal-massone. Il governo, per compensare le religiose per l’ingiusta usurpazione dei loro beni, decise di assegnare un sussidio con il quale si concesse una pensione vitalizia a ciascuna religiosa. Il monastero, per il quale in passato erano state spese somme ingenti per la costruzione e manutenzione, era diventato di proprietà dell’Amministrazione del Fondo per il Culto, che lo cedette poi al Comune di Nocera. Nel 1905, le religiose riuscirono a riscattarlo per la somma di Lire 24.000 mettendo fine a quella disagiata posizione giuridica. il 16 novembre 1928 la comunità passava dalla Regola di Urbano 4° alla Regola di S. Chiara d’Assisi approvata da Innocenzo 4° il 9 agosto 1253.

(OFM) Conv

2010-07-10T19:07:00.001-04:00

(OFM) Conventual

(SFO) Secular

2010-07-10T19:06:00.004-04:00

In 1205, Francis of Assisi was called by God to rebuild the Church. Early in his ministry, Francis recognized the need to include people from all walks of life within his movement of reform and renewal. The work of following Christ in humility, love and joy, which is the vocation of all Christians, could not be restricted to the traditional life of the Friars and Sisters. This was true in the thirteenth century and it remains so today.

We are...
* Women and Men
* Single and Married
* Ordained and Lay
* Wage-earning or Retired
* Young and Old
Leading ordinary lives...In city, town, and countryside

Called to follow Francis by...
* Making Christ known and loved everywhere
* Spreading the spirit of love and unity in the whole world
* Living simply

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Today, there are estimated to be over a half-million Franciscans worldwide in the various denominations of the Christian family. Anglican Franciscans are divided among five provinces worldwide. The Province of the Americas stretches from Canada to Chile to the Caribbean. It currently includes the First Order Brothers and Sisters - who live a celibate life in their respective communities - and the Third Order. The Third Order consists of men and women, single or in committed relationships, who, though following ordinary professions, are called to a dedicated life of service to our Lord through prayer, study, and work. Like the First Order, Tertiaries make a lifetime commitment to live a Rule of Life in company with the sisters and brothers in their Order.

Secular Franciscans TV - You can view these videos at this site.

The Secular Franciscan Identity. In the course of the second half of the twentieth century the Franciscan Family experienced deep transformations. On June 24, 1978 the tertiaries received the new Rule, approved by Pope Paul VI. First, there was the Second Vatican Council with its new focus. The Council documents strongly influenced the writers of the Pauline Rule. We entered into a period of study and of assimilation of the new Rule. It became a fundamental point of reference in the search for "identity". The attitude of the brothers and of the sisters was changing into a new way to be Franciscan, identical in its essentials, but different in how it manifested itself. The Franciscan Third Order had assumed the new Franciscan name of “The Secular Franciscan Order”, exactly because it wanted to underscore the presence of Franciscan laity in the world; it wanted to distinguish itself in its "secular" state, the most significant feature of the Third Order. In Article 2, Secular Franciscans are men and women who, "led by the Spirit, strive for perfect charity in their own secular state. By their profession they pledge themselves to live the gospel in the manner of Saint Francis by means of this rule approved by the Church." The updated legislation of the SFO (Rule and General Constitutions) states that the identity of the Secular Franciscan is expressed in a triple dimension: personal (the inner life), fraternal (co-responsibility) and universal (the mission). READ MORE

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Rule
Constitution [ DOC ]
FIOFS Statutes [ PDF ]
Spiritual Assistants Statutes [PDF] [ DOC ]
Ritual [ PDF DOC ]

Bonaventura da Potenza

2010-07-07T11:19:00.005-04:00

Bonaventura da Potenza, al secolo Carlo Antonio Gerardo Lavanca (Potenza, 1651 – Ravello, 26 ottobre 1711), è stato un presbitero e religioso italiano dell’Ordine dei Frati Minori Conventuali: è stato proclamato beato da papa Pio VI nel 1775. Figlio di “povera gente ma ornata di singolare onestà di costumi e d’insigne cristiana pietà”, entrò, all’età di 15 anni, come novizio nei Minori Conventuali di Nocera Inferiore. Trascorso il periodo di preparazione tra Aversa, Maddaloni e l’Irpinia, nel 1675 infine, ad Amalfi, sotto la guida di padre Domenico Girardelli, venne ordinato sacerdote.
Fu quindi inviato in vari conventi, tra i quali quelli di Napoli, Ravello, Ischia, Sorrento e Nocera Inferiore, dove divenne responsabile dei novizi. Morì nel 1711, nel convento di Ravello, per i postumi di un’operazione per l’asportazione di una cancrena alla gamba. Viene proclamato beato il 26 novembre 1775 da Papa Pio VI in San Pietro.

La fondazione del convento San Francesco risale al secolo XIII e viene attribuita da sicura tradizione allo stesso San Francesco che, pellegrino ad Amalfi sulla tomba dell'Apostolo Andrea, fondò prima in questa città un convento (oggi hotel Luna) e poi quello in Ravello. In un particolare squarcio medioevale, all'inizio del secolo XIII, precisamente tra il 1221-22, viene segnalata la presenza minoritica a Ravello, legata ad un presunto viaggio del Poverello d'Assisi nella terra amalfitana ove si sarebbe portato per venerare le reliquie dell'apostolo Andrea, ivi traslate, da Costantinopoli, nel 1208.

Complesso Monumentale San Francesco - Ravello - La chiesa dedicata a San Francesco, ubicata nella via omonima n. 9, è parte integrante del "Complesso Monumentale San Francesco". Fu edificata nel sec. XIII su una preesistente chiesetta - in località Ponticeto - e dedicata a San Giovanni Battista. Detta chiesetta si ritrova menzionata in una pergamena del 24 gennaio 1177, concernente la locazione enfiteutica di un vigneto, sito a Tramonti, nel casale Corsano, appartenente alla medesima chiesa che, in quell'anno, era retta dall'abate don Giovanni Rufolo, in seguito vescovo di Ravello.
Della struttura originaria del sec. XIII rimangono solo il transetto e l'abside a scarsella. La navata, coperta con volta a botte lunettatta, risale al sec. XVIII.
cantoria è installato un pregevole organo a canne, ricostruito e ricomposto nel 1909, anche con materiale del vecchio organo del `700 (per il restauro dell'organo si è in attesa di sponsor o benefattori...). Gli affreschi decorativi della relativa campata ricoprivano tutte le volte della chiesa, prima del sisma del 1980.
Sotto l'altare maggiore è custodita l'urna con il corpo del Beato Bonaventura da Potenza, morto a Ravello nel 1711 e dichiarato Beato nel 1775 dal Papa Pio VI. Nella stessa chiesa riposano anche le spoglie del Servo di Dio Padre Donato Antonio del Quercio di Caposele, morto in gran fama di santità (+ 1774) e dei benemeriti fratelli fra Antonio e Padre Bonaventura Mansi, dei Frati Minori Conventuali.

The Franciscan Archive

2010-07-07T05:54:00.008-04:00

St. Francis of Assisi

baptized Giovanni di Bernadone

b. 1182 -- d. 1226 A. D.

Il Poverello

PATRIARCHA SERAPHICUS

Troubadour of the Great King

FRIAR MINOR,
FOUNDER OF THE ORDER OF FRIARS MINOR,
CO-FOUNDER OF THE ORDER OF ST. CLARE,
FOUNDER OF THE THIRD ORDER OF ST. FRANCIS,
PATRON OF ITALY & THE ENVIRONMENT

The Internet Guide to St. Francis of Assisi contains all significant links about St. Francis of Assisi on the Internet, and is updated regularly by The Franciscan Archive.

Biographies Articles Writings Orders & Societies Liturgical Texts Art

The Marian Dedication of St. Francis of Assisi

The Writings of St. Francis of Assisi

tr. by Father Pascal Robinson

[1905]

Contents – Start Reading – Page Index – Text [Zipped]

Poor Clares

2010-07-06T16:37:00.004-04:00

POOR LADIES, SISTERS OF ST. CLARE

The Second Order of St. Francis. The subject will be treated here under the following heads:

I. Beginnings at San Damiano;
II. Rule of Ugolino;
III. Definitive Rule of St. Clare;
IV Spread of the Order;
V. Colettine Reform;
VI. In England and America;
VII. Mode of Life;
VIII. Saints and Blessed of the Order;
IX. Present Status.

I
In the great Franciscan movement of the thirteenth century an important part was played by this order of religious women, which had its beginning in the convent of San Damiano, Assisi. When St. Clare in 1212, following the advice of St. Francis, withdrew to San Damiano, she was soon surrounded by a number of ladies attracted by the holiness of her life. Among the first to join her were several immediate relatives, including her sister Agnes, her mother, aunt, and niece. Thus was formed the nucleus of the new order. Here St. Clare became the counsellor of St. Francis and after his death remained the supreme exponent of the Franciscan ideal of poverty. "This ideal was the exaltation of the beggar's estate into a condition of spiritual liberty, wherein man would live in conscious dependence upon the providence of God and the good will of his fellowmen" (Cuthbert, "The Life and Legend of the Lady St. Clare", p. 4). At the outset St. Clare received from St. Francis a "formula vitæ" for the growing community. This was not a formal rule, but simply a direction to practise the counsels of the Gospel (Seraphicæ legislationis textus originales, p. 62). "Vivere secundum perfectionem sancti Evangelii" was the keynote of St. Francis's message. On behalf of the sisters, St. Clare petitioned Innocent III for the "privilege" of absolute poverty, not merely for the individual members but for the community as a whole. Highly pleased with the unusual request he granted it, says the saint's biographer, with his own hand "cum hilaritate magna" ("Röm. Quartalschrift", 1902, p. 97; see, however, Robinson, "Life of St. Clare", note 114);

I
In 1217 an event occurred which proved to be of first importance in the development of the new community. In that year Ugolino, Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia, was sent to Tuscany as Apostolic delegate; he formed a warm attachment for St. Francis, and soon became the confidant and adviser of the seraphic doctor in all things relating to the second Order ("Analecta Franciscana", III, p. 686). Concerning the manner of life of the religious who gathered in various places imitating the example of the community at San Damiano we have only the account given by Jacques de Vitry in 1216 and the letters of Ugolino to Honorius III in 1218. The former speaks of women who dwell in hospices in community life and support themselves by their own labour. Ugolino writes that many women have renounced the world and desired to establish monasteries where they would live in total poverty with no possessions except their houses. For this purpose estates were often donated, but the administration of these presented difficulties. The pope decided that Ugolino should accept these estates in the name of the Church and that the houses established thereon should be immediately subject to the pope. About 1219 Ugolino drew up a rule for these groups of women, taking the Rule of St. Benedict as a ground work, with severe regulations having, however, no distinctively Franciscan element in them. His first foundation was the monastery of Monticello near Florence (1219). This rule was soon adopted by the monasteries at Perugia, Siena, Gattajola, and elsewhere. There is no evidence that it was ever accepted at San Damiano. It is noteworthy that it does not raise the question of the ownership of property by the various monasteries. This was a point on which St. Francis and Ugolino did not agree. The subsequent modifications which this rule underwent at the hands of Innocent IV in 1247, and of Urban IV in 1263, resulted in the triumph of Ugolino's view, while St. Francis's ideal of utter poverty found expression in a definitive rule, the confirmation of which St. Clare secured in 1253. The opening words of Ugolino's Rule, "Regulam beatissimi Benedicti vobis tradimus observandam", have been taken to indicate that the Poor Clares were an offshoot of the Benedictines. This conclusion, however, is unwarranted. The Lateran Council, a few years earlier, had decreed that new orders should adopt a rule already approved. The new order was not bound to the observance of the older rule, except in regard to the three customary vows. This was Ugolino's intention in drawing up the rule, and it is confirmed by a letter of Innocent IV to Agnes of Bohemia, in which he explains the meaning of the words in question (Sbarales, I, p. 315).

After the death of St. Francis (1226) and the elevation of Ugolino to the papal chair as Gregory IX (1227), certain changes were introduced in the practical direction of conventual life. The pope offered to bestow possessions on the convent of San Damiano over which St. Clare presided. She firmly refused the offer and petitioned to be permitted to continue in the spirit of St. Francis. In response to this request, Gregory granted her (17 September, 1228) the "privilege of most high poverty", namely," ut recipere possessiones a nullo compelli possitis". The convents of Perugia and Florence followed the example of San Damiano. Other convents, however, gladly availed themselves of the possessions which the pope offered them, "propter eventus temporum et pericula sæculorum". Thus were laid the foundation of the two observances which obtain among the daughters of St. Clare. The plea of Agnes of Bohemia for a new rule was rejected by Gregory IX in 1238, and again by Innocent IV in 1243. In 1247 Innocent IV, to secure unity of observance and peace of conscience for the sisters, modified the original rule in two points. In place of the reference to the Rule of St. Benedict he inserted a reference to the Rule of St. Francis, which, in the meantime, had been approved, and he embodied in the rule regulations covering certain changes already introduced in various convents by his predecessor or by himself. Thus, the direction of the communities of the order was placed in the hands of the general and provincial of the Franciscans. The sisters were directed to recite the Divine Office according to the custom of the Friars Minor. The regulations concerning silence and abstinence were modified. The length of novitiate was fixed at one year. The most notable change is to be found in the express permission granted to every convent to hold possessions, for the administration of which a prudent procurator was to be secured by each house. In the year 1263 the original rule underwent a final modification at the hands of Urban IV. On 18 October of that year the sovereign pontiff issued the rule which is in the most general observance among the Poor Clares and which has given the name "Urbanist" to a large division of the order. It is noteworthy that in Urban's Rule the new community received for the first time the official title of "Order of St. Clare". In a few particulars the new regulations were less severe than in the rule of 1247. For instance, the abbess was empowered to dispense with the obligation of silence during certain hours of the day at her good pleasure. The sections of the rule are arranged in a new order and are divided into twenty-six chapters. For the most part the very words of the previous rule are employed. One important change must be noted. Innocent IV had left the Second Order in charge of the general and provincial of the Friars Minor. Urban IV withdrew from these officials practically all their authority over the Second Order and bestowed it on the cardinal protector.

II
Meanwhile, St. Clare had secured from innocent IV the confirmation of a new rule differing widely from the original rule drawn up by Ugolino, and modified by his successors on the papal throne. For forty years she had been the living rule from which the community at San Damiano had imbibed the spirit of St. Francis. A few days before her death she placed the convent under a rule which embodied that spirit more perfectly than did Ugolino's Rule. The Bull "Solet annuere", 9 August, 1253, confirming St. Clare's Rule, was directed to the Sisters of San Damiano alone. The new rule was soon adopted by other convents and forms the basis of the second grand division of the Poor Clares. It is an adaptation of the Franciscan Rule to the needs of the Second Order. Its twelve chapters correspond substantially to those of the Franciscan Rule, and in large sections there is a verbal agreement between the two rules. In a few instances it borrows regulations from the original rule and from the modified form of that rule published by Innocent IV. The most important characteristic of St. Clare's Rule is its express declaration that the sisters are to possess no property, either as individuals or as a community. In this regulation the new rule clearly breathes the spirit of the seraphic founder. It is improbable, however, that St. Francis was the author of it or that it was approved by Gregory IX, as is sometimes asserted. With the data obtainable no categorical answer can be given to the question of authorship, though the compiler may well have been St. Clare herself (Lemmens in "Röm. Quartalschr.", I, page 118). The original Bull of Innocent IV confirming the Rule of St. Clare was discovered in 1893 in a mantle of the saint which had been preserved, among other relics, at the monastery of St. Clare at Assisi (Robinson, "Inventarium documentorum", 1908).

I
While the rule was undergoing these various modifications, the order was rapidly spreading throughout Europe. At San Damiano, St. Clare's sister, Agnes, and her aunt, Buona Guelfuccio (in religion Sister Pacifica), played a large part in its early development. In 1218 permission was obtained from the Bishop of Perugia for the establishment of a monastery in that city. The following year Agnes founded at Florence a community which became the centre of numerous new foundations, namely, those at Venice, Mantua, and Padua. Monasteries of the order were soon to be found at Todi, Volterra, Foligno, and Beziers. St. Clare's niece, Agnes, introduced the new order into Spain. The cities of Barcelona and Burgos became thriving communities. The first foundation in Belgium was effected at Bruges by Sister Ermentrude, who, after the death of St. Clare, displayed great zeal in spreading the order through Belgium and northern France. The earliest community in France, however, was planted at Reims in 1229 at the request of the archbishop of that see. The monasteries at Montpelier, Cahors, Bordeaux, Metz, and Besançon sprang from the house at Reims; and that of Marseilles was founded from Assisi in 1254. The Royal Abbey at Longchamp, which enjoyed the patronage of Bl. Isabel, daughter of Louis VIII and Blanche of Castile, is usually though with some question counted as a branch of the Poor Clares. (See article ISABEL OF FRANCE.) Among the earliest foundations in Germany was that of Strasburg, where Innocent IV's revision of the rule was accepted in 1255. In Bohemia the order had an illustrious patroness, Princess Agnes (Blessed Agnes of Prague), a cousin of St. Elizabeth of Hungary. Agnes was but one of the ladies of high rank who, attracted to the new order, put aside the vanities of their social position to embrace a life of poverty and seclusion from the world.

V
For a century after the death of St. Clare comparatively few of the convents had adopted the Rule of 1253. Most of them had availed themselves of the permission to hold property in the name of the community. Moreover, in the fourteenth century the order suffered very much during the Great Western Schism, which was responsible for the general decline of discipline (Manuale Historiæ Ordinis Fratrum Minorum, p. 586). At the beginning of the fifteenth century, however, the spirit of utter poverty was revived through the instrumentality of St. Colette (died 1447) who instituted the most vigorous reform the Second Order has ever experienced. Her desire to restore or introduce the practice of absolute poverty was put on a fair way to realization when, in 1406, Benedict XIII appointed her reformer of the whole order and gave her the office of Abbess General over all convents she should establish or reform. In 1412 St. Colette established a monastery at Besançon. Before her death (1447) she had founded 17 new monasteries, to which, in addition to the Rule of St. Clare, she gave constitutions and regulations of her own. These Constitutions of St. Colette were confirmed by Pius II (Seraphicæ Legislationis Textus Originales, 99-175). After the death of St. Colette her reform continued to spread and by the end of the fifteenth century reformed convents were to be found throughout France, Flanders, Brabant, Savoy, Spain, and Portugal. The number of sisters at that time exceeded 35,000 and they were everywhere commended by the austerity of their lives (Pidoux, "Sainte Colette", p.158). From the year 1517 the spiritual direction of the Poor Clares, the Colettines not excepted, was given to the Observants. This was a return to the condition existing before the year 1263, at which time the Friars Minor, under the leadership of St. Bonaventure, at the General Chapter of Pisa sought to resign the spiritual care of the Second Order (Archivum Franciscanum Historicum, October, 1910, 664-79). The first quarter of the sixteenth century witnessed a widespread revival of the Urbanist Rule. Towards the end of the same century, though the religious wars had destroyed many monasteries, there were about six hundred houses in existence. Subsequently the order experienced a rapid growth and the external development of the Poor Clares appears to have reached its culmination about 1630 in 925 monasteries with 34,000 sisters under the direction of the minister general. If we can credit contemporary chroniclers, there were still more sisters under the direction of the bishops, making the entire number about 70,000. After the opening years of the eighteenth century the order declined and the French Revolution and the subsequent policy of secularization almost totally destroyed it, except in Spain, where the monasteries were undisturbed.

V
In 1807 a Poor Clare community of the Urbanist Observance, fleeing from the terrors of the French Revolution, took refuge in England and founded a monastery at Scorton Hall in Yorkshire. They were the first of their order to establish themselves in that country since the religious changes of the sixteenth century. Fifty years after their arrival they removed to their present home, the Monastery of St. Clare at Darlington, also in Yorkshire. Refugees from the French Revolution likewise found their way to America. In 1801 a community, presided over by Abbess Marie de La Marche, purchased property in Georgetown, D. C., and opened a school for their support. Their efforts met with little success and they returned to Europe. The suppression of the religious in Italy was the occasion of the first permanent settlement of the Poor Clares in the United States. In August, 1875, two sisters by blood as well as in religion, Maria Maddelena, and Maria Costanza Bentivoglio, from the celebrated Monastery of San Lorenzo-in-Panisperma, came to America by direction of Pius IX in response to a petition presented by Mother Ignatius Hayes of the Third Order Regulars of St. Francis. After vainly seeking to found convents in New York, Cincinnati, and Philadelphia, they went to New Orleans but soon removed to Cleveland, Ohio, where they were joined by a community of German Poor Clares to whom they relinquished the convent. The new German community remained in Cleveland and have since founded another convent in Chicago; they follow the reform of St. Colette. Meanwhile the Italian sisters found a permanent home in Omaha, thanks to the munificence of Mr. John Creighton. On 14 July, 1882, the canonical enclosure was established in the new monastery. From the monastery of St.Clare in Omaha have sprung directly, or indirectly, the foundations of the order at New Orleans; Evansville, Ind.; Boston; and Bordentown, N. J.

VI
The daily life of the Poor Clares is occupied with both work and prayer. It is a life of penance and contemplation. The rule says that the sisters shall fast at all times except on the Feast of the Nativity. The constitutions explain that meat may not be used even on Christmas. The "great silence" is from Compline until after the conventual Mass. During the day there is one hour of recreation except on Friday. Meals are taken in silence. The Divine Office is recited, not sung. The Franciscan breviary is used. The habit is a loose fitting garment of gray frieze; the cord is of linen rope about one-half inch in thickness having four knots representing the four vows; the sandals are of cloth.

VIII
Among the saints of the order may be mentioned: the founder, Clare of Assisi (died 1253); Agnes of Assisi (died 1253); Collette of Corbie (died 1447); Catharine of Bologna (died 1463); Veronica Giuliani (died 1727). Holzapfel enumerates seventeen Blessed of the order (Manuale, 638), of whom the following are the more important: Agnes of Bohemia (died 1280); Isabel of France (died 1270); Margaret Colonna (died 1284); Cunegundis of Hungary (died 1292); Antonia of Florence (died 1472).

RULE OF LIFE approved in 1253 Introduction - PENDING

Chapter I - In the name of the Lord, here begins the form of life of the Poor Sisters
Chapter II - Those who wish to live this life and how they are to be received
Chapter III - The Divine Office and fasting confession and communion
Chapter IV - The election and office of the Abbess; The chapter, and the officials and discreets
Chapter V - Silence, the parlour, and the grille
Chapter VI - The lack of possessions
Chapter VII - The manner of working
Chapter VIII - The sisters shall not acquire anything of their own; begging alms; the sick sisters
Chapter IX - The penance to be imposed on the sisters who sin; The sisters who serve outside the monastery
Chapter X - The admonition and correction of the sisters
Chapter XI - The custody of the enclosure
Chapter XII - The visitator, the chaplain, and the Cardinal Protector

Third Orders

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When people hear the phrase “TOR Franciscans” or see us in black and not brown Franciscan habits, not many understand who we are or where we came from. The Third Order Regular Franciscans developed in the early 13th century from the convergence of groups of penitents who where inspired by the life of Saint Francis. The penitents were lay women and men whose focus was agere poenitentiam or doing penance. In contemporary language we would say that these were persons who deliberately wanted to live a vibrant Christian life.

Origin
The general idea of lay people affiliated to religious orders, as seen in the Benedictine Oblates or confraters (Taunton, "Black Monks of St. Benedict", London, 1897, I, 60-63; for Norbertines cf. Hurter, "Papst Innocenz III", Schaffhausen, 1845, IV, 148), is too natural for there to be any need to seek its origin. Founders and benefactors of monasteries were received in life into spiritual fellowship, and were clothed in death in some religious habit. So too the Templars had a whole system whereby layfolk could partake in some sort in their privileges and in the material administration of their affairs (English Hist. Rev., London, April, 1910, 227). But the essential nature of the tertiary is really an innovation of the thirteenth century. At that date many of the laity, impatient of the indolent and sometimes scandalous lives of the clergy in lower Europe, were seized with the idea of reforming Christendom by preaching. This admirable intention caused the rise of the Vaudois under Valdez of Lyons ("Anecdotes Historiques tirés du Recueil inédit d'Etienne de Bourbon, O.P.", ed. by Lecoq de La Manche, Paris, 1878, 290-314), and under somewhat more curious conditions the Fratres Humiliati.
The Vaudois were at first welcomed by the pope, Alexander III, who authorized their preaching, but as they were unacquainted with theological teaching and had pursued no clerical studies, their sermons were not seldom dogmatically inaccurate and eventually defiantly heretical. The Humiliati also soon became suspect and were forbidden by Lucius III to preach, till in 1207 Innocent III gave a section of them permission to resume their work, provided that they limited themselves to moral questions and did not venture on doctrinal subjects ("De articulis fidei et sacramentis ecclesiae", cf. Denifle, O.P., "Archiv für Litteratur und Kirchengeschichte des Mittelalters", I, 419). Moreover some became priests, were gathered into a cloister, and took up religious life. The others remained outside, yet spiritually dependent on the clerical portion, and now for the first time in history called a Third Order, Tertius Ordo (Mandonnet, "Les Origines de l'Ordo de Pœnetentia"; the Bull is to be found in Tiraboschi, "Vetera Humiliatorum monumenta", II, Milan, 1766-68, 139).

DivisionThe Third Orders can each be divided into (a) regulars, i.e. living in convents, and (b) seculars, i.e. living in the world. Of these the first take vows, the latter can only make a solemn promise (except that Carmelite Tertiaries apparently take some sort of vows of obedience and chastity, cf. Angelus a S.S. Corde, O.C.D., "Manuale juris communis Regularium", Ghent, 1899, q. 1067), which, however, distinguishes them from members of mere confraternities and constitutes them legally a religious order (Constitution of Leo XIII, "Misericors Dei Filius").

Members
Any Catholic may join a Third Order, but may not at once belong to more than one, nor may he without grave cause leave one for another. The laying aside of the distinctive sign or prayers for any space of time does not in itself put an end to membership with a Third Order, but the deliberate wish to dissociate oneself from it is sufficient to produce that effect (S. Cong. Indulg., 31 Jan., 1893).

Privileges
The Regular Third Order participates in all the indulgences granted to the First and Second Orders (S. Cong. Indulg., 28 Aug., 1903), but not in those granted to the Secular Third Order (ibid.). This latter no longer participates in any privileges save those directly granted to itself (S. Cong. Indulg., 31 Jan., 1893; S. Cong. Indulg., 18 July, 1902; S. Cong. Indulg., 28 Aug., 1903).

Third order of Our Lady of Mount CarmelSoon after the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel was established in Europe in the thirteenth century, lay persons, not bound by religious vows, seem to have attached themselves to it more or less closely. There is evidence of the existence of a "Confrairie N.-D. du Mont-Carmel" at Toulouse in 1273, and of a "Compagnia di Santa Maria del Carmino" at Bologna in 1280, but the exact nature of these bodies is uncertain owing to a lack of documents. Somewhat later mention is frequently made of trade-guilds having their seat in churches of the order, members of which acted as their chaplains. Thus the master-bakers, innkeepers and pastry-cooks at Nîmes, the barbers and surgeons of the same town, who were also connected with the Dominicans, the goldsmiths at Avignon. Benefactors of the order received letters of fraternity with the right of participation in the privileges and good works of the friars. Others, under the name of bizzoche and mantellatoe, wore the habit and observed the rule, e.g. "M. Phicola nostra Pinzochera" at Florence in 1308. Others again became recluses in the anchorages attached to Carmelite churches, and made profession under the form: "Ego frater N. a Spiritu Sancto ad anachoreticam vitam vocatus offero me, coram Deo, Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto, et promitto me in servitio Dei secundum Scripturam sacram Novi et Veteris Testamenti more anchoreticae vitae usque ad mortem permansurum." Among the tertiaries not living in community must be mentioned Blessed Louis Morbioli of Bologna (d. 1495).
The canonical institution of the third order dates from the middle of the fifteenth century, when a community of Beguines at Guelders sought affiliation to the order, and Blessed John Soreth, General of the Carmelites, obtained a Bull (7 Oct., 1452) granting the superiors of his order the faculties enjoyed by the Hermits of St. Augustine and the Dominicans of canonically establishing convents of "virgins, widows, beguines and mantellatae". Further legislation took place in 1476 by the Bull "Mare magnum privilegiorum", and under Benedict XIII and his successors. The rule observed by the tertiaries, whether living in the world or gathered into communities, was originally that of the friars with modifications as required by their status. Theodor Stratius, General of the Calced Carmelites, composed in 1635 a new rule, revised in 1678, which is still observed among the tertiaries of the Calced and the Discalced Carmelites. It prescribes the recitation of the canonical office, or else of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin, or, in its place, of the Pater noster and Ave Maria to be said thirty-five times a day, five times in lieu of each of the canonical hours; also half an hour's meditation every morning and evening; fasting on all Fridays and also on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 14 September till Easter, abstinence during Advent and Lent, and various works of mortification, devotion, and charity. Superiors may in their discretion dispense from some of these obligations.
It is impossible to estimate even approximately the number of tertiaries living in the world. Besides these there are numerous corporations of tertiaries established in different countries, viz. two communities of tertiary brothers in Ireland (Drumcondra and Clondalkin near Dublin) in charge of an asylum for the blind and of a high-school for boys; eighteen communities of native priests in British India belonging partly to the Latin and partly to the Syro-Malabar rites; four houses of Brothers of Christian Education in Spain. Far more numerous are the communities of nuns, namely twenty-three in India (Latin and Syro-Malabar rites) for the education of native girls, and four convents in Syria in connection with the missions of the Order; two congregations of tertiaries in Spain with nineteen and forty-eight establishments respectively, and one unattached, for educational work. In Spain there are also tertiary nuns called "Carmelitas de la caridad" engaged in works of charity with 150 establishments. The Austrian congregation of nuns numbers twenty-seven houses, while the most recent branch, the Carmelite Tertiaries of the Sacred Heart, founded at Berlin towards the end of the last century for the care and education of orphans and neglected children, have spread rapidly through Germany, Holland, England, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, and Hungary, and have twenty houses. In Italy there are three different congregations with thirty-two convents. There are smaller branches of the tertiaries in South America with two houses at Santiago, Chile, in Switzerland with four convents, and in England with one.

The Third Order Secular of the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel

The Third Order Secular of the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel has been introduced into the United States. There are at present two congregations, with 125 members.
Third Order of St. Dominic
Origin

This was one of the earliest developments of St. Francis's Ordo de Poenitentia. It was not indeed the primal organism from which the Friars Preachers evolved, but rather represents that portion of the Order of Penance which came under Dominican influence. At first vaguely constituted and living without system or form, its members gradually grew more and more dependent on their spiritual guides. The climax was reached, and the work of St. Francis received its final perfection, when Muñon de Zamora, the seventh master-general of the Friars Preachers, formulated a definite rule in 1285. By this the Ordo de Poenitentia was to be ruled in each local centre by a Dominican priest (Federici, "Istoria de cavalieri Gaudenti", Venice, 1787, Codex Diplomaticus, II, 35) and was to be subject to the obedience of the Dominican provincials and master-generals. No longer were there to be any of those vague transitions and extravagant vagaries (ibid., 28) which disfigured in history these Orders of Penance. Henceforward this branch was linked to the fortunes of the Friars Preachers, wore their habits of black and white (with few minor differences varying according to time and country), and was to participate in all their good works. They were not called a third order indeed until after the thirteenth century (Mandonnet, "Les règles et le gouvernement de l'ordo de Poenitentia", Paris, 1902, p. 207) but continued to be known as "Brothers and Sisters of Penance" with the addition "of St. Dominic", that is "The Brothers and Sisters of the Penance of St. Dominic".

Simultaneously with them there came into being another and very different institution which, however, subsequently amalgamated with the Ordo de Poenitentia to form the Dominican Third Order. This was a military order, called the Militia Jesu Christi (soldiery of Jesus Christ) created for the defence of the Church against the Albigenses. It owed its origin to Bishop Foulques of Toulouse, Simon de Montfort (Federici, "Istoria de cavalieri Gaudenti", Codex Diplomaticus, I), and not improbably to St. Dominic, then a canon of St. Augustine. This connection with the founder of the Friars Preachers is first definitely propounded by Bl. Raymund of Capua, who became a Dominican about 1350. But the truth of this assertion is borne out by several other indications. As early as 1235, Gregory IX confided the Militia to the care of Bl. Jordan of Saxony, second master-general, by a Bull of 18 May (Federici, op. cit., 10); and in the same year he decreed for the knights a habit of black and white (op. cit., 14). Further, when the Militia was brought across the Alps and established in Italy it is found to be always connected with some Dominican church (op. cit., I, 13). Lastly, it was very largely influenced by a famous Dominican, Fra Bartolomeo of Braganza, or of Vicenza, as he is sometimes called (op. cit., I, 12, 42, etc.). Originally working side by side and independent of each other, owing to the fact that both received the same spiritual administration of the Friars Preachers, they appear to have been merged together at the close of the thirteenth century. This is what Raymond of Capua implies as the result of his researches. So too their ultimate coincidence is hinted at by Honorius III in 1221 when he designates the Militia "nomine poenitentiae" (Federici, Codex Diplomaticus), and a comparison also of the rules of the two institutions: that of Gregory IX for the Militia in 1235 (op. cit., 12-16) and that of Muñon de Zamora for the Order of Penance of St. Dominic in 1285 (op. cit., 28-36) would lead one to the same conclusion. The only considerable difference that could be cited against this identify is that Muñon de Zamora expressly forbids the carrying of arms. But this is in reality but a further proof of their approximation, for he allows for the one exception which could possibly apply to the Militia, viz. in defence of the Church (ibid., 32). This amalgamation is admitted by the Bollandists to have become general in the fourteenth century (Acta Sanctorum, Aug., I, 418-422). From this double movement therefore, i.e. from the Ordo de Poenitentia S. Dominici and the Militia Jesu Christi, was born the modern Third Order of St. Dominic. Though its source is therefore anterior to the First Order, its full perfection as an organized society, with a distinctive habit, a definite rule, and a declared ethos or spirit, is due to the genius of the children of St. Dominic. They took up the work of St. Francis, and, with their characteristic love of order and systematic arrangement, brought it into something compact and symmetrical. From them this idea of subjection to a First Order was taken up by the Franciscans and has been adopted by all subsequent Third Orders.

SpiritPrimarily the work of the Third Order and its definite spirit may be summed up by saying that it was established first to help in reform of church discipline. Its initial purpose was the preaching of penance; but under Dominican influences it rather leaned to the intellectual aspect of the Faith and based its message to the world on the exposition of the Creed; it was to reform church discipline by the more wide-spread knowledge of the mysteries of faith. Secondly, to defend the Church. Originally this was a military necessity, demanding physical force with which to restrain equally material opposition. Thirdly, to develop the communion of prayer. The medieval ideal of Christ's Mystical Body which has captivated all spiritual-minded people implies a harmony of prayer. To achieve this end the contemplative and monastic orders were begun; and the Third Order of St. Dominic endeavours to link pious souls to this great throng of religious (Proctor, "The Dominican Tertiary's Daily Manual", London, 1900, 15-20).

Reformation
Only for one period in its history was there any real fear of suppression. Many held that the condemnation passed on the Beguines and Beghards at the Council of Vienna in 1312 applied no less to the Orders of Penance. In consequence the master-general petitioned Pope John XXII in 1326 to settle definitely the difficulty. As a result he answered by a Bull of 1 June, 1326 (Cum de Mulieribus), which is a long eulogium on the work of the Dominican Third Order. After the plague of 1348, a great deal of laxity and disorganization crept into the Third Order, but a wonderful throng of saints soon caused its rejuvenation. The influence of St. Catherine of Siena gave a powerful impetus to the movement in Italy and her work was carried on by Bl. Clara Gambacorta (d. 1419) and Bl. Maria Mancini (d. 1431). This new spiritual vigour reached across the Alps to the sisterhoods of Germany, where the effect was almost abnormal (Heimbucher, "Die Orden und Kongregationen der katholischen Kirche", Paderborn, 1907, II, 169-177). But there has never been any reform in the sense of a separate organization with a change of rule or habit. As in the First Order, there has been a peculiar gift of unity which has enabled it to last undivided for seven hundred years.
Divisions

The Third Order as it exists today can be divided into two categories: regular, i.e. comprising Tertiaries, whether men or women, who live in community and wear the habit externally; and secular, i.e. whether married or single, cleric or lay, who live their lives like others of their profession, but who privately take up practices of austerity, recite some liturgical Office, and wear some symbol of the Dominican habit. The origin of the conventual women Tertiaries has never been very clearly worked out. It is usual to trace them back to Bl. Emily Bicchieri, about the year 1255 ("Manual of Third Order of St. Dominic", London, 1871, 9). But if the view taken above of the origin of the Third Order in the Ordo de Poenitentia be correct, we are forced to the conclusion that the communities of women established by St. Dominic at Prouille, S. Sisto, etc. were really of this Third Order. Their constitutions, approved first for S. Sisto, though previously observed at Prouille, expressly speak of the nuns as "de Poenitentia S. Mariae Magdalenae" ("Analecta Ord. Praed.", Rome, 1898, 628 sqq.). It would seem then that the Ordo de Poenitentia did not exclude convents of enclosed nuns from its ranks, and this was due probably to St. Dominic himself. Very much later came a conventual order of men, originated by the genius of Père Lacordaire. He considered that the democratic spirit of the Dominican Order fitted it especially for the task of training the youth. But he knew how impossible it was for his preaching associates to tie themselves down to schoolwork among boys; as a consequence, he began, in 1852, a Third Order of men, wearing the habit, living in community yet without the burdens of monastic life. The rule was approved provisionally in 1853 and definitely in 1868 (for the rule cf. "Acta Capituli Generalis Ord. Praed.", Rome, 1904, 106 sqq.). But by far the greatest portion of the Third Order consists of secular Tertiaries. These are of every rank of society, and represent the old Ordo de Poenitentia and the old Militia. In certain countries they are grouped into chapters, having a lay prior and sub-prior or prioress and sub-prioress, and hold monthly meetings. Since the Rule of Muñon de Zamora (1285), they have always been subject to a Dominican priest appointed by the Dominican provincial. For the actual reception of the habit, the master-general can give faculties to any priest. The full habit is the same as that of the members of the First and Second Orders, but without the scapular (granted, however, to communities since 1667). Though the habit is not worn during life many procure it so that they may be buried in the recognized dress of St. Dominic's children.
Extent

It is practically impossible to obtain, even in a vague way, the number of the secular Dominican Tertiaries. No general register is kept, and the records of each priory would have to be searched. From the time of St. Louis — who wished to join the Dominican and Franciscan Orders (Acta Sanctorum, August, V, 545), and is represented in old illuminations, sometimes in the habit of one, sometimes in the habit of the other (Chapotin, "Histoire de dominicains de la provincede France", Rouen, 1898, p. 497), but probably never joined either—to our own time, it can be stated only that with the rise and fall of the First Order's greatness rose and fell the number of the Tertiaries. In England during the thirteenth century very many are said to have become Tertiaries. But of this nothing for certain can be specified. At the time of St. Catharine of Siena and the Mantellate (women secular Tertiaries) made difficulties about receiving her to the habit as they included at the date only widows (Gardner, "St. Catherine of Siena", London, 1907, II), and there were no men at all in the Third Order in Italy at that date (Acta Sanctorum, April, III, 1881). Under Bl. Raymund of Capua, her confessor and, after her death, twenty-third master general, attempts were made to re-establish the order and no doubt much was done (Mortier, "Maîtres généraux", III, 605-606). But by the time of St. Antoninus (d. 1450) the numbers had again dwindled down to insignificance ("Summa Moralis", Verona, 1750, III, 23, 5, 5, pp. 1291-2). Just previous to the Reformation there are a few isolated notices; thus Bl. Adrian Fortescue, the martyr, notes in his diary: "Given to the Black Friars of Oxford to be in their fraternity 12d" ("Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII", London, 1883, Rolls Series, VII, 101). But these give us no ground at all for any surmise as to statistics. In America the first canonized saint (St. Rose of Lima, d. 1617) and the first beatified negro (Bl. Martin Porres, d. 1639) were both Dominican Tertiaries, and later in France were men like M. Olier and Bl. Grignon de Montfort.

Then came the influence of Lacordaire, from whose time there dates a new enthusiasm in the Third Order ("Année Dominicaine", Paris, 1910, 149-65). Of the regular Tertiaries it is easier to speak more definitely. The numbers of all the sixteen approved congregations existing in 1902 are given, and they amount to some 7000 nuns ("Analecta Ord. Praed.", Rome, 1902, 389). To these must be added another 7000 of congregations not yet definitively authorized by Rome. But every year fresh convents are opened and the numbers continually increase. In England they began under Mother Margaret Hallahan (d. 1868) in 1842, and now in all the separate groupings there are 22 convents with some 500 sisters; in the United States their success has been remarkable. Founded in 1846 by Mother Amalie Barth (d. 1895), the congregation in 1902 included 34 convents and over 2000 nuns. In 1876 they passed into California, where they are rapidly increasing. In Ireland they have many establishments, especially for educational purposes, for their work is as varied as the needs of humanity require. Some are enclosed, others teach, visit the sick, nurse the lepers, look after old people, take care of penitent girls, work among the poor in the slums, etc. As for the congregation of teaching men, they have been greatly disorganized since their expulsion from France. At present they comprise but a half-dozen colleges in Fribourg, San Sebastian, and South America, and do not amount to more than 100 members in all. Finally, a citation from Faber's "Blessed Sacrament" (2nd ed., p. 565) may be made: "Those who are conversant with, indeed who find the strength and consolation of their lives in, the Acts of the Saints well know that there is not a nook in the mystical Paradise of our heavenly spouse where the flowers grow thicker or smell more fragrantly than this order of multitudinous child-like saints. Nowhere in the Church does the Incarnate Word show His delight at being with the children of men in more touching simplicity, with more unearthly sweetness, or more spouse-like familiarity than in this, the youngest family of S. Dominic."
Third Order Regular of St. Dominic, in the United States
Congregations of women

A. Sisters of St. Dominic

(1) Congregation of St. Catherine of Siena, with mother-house at St. Catherine of Siena Convent, Springfield, Kentucky. Founded in 1822 by Rev. Thomas Wilson, O.P. Sisters, 300; novices, 30; postulants, 7; academies, 6; schools, 13; pupils, 5000. By this congregation were founded: (a) Congregation of Dominican Tertiaries of the Blessed Virgin, with mother-house at St. Mary's of the Springs, Sheppard, Ohio, in 1830. Sisters, 195; novices, 28; academies, 3; schools, 12; pupils, 4493. From this congregation were founded (i) Congregation with mother-house at Sacred Heart Convent, Galveston, Texas. Sisters and novices, 81; postulants, 3; schools, 6; pupils, 1130. (b) Congregation with mother-house at the Convent of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, West Springfield, Illinois, in 1873. Sisters, 120; schools, 19; pupils, 4000, academy, 1.

(2) Congregation with mother-house at St. Cecilia's Convent, Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1860 by sisters from St. Mary's, Somerset, Ohio. Sisters, 98; novices, 15; academy, 1; orphan asylum, 1; institute for young ladies, 1; schools, 6; pupils, 1042.

(3) Congregation of the Most Holy Name of Jesus, with mother-house at San Rafael, California. Founded in 1850 by Most Rev. Joseph Alemany, O.P., Archbishop of San Francisco, at Benicia, California. Sisters, 135; academies, 3; schools, 6.

(4) Congregation of the Holy Rosary, with mother-house at St. Clara's Convent, Sinsinawa, Wisconsin. Founded in 1847 by Rev. Samuel Ch. Mazzuchelli, O.P. Sisters, 650; college, 1; academies, 9; schools, 46; pupils, 14,800.

(5) Congregation of the Holy Cross, with mother-house at Holy Cross Convent, Brooklyn, New York. Founded in 1853 by 4 sisters from Holy Cross Convent, Ratisbon, Bavaria. Sisters, 518; novices, 25; postulants, 17; training school, 1; academies, 3; schools, 33; hospitals, 2; sanatorium, 1; infirmary, 1; orphan asylums, 6. From this congregation were founded: (a) Congregation of the Most Holy Rosary with mother-house at Mission San José, California, in 1876. Sisters, 193; novices, 20; postulants, 16; academy, 1; orphan asylum, 1; schools, 9; pupils, 2926. (b) Congregation of the Immaculate Conception, with mother-house at Great Bend, Kansas, in 1902. Sisters, 17; novice, 1; postulant, 1; hospital, 1; school, 1; pupils, 194.

(6) Congregation with mother-house at Holy Rosary Convent, Second Street, New York City. Founded in 1859 by sisters from Holy Cross Convent, Ratisbon, Bavaria. Sisters, 600; academies, 8; hospitals, 2; schools, 60; pupils, 25,000. From this congregation were founded (a) Congregation with mother-house at Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1877. Sisters, 187; novices, 50; postulants, 15; high school, 1; academies, 2; orphan asylum, 1; schools 32; pupils, 5000. (b) Congregation with mother-house at St. Dominic's Convent, Blauvelt, New York. Sisters, 139; novices, 11; postulants, 3; schools, 8; asylum, 1. (c) Congregation with mother-house at St. Dominic's Academy, Jersey City, New Jersey, in 1882. Sisters, 215; academies, 3; schools, 21; pupils, 4427. From this congregation was founded: (i) Congregation with mother-house at St. Thomas Aquinas Convent, Tacoma, Washington, in 1888. Sisters, 52; schools, 3; pupils, 300.

(7) Congregations with mother-house at St. Joseph's Convent, Adrian, Michigan. Sisters, 180; novices, 28; academies, 3; schools, 29.

(8) Congregations with mother-house at St. Catherine of Siena's Convent, Racine, Wisconsin. Founded in 1862 by Mother Benedicta Bauer and Sister Thomasina Gincker from Holy Cross Convent, Ratisbon, Bavaria. Sisters, 286; postulants, 24; academies, 2; home for ladies, 1; schools, 38; pupils, 6307.

(9) Congregation with mother-house at St. Mary's Convent, New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded in 1860 by sisters from Cabra, Dublin, Ireland. Sisters, 57; academies, 2; schools, 2; pupils, 565.

(10) Congregation with mother-house at Reno, Nevada; founded by sisters from New Orleans, Louisiana. Sisters, 4.

(11) Congregation with mother-house at St. Catherine of Siena Convent, Fall River, Massachusetts. Founded in 1891 by sisters from Carrollton, Missouri. Sisters, 52.

B. Dominican Sisters of the Third Order of St. Dominic

Congregation with mother-house at the Convent of Our Lady of the Rosary, 63rd Street, New York City. Founded in 1867 by Father Rochford, O.P. Sisters, 160; novices, 10; postulants, 5; academy, 1; orphan asylums, 2; schools, 11; pupils, 4000.

C. Third Order Secular of St. Dominic

Introduced into the United States by the early Dominican missionaries. There are at present congregations of Dominican Tertiaries in almost all the churches in charge of Dominican Fathers, numbering from 100-600 members, and many hundred tertiaries throughout the country not belonging to any congregation.
Third Order of St. Francis (regular and secular; male and female)

A branch of the great Franciscan family. We deal here: A. with the secular Third Order; B. with the regular.
Origin, development, and present state of the secular Third Order

It has been believed for some time that the Third Order of St. Francis was the oldest of all Third Orders, but historical evidence is against such an opinion. For, besides similar institutions in some monastic orders in the twelfth century, we find, before the foundation of St. Francis, a Third Order, properly so called, among the Humiliati, confirmed together with its rule by Innocent III in 1201 (see text in Tiraboschi, "Vetera Humiliatorum monumenta", II, Milan, 1767, 128). But if the Third Order of St. Francis was not the first of its kind, it was, and still is, undoubtedly the best known and most widely distributed and has the greatest influence. About its origin there are two opposite opinions. According to Karl Müller, Mandonnet, and others, the Secular Third Order is a survival of the original ideal of St. Francis, viz. a lay-confraternity of penitents, from which, through the influence of the Church, the First and Second Orders of the Friars Minor and the Poor Clares have been detached. According to others, St. Francis merely lent his name to pre-existing penitential lay-confraternities, without having any special connection with or influence on them. The two opinions are equally at variance with the best texts we have on the subject, such as Thomas of Celano, "Vita prima", I, 15; Julian of Spires, "Office of St. Francis: Third Antiphon at Lauds"; Gregory IX, Bull of 7 June, 1230 (Bull. Franc., I, 65); St. Bonaventure, "Leg. Maior", IV, 6; Bernard of Besse, in "Anal. Franc.", III, 686. According to these sources, St. Francis really founded a Third Order and gave it a Rule. If we complete these notices with some early papal Bulls bearing on the penitential movement and with the account given by Mariano of Florence (end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth century) we can state what follows:

The preaching of St. Francis, as well as his own living example and that of his first disciples, exercised such a powerful attraction on the people that many married men and women wanted to join the First or the Second Order. This being incompatible with their state of life, St. Francis found a middle way: he gave them a rule animated by the Franciscan spirit. In the composition of this rule St. Francis was assisted by his friend Cardinal Ugolino, later Gregory IX. As to the place where the Third Order was first introduced nothing certain is known. Of late however the preponderance of opinion is for Florence, chiefly on the authority of Mariano of Florence, or Faenza, for which the first papal Bull (Potthast, "Regesta Pontificum", 6736) known on the subject is given, whilst the "Fioretti" (ch. xvi), though not regarded as an historical authority, assigns Cannara, a small town two hours' walk from Portiuncula, as the birthplace of the Third Order. Mariano and the Bull for Faenza (16 Dec., 1221) point to 1221 as the earliest date of the institution of the Third Order, and in fact, besides these and other sources, the oldest preserved rule bears this date at its head. This rule was published by P. Sabatier and H. Boehmer (see bibliography), and contained originally twelve chapters, to which at the time of Gregory IX (1227) a thirteenth was added. It prescribes simplicity in dress (1), considerable fasting and abstinence (2-3), the canonical office or other prayers instead (4-5), confession and communion thrice a year, and forbids carrying arms or taking solemn oaths without necessity (6); every month the brothers and sisters have to assemble in a church designated by the ministers, and a religious has to give them an instruction (7); they also exercise the works of charity with their brothers (8); whenever a member dies the whole confraternity has to be present at the funeral and to pray for the departed (9); everyone has to make his last will three months after his reception; dissensions among brothers and sisters or other persons are to be settled peaceably; if any troubles arise with local authorities the ministers ought to act with the counsel of the bishop (10). No heretic or anyone suspected of heresy can be received, and women only with the consent of their husbands (11); the ministers have to denounce shortcomings to the visitor, who will punish the culprits; every year two new ministers and a treasurer are to be elected; no point of the rule obliges under pain of sin (12). On account of the prohibition of arms and unnecessary oaths, the followers of this rule came into conflict with local authorities, a fact of which we have evidence in many papal Bulls all through the thirteenth century, issued to safeguard the privileges of the Tertiaries (see list of these Bulls in Mandonnet, "Les Règles", 146-47).

Wadding ("Annales Min." ad a. 1321, n. 13) gives another longer redaction of the rule, which is almost identical with the one solemnly confirmed by Nicholas IV through the Bull "Supra montem", 17 Aug., 1289. This last form has for long been considered as the work of St. Francis, whilst Karl Müller denied any connection of St. Francis with it. If we compare the rule published and approved by Nicholas IV with the oldest text of 1221, we see that they substantially agree, slight modifications and different dispositions of chapters (here 20 in number) excepted. Through a most interesting text published by Golubovich (Arch. Franc. Hist., II, 1909, 20) we know now that this Rule of Nicholas IV was approved on the petition of some Italian Tertiaries. Another recent publication by Guerrini (Arch. Franc. Hist., I, 1908, 544 sq.) proves that there existed in the thirteenth century Third Order Confraternities with quite different rules. On the whole, it can safely be affirmed that until Nicholas IV there was no Rule of the Third Order generally observed, but besides the one quoted above, and probably the most widely spread, there were others of more local character. The same might be said as to the government of the confraternities. Besides their own officials, they had to have a visitor, who seems to have been usually appointed by the bishop. In 1247 Innocent IV ordered that the Friars Minor were to assume the direction of the Tertiaries in Italy and Sicily (Bull Franc., I, 464), but about twenty years later when St. Bonaventure wrote his question: "Why do not the Friars Minor promote the Order of 'Penitents'?" (Op. om., VIII, 368) the contrary had practically prevailed. Nicholas IV introduced unity of rule and of direction into the Third Order, which henceforward was entrusted to the care of the Friars Minor.

If we except a few points, bearing especially on fasts and abstinence, mitigated by Clement VII in 1526 and Paul III in 1547, the Rule as given by Nicholas IV remained in vigour till 1883, when Leo XIII, himself a tertiary, through the Apostolic Constitution "Misericors Dei Filius", modified the text, adapting it more to the modern state and needs of the society. All substantial points, however, remained; only the daily vocal prayers were reduced, as also the fasts and abstinences, whilst the former statute of confession and communion thrice a year was changed into monthly communion. Other points of the modified Rule of Leo XIII are of great social and religious importance, such as the prohibition of pomp in dressing, of frequenting theatres of doubtful character, and keeping and reading papers and books at variance with faith and morals. The direction is entrusted to the three branches of the First Order: Friars Minor, Conventuals, Capuchins, and to the Regular Third Order. By delegation, confraternities can be established and directed by any parish priest. Those who for serious reasons cannot join a confraternity may be received as single tertiaries. Finally, great spiritual privileges are granted to all members of the Third Order.

The beneficent influence of the secular Third Order of St. Francis cannot be highly enough appreciated. Through the prohibition against carrying arms a deadly blow was given to the feudal system and to the ever-fighting factions of Italian municipalities; through the admission of poor and rich, nobles and common people, the social classes were brought nearer each other. How far the religious ideal of St. Francis was carried out by the secular Third Order we may judge from the great number (about 75) of saints and blessed of every condition it produced. It may suffice to mention: St. Elizabeth of Hungary; St. Louis, King of France; St. Ferdinand, King of Castile; St. Elizabeth of Portugal; St. Rosa of Viterbo; St. Margaret of Cortona; Bl. Umiliana Cerchi; Bl. Angela of Foligno; Bl. Raymond Lullus; Bl. Luchesius of Poggibonsi, who passes as the first tertiary received by St. Francis; St. Ivo; and in our times, Bl. Jean-Baptiste Vianney, the curé of Ars; of names celebrated in history for literature, arts, politics, inventions, etc., Dante, Giotto, Petrarch, Cola di Rienzo, Columbus, Vasco da Gama, Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Thomas More, Galvani, Volta, García Moreno, Liszt, and, finally, Lady Georgiana Fullerton. Popes Pius IX and Leo XIII were members of the Third Order, as also is Pope Pius X. Since the adaptation of the rugby Leo XIII the Third Order has grown more active than ever. At present the total number of members is esteemed about two and a half millions, spread all over the world. National and local congresses have been held in different countries: seven in the period from 1894 to 1908 in France, others in Belgium, some in Italy, the first general congress in Assisi (1895), many local ones from 1909 to 1911; others have been held in Spain, the last one at Santiago in 1909; in Argentina the last one at Buenos Aires in 1906; in India, Canada, and in Germany and Austria, in the last two instances in connection with general congresses of Catholics. There exist almost in all civilized languages numerous monthly periodicals which, whilst keeping up the union amongst the different confraternities, serve also for the instruction and edification of its members. The "Acta Ordinis Frat. Min.", XXVI, Quaracchi, 1907, 255-58, gives the names of 122 such periodicals. French periodicals are indicated by P. B. Ginnet, O.F.M., "Le Tiers Ordre et le Prêtre", Vanves, 1911, p. 51 sq.; German periodicals by Moll, O.M. Cap., "Wegweiser in die Literatur des Dritten Ordens", Ratisbon, 1911. In Italy even a regular newspaper was founded, "Rinascita Francescana", Bologna, 1910; another in Germany, "Allgemeine deutsche Tertiaren-Zeitung", Wiesbaden, 1911.—We may mention also the special organs for directors of the Third Order, e.g. "Der Ordensdirektor", published at Innsbruck by the Tyrolese Franciscans, "Revue sacerdotale du Tiers-Ordre de Saint François", published by French Capuchins. Both reviews appear once every two months.
Third Order Regular (male and female)

(1) Its origin and general development till Leo X

The origin of the Regular Third Order, both male and female, can be traced back to the second half of the thirteenth century, but no precise date can be indicated. It was organized, in different forms, in the Netherlands, in the south of France, in Germany, and in Italy. Probably some secular tertiaries, who in many cases had their house of meeting, gradually withdrew entirely from the world and so formed religious communities, but without the three substantial vows of religious orders. Other religious associations such as the Beguines (women) and Beghards (men) in the Netherlands, sometimes passed over to the Third Order, as has been clearly shown from recent study. Towards the end of the thirteenth and the beginning of the fourteenth century some suspicion of heretical opinions fell on some of these free religious unions of the Third Order (bizocchi), as we can infer from the Bull of John XXII "Sancta Romana", Dec., 1317 (Bull. Franc., V, 134). More than a century later St. John of Capistran (1456) had to defend the Tertiaries in a special treatise: "Defensorium tertii ordinis d. Francisci", printed with other minor works of the saint at Venice in 1580. Throughout the fourteenth century the regular tertiaries of both sexes had in the most cases no common organization; only in the following century we can observe single well-ordered religious communities with solemn vows and a common head. Martin V submitted in 1428 all tertiaries, regular and secular, to the direction of the Minister-General of the Friars Minor (Bull. Franc., VII, 715), but this disposition was soon revoked by his successor Eugene IV. We meet thus in the same fifteenth century with numerous independent male congregations of regular tertiaries with the three vows in Italy, Sicily, Dalmatia, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, and in the Netherlands. Contemporaneously there existed sister congregations of the Third Order with solemn vows, for instance, the Grey sisters of the Third Order, serving in hospitals, spread in France and the Netherlands, whose remarkable statutes of 1483 have recently been published by H. Lemartre in "Arch. Franc. Hist." IV, 1911, 713-31, and the congregation still existing founded at Foligno in 1397 by Blessed Angelina of Marsciano (1435). Leo X, in order to introduce uniformity into the numerous congregations, gave in 1521 a new form to the rule, now in ten chapters, retaining of the rule as published by Nicholas IV all that could serve the purpose, adding new points, especially the three solemn vows, and insisting on subjection to the First Order of St. Francis. For this last disposition the Rule of Leo X met with resistance, and never was accepted by some congregations, whilst it serves till the present day as the basis of the constitutions of many later congregations, especially of numerous communities of sisters.

(2) Single congregations after Leo X, of women

The two Italian congregations, the Lombardic and Sicilian, which had constituted themselves in the course of the fifteenth century, were united by Paul III, and since Sixtus V enjoyed entire independence from the First Order. It had then already 11 provinces. In the seventeenth century the congregations of Dalmatia and the Netherlands (of Zeppern) were united with the Italian family. In 1734 Clement XIII confirmed their statutes. Whilst the French Revolution swept away all similar congregations, the Italian survived with four provinces, of which one was in Dalmatia. In 1906 a small congregation of Tertiary lay brothers in the Balearic Islands and a little later two convents with colleges in the United States joined the same congregation, which in 1908 numbered about 360 members. The dress is that of the Conventuals, from whom they can hardly be distinguished. The residence of the minister-general is at Rome, near the Church of Sts. Cosmas and Damian. After the time of Leo X the Spanish congregation often had troubles on the question of its submission to the First Order. After Pius V (1568) had put the whole Third Order again under the care of the Minister-General of the Friars Minor, the superiors of the three provinces constituted in Spain could, after 1625, partake at the General Chapters of the Friars Minor and since 1670 they have had even a definitor-general to represent them. The French congregation, named from their house at Paris "of Picpus", was reformed by V. Mussart (d. 1637), and maintained close ties with the First Order till its extinction in the French Revolution. A well-known member of this congregation is Hyppolit Hélyot, the author of an important history of the religious orders. In 1768 it had four provinces with 61 convents and 494 religious. Other congregations of Tertiaries existed after the fifteenth century in Germany, Bohemia, Hungary, Ireland, and England. They perished either at the time of the Reformation or in the French Revolution. We may mention also the Obregonians, the "Bons-Fils" in northern France founded in 1615, and the "Penitents gris" at Paris after the sixteenth century, all now extinct. In the nineteenth century some new congregations arose, e.g. the Poor Brothers of St. Francis, the Brothers of St. Francis at Waldbreitbach (Rhine) after 1860, the "Frati bigi", founded in 1884 at Naples by Ludovic of Casoria, O.F.M. The most of these modern tertiary communities consist only of lay brothers and depend on their diocesan bishop.

(3) Congregation of Sisters

Whilst Leo X in the reform of the rule had left it free to the congregations to adopt papal enclosure or not, Pius V (1568) prescribed it to all convents of tertiary sisters with solemn vows. Still this order was not carried out everywhere. In this regard the custom prevailed that the Friars Minor refused to take the direction of those convents which had only episcopal enclosure. Besides those already mentioned above, we may add the different offshoots of the Sisters of St. Elizabeth in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, and France (there, under the name of Soeurs du Refuge, some of them still exist). The first Ursulines, also, founded by St. Angela Merici (1540), belonged to the Third Order.

In the nineteenth century many of the new congregations adopted the Rule of the Third Order, but most of them have no further connection with the First Order. Many of them have widely varying names; a good many are of mere local character, others again are of international importance. As to their activities, almost all dedicate themselves to works of charity, either in hospitals, homes, or ateliers; others work in schools, not a few are in foreign missions. We can give here scarcely more than a list of the names, with the dates of the foundation. In Germany there are the Poor Sisters of St. Francis, founded 1845 (1851) by M. Schervier at Aachen, with some houses in America; the Franciscan Sisters of the Holy Family, founded in 1857 at Eupen, Diocese of Cologne; the Franciscan Sisters, at Münster, Westphalia, founded in 1850; the Poor Franciscan Sisters of the Perpetual Adoration, at Olpe, Diocese of Paderborn (1857); the Poor Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, at Salzkotten, near Paderborn (1863); the Sisters of Mercy of the Third Order, at Thuine, Diocese of Osnabrück (1869); the Sisters of Mercy of St. Francis, at Waldbreitbach, Diocese of Trier (1863); the Franciscan Sisters at Nonnenwerth, an island on the Rhine, founded in 1872 at Heythuizen in Holland; Franciscan Sisters of Maria-Stern, at Augsburg, whose first foundation can be followed back to the thirteenth century; Franciscan Sisters at Dillingen, Diocese of Augsburg, founded in the fourteenth century; the Poor Franciscan Sisters, at Mallersdorf, Diocese of Ratisbon (1855); the Congregation of Ursperg (1897); the Franciscan Sisters of Kaufbeuren, Diocese of Augsburg, founded in the fifteenth century, to which had belonged Blessed Crescentia Hess (1744). In the Diocese of Rottenburg, in Wurtemberg, we note the communities of Bonlanden near Erolzheim (1855); of Heiligenbronn (1857); of the Sisters of Christian Charity, at Reute, founded 1849 at the same place where in the fifteenth century Blessed Elizabeth of Reute, called also the "good Beta" (d. 1420), had professed the Third Order; the Franciscan Sisters of Sussen (1853). In Baden is noteworthy the Congregation of Gengenbach (1867), since 1876 also in the United States Joliet, Illinois. At Mainz there is the Convent of Perpetual Adoration (1860).

In Austria-Hungary the School Sisters of the Third Order (1723), with mother-houses at Hallein, Diocese of Salzburg, at Vienna (III), and at Judenau, Diocese of St. Polten; the Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis at Vienna (V), (1857); the Poor School Sisters at Voklabruck, Diocese of Linz (1850); the Sisters of Mercy of the Third Order of St. Francis at Troppau, Diocese of Olmütz (1853); Congregation of School Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis, at Mahrisch-Trubau, Diocese of Olmütz (1851); the School Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis at Marburg on the Drau, Diocese of Lavant (1864); the Grey Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis, at Prague (I), 1856; and three small communities in Tyrol. In Luxemburg there is the Congregation of Pfaffental; the Sisters of Mercy of St. Francis with the mother-house in the town of Luxemburg, and communities in Sweden and the Carolines. In Holland there are the Congregations of Rosendaal, of Breda, of Heythuizen, all of which have communities in foreign missions; lastly the Congregation of Heerlen. In Belgium there exist, besides the old congregation of the Grey Sisters of Hospitals (see above) at Antwerp, Léau, Tirlemont, Hasselt, and Tongres, the more recent communities of Ghent (founded 1701), of Hérines, Diocese of Malines, of Macon-lez-Chimay, of Opwyk, Diocese of Malines (1845). In Switzerland there once existed many congregations of the Third Order, and even now there are several convents of strict enclosure. Of the active congregations the most noteworthy are the two founded by the Capuchin Theodosius Florentini, viz. the Sisters of the Holy Cross for schools, with mother-house at Menzingen (1844), with numerous convents outside Switzerland, and the Sisters of the Holy Cross for hospital work (1852), with mother-house at Ingenbohl.

In France, before the last suppression of convents, there were about fifty communities of the Third Order; the most important was that of the Missionaries of Mary, founded by Mother de Chapotin de Neuville (d.1904) in India, with actual mother-house at Rome, with communities spread all over the world. In Italy there are the Stigmatins, founded near Florence by Mother Lapini (d. 1860); the Sisters of Egypt, for missionary work, with mother-house at Rome; the Sisters of Gemona; finally, the Sisters of the Child Jesus, with mother-house at Assisi. On the whole, the sisters professing the Rule of the Third Order amount at least to 50,000.

The Regular Third Order produced one saint, Hyacintha of Mariscotti, and five Blessed: Lucia of Callagirone, Elizabeth of Reute, Angelina of Marsciomo, Jeremias Lambertenghi and Crescentia Hoss of Kaufbeuren.
Third Order of St. Francis, in Canada

The Third Order of St. Francis was established by the Friars Minor Recollects at Quebec in 1671, and some years later at Three Rivers and Montreal. Considering the population of the country, it was in a flourishing condition. In 1681 a Recollect notes that "many pious people of Quebec belong to the Third Order". After the cession of Canada to England the Third Order, deprived of its directors, the Recollects, seemed to have disappeared gradually, only to flourish anew thirty years after the death at Montreal, 1813, of the last Recollect priest. The Third Order was re-established about 1840 by Mgr Ignatius Bourget, Bishop of Montreal. Fervent fellow-labourers helped the holy prelate to spread the Third Order in Montreal, notably Canon J.A. Paré and the Sulpicians C. E. Gilbert and A. Giband. Mgr Bourget established a fraternity of women, 6 May, 1863, and one of men, 13 June, 1866; both were directed by the Sulpicians till 1874, by Canon P. E. Dufresne from 1874 till 1881, by the Jesuits from 1881 till 1888, and by the Sulpicians from 1888 till 1890; since then by the Friars Minor. Mgr Fabre, successor to Bishop Bourget, in a letter (3 Sept., 1882) to the priests and faithful of his diocese, says: "We have in our midst the tertiaries of St. Francis, who are known to you all by the edification they give, and by the good odour of all the virtues which they practise in the world." The Third Order was reintroduced at Quebec almost at the same time as at Montreal. On 19 Nov., 1859, Father Flavian Durocher, O.M.I., received the profession of two women, after a year's novitiate. These were joined by others, until in 1876 Quebec possessed over 2000 tertiaries, while in the Province of Quebec several parishes had groups of tertiaries. Among priests zealous for the spread of the Third Order at this epoch we must name, besides the above-mentioned Montreal priests: Father Durocher, St. Sauveur, Quebec; L. N. Begin, now Archbishop of Quebec; James Sexton, Quebec; Oliver Caron, Vicar-General of Three Rivers; E. H. Guilbert, L. Provancher, and G. Fraser, all three of the Quebec diocese. Father Provancher was one of the most zealous. In 1866, having received faculties from the General of the Friars Minor, he established a very fervent fraternity in his parish of Portneuf. He propagated the Third Order by his writings. For two years he edited a review, in which he published nearly every month an article on the Third Order, or answered questions appertaining thereto. At that epoch (1876) the brothers' fraternity at Montreal counted 137 members; the sisters, a still greater number. At Three Rivers the tertiaries were less numerous—enough, however, to form a fraternity a little later. Quebec with its 200 tertiaries did not have a fraternity till 1882.

In 1881 the arrival in Canada of Father Frederic of Ghyvelde gave new spirit to the Third Order. He spent eight months in Canada, and worked actively for the Third Order. He began at Quebec, where he held the Holy Visit prescribed by the rule and admitted 100 new members. At Three Rivers he found "a numerous and fervent fraternity". His visit to the fraternities of Montreal was followed by a notable increase in membership. Shortly afterwards Leo XIII published his Encyclicals on the Third Order. The Canadian bishops, in obedience to the pope's wishes, recommended the Third Order to their clergy and faithful. But the Friars of the First Order alone could give the Third a fitting development; hence, when Father Frederic returned in 1888, several bishops, among them Bishop Laflèche of Three Rivers and Archbishop Taschereau, welcomed him as its promoter. The foundation of a convent of Friars Minor at Montreal in 1890 inaugurated a new era of prosperity for the Third Order. The Franciscans took over the direction of the Third Order at Montreal. The fraternities of other districts were visited regularly, and new ones were formed. The Third Order has since spread rapidly. Today the Third Order in Canada numbers nearly 200 fraternities with over 50,000 members, under the jurisdiction of the Friars Minor. The Capuchins have a small number of fraternities. The Friars Minor have also the direction of 20 fraternities with 5000 members in the Franco-Canadian centres of the United States. All these large numbers of isolated tertiaries give a total of nearly 60,000. These tertiaries are mostly French Canadians. There are very few fraternities for English-speaking tertiaries; of these there are two very flourishing ones at Montreal. It is in the Province of Quebec that the Third Order is most flourishing. Three monthly reviews, treating specially of the Third Order, are published in Canada: (1) "La Revue du Tiers Ordre", founded in 1884 by the tertiaries of Montreal, and directed since 1891 by the Friars Minor of that city; (2) "The Franciscan Review and St. Anthony's Record", founded in 1905 by the Friars Minor of Montreal; (3) "L'Echo de St. François", published since 1911 by the Capuchins of Ottawa. The principal social works of the Third Order in Canada are: three houses of the Third Order in Montreal and one in Quebec, directed by lady tertiaries; a lodging-house and an industrial school at Montreal, directed also by lady tertiaries; several work-rooms for the benefit of the poor; and public libraries, one in Quebec and two in Montreal.

The Third Order Regular is represented in Canada by three flourishing institutions: A. Little Franciscan Sisters of Mary, founded at Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1889 and transferred to Baie-St-Paul, Canada, in 1891; their constitutions were approved in 1903. They follow the Rule of the Third Order Regular. Their habit comprises a brown tunic and scapular, a white hood and wimple, and a white woollen cord; they wear a silver crucifix. Work.—Assistance of the sick, the poor, the aged, of orphans and instruction of the young—in a word, all the works of mercy. Development.—This congregation possesses 8 houses, nearly all in the United States. The mother house is at Baie-St-Paul, Province of Quebec, Canada. The institution numbers 150 professed sisters, 7 novices, 30 postulants, and 8 associates.

B. Franciscan missionaries of Mary, founded in India, and following the Rule of the Third Order Regular. They have six houses in Canada: (1) Quebec, founded 1892; novitiate, perpetual adoration, printing, embroidery, workshop, house of probation for aspirants, patronage, visiting the sick. (2) St. Anne of Beaupré (1894); patronage, workshop, hospitality for pilgrims, visiting the sick. (3) St. Lawrence, Manitoba (1897); boarding-school, parochial schools, dispensary, visiting the sick. (4) Pine Creek, Manitoba (1899); school, model farm, dispensary, visiting the sick. (5) St. Malo, Quebec (1902); day nursery, primary schools, school of domestic economy, dispensary, pharmacy, visiting the sick. (6) Winnipeg (1909); day nursery, embroidery, patronage, visiting the poor and the hospitals. These houses possess 150 sisters, novices included. Since its establishment in Canada, the congregation has had 290 Canadian members, many of whom are now engaged in mission work in China, Japan, India, Ceylon, Congo, Zululand, Natal, Mozambique, Madagascar, and South America. The mother-house of Quebec has founded six others in the United States: Woonsocket in 1904; New York and New Bedford in 1906; Boston in 1907; Providence in 1909; Fall River in 1910.

C. Religious of St. Francis of Assisi, founded at Lyons, France, in 1838. Their object is the care of the sick and of orphans and the education of the young. They were introduced into Canada in 1904, and have at present 5 houses, comprising a hospital, a boarding-school for girls, and model and elementary schools.
Third Order of St. Francis in Great Britain and Ireland
In Great Britain

The Third Order Secular comprises ninety-six congregations of which forty are under the jurisdiction of the Friars Minor of the Leonine Union and fifty-four under that of the Friars Minor Capuchin, and about 12,000 members, amongst whom are several diocesan bishops, a number of the clergy, and laity of all ranks. In their organization the British tertiary congregations follow the common rule, but many of them add some corporal works of mercy, reclaiming negligent Catholics, and so forth. All the tertiaries are governed by a commissary-provincial appointed by the minister-provincial of the first order. His duty is to grant the necessary faculties to directors of congregations, to hold visitations, and generally supervise the affairs of the Third Order under his jurisdiction. A national conference of British tertiaries with a view to strengthening and consolidating the order, was held in 1898 at Liverpool in the hall attached to the Jesuit church, and was presided over by the bishop of the diocese. The opening address was delivered by the Archbishop of Paris. A second national conference was held at Leeds. Since the institution of the English national Catholic congress, in 1910, the tertiaries have taken part in these and have had their sectional meeting in the congress.

Of the Third Order in Great Britain in pre-Reformation days little is known. It is, however, certain that there existed in Scotland several houses of Sisters of the Third Order Regular. Blessed Thomas More is frequently spoken of as a tertiary of St. Francis, but there seems to be no historical evidence to support this statement. The Third Order, however, was known in England in the penal days. Fr. William Staney, the first commissary of the order in England after the Dissolution, wrote "A Treatise of the Third Order of St. Francis" (Douai, 1617). An interesting fact in connection with the Third Order in England is the appointment in 1857, as commissary-general, of Dr. (afterwards Cardinal) Manning, by a letter patent, dated 10 April, 1857, given by the minister-general of the Capuchin Friars Minor, empowering him to act as "Superior, visitor and Our Commissary of each and all the brothers and sisters of the Third Order Secular dwelling in England". Amongst notable English tertiaries of modern times, besides Cardinal Manning, may be mentioned Cardinal Vaughan, Lady Herbert of Lea, the late Earl of Denbigh, and the poet Coventry Patmore. The Third Order Regular is represented in England by nineteen convents of sisters and in Scotland by six convents. There are no communities of brothers. These convents belong to various congregations, most of which are of English institution. They devote themselves either to education or to parochial works of mercy or to the foreign missions. Most notable historically amongst these congregations are the convents at Taunton and Woodchester, which represent the English convent of the Third Order established at Brussels, Belgium, in 1621. Their founder was Father Gennings, the brother of the martyr Edmund Gennings. This was, in fact, the first convent of the Third Order Regular, enclosed, founded for English women. The community later on migrated to Bruges where it remained until 1794, when, owing to the troubles caused by the French Revolution, it crossed over into England and, after eleven years' residence at Winchester, settled finally at Taunton in Somerset. The congregation was under the jurisdiction of the Friars Minor until 1837 when, owing to the dissolution of the Recollect province, it came under the jurisdiction of the diocesan bishop. In 1860 a second foundation was made at Woodchester.
In Ireland

The congregations of the Third Order Secular in Ireland are almost exclusively attached to churches of the First Order. Under the jurisdiction of the Friars Minor of the Leonine Union are fourteen congregations with 9741 members, and subject to the Capuchin Friars Minor are four congregations with 5100 members. The Third Order Regular comprises two houses of brothers at Clara and Farragher, and eleven in the Archdiocese of Tuam, all devoted to educational work. At Drumshambo the sisters of the order have a convent where perpetual adoration is maintained day and night. There is also one convent of the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Mary.
Third Order Regular of St. Francis, in the United States
Congregations of men

(1) Province of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of the Fathers of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis. In 1847 Bishop O'Connor of Pittsburgh obtained from the Irish congregation six brothers, who founded a monastery and college at Loretto, Pennsylvania. Pius IX, by a Rescript of 12 Nov., 1847, erected this foundation into an independent congregation under the obedience of the Bishop of Pittsburgh. This congregation in 1908 joined the Italian congregation, and together with the community at Spalding, Nebraska, which in 1906 had joined the Italian congregation, was erected into a province, 24 Sept., 1910. Houses, 4; colleges, 2; religious, 62; novices, 5. (See below.)

(2) Congregations of the Franciscan Brothers, of Brooklyn, New York. Founded 31 May, 1858, by 2 brothers from the Irish congregation, Pius IX, by a Rescript of 15 Dec., 1859, erected it into an independent congregation. The ordinary of the Diocese of Brooklyn is the superior-general, and governs the congregation through a provincial superior with an assistant and ten consultors, chosen by the brothers from among themselves for a term of three years. Brothers, 67; novices, 8; academy, 1; college, 1; schools, 14; pupils, 9875. (See below.)

(3) Congregations of the Brothers of the Poor of St. Francis Seraphicus. Founded 25 Dec., 1857, at Aachen by John Hoever for the protection and education of poor, homeless boys, it was introduced into the United States in 1866. Brothers, 43; novices, 5; postulants, 3; candidates, 13; homes for boys, 2.
Congregations of women

(1) Sisters of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis:—(a) Congregation with mother-house at Oldenburg, Indiana. Founded in 1851 by Rev. F. J. Rudolf, its rules and constitutions were approved by the Holy See. Sisters, 536; novices, 41; postulants, 7; schools, 67; pupils, 12,273. (b) Congregation with mother-house at Mt. St. Clare, Clinton, Iowa. Founded in 1867 by Rt. Rev. Bishop Lavialle of Louisville, Kentucky. Sisters, 130; novices and postulants, 40; hospital, 1; schools, 16; pupils, 2590.

(2) Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis:—(a) Congregation with mother-house at Glen Riddle, Pennsylvania. Founded by the Ven. John Nepomucene Neumann, C.SS.R., Bishop of Philadelphia, who on 9 April, 1855, invested three devout women, Marianne Bachmann (Mother M. Francis), Barbara Boll (Sister M. Margaret), and Anna Dorn (Sister M. Bernardina), with the habit of St. Francis. In 1896 the mother-house was transferred from Philadelphia to Glen Riddle. This congregation is divided into three provinces. Houses, 80; sisters, 818; novices, 48; postulants, 15; academies, 4; seminaries, 2; orphan asylums, 9; hospitals, 12; schools, 42; schools for Indians and negroes, 8. By and from this congregation were established (i) Congregation with mother-house at 337 Pine Street, Buffalo, New York in 1861. Sisters, 277; novices, 30; postulants, 16; asylums for aged, 3; schools, 30; pupils, 6540; orphan asylum, 1; hospitals, 2. From this congregation were founded A. Congregation with mother-house at Mt. Alvernia, Millvale Station, Pennsylvania, in 1868. Sisters, 210; novices, 17; postulants, 13; schools, 14; pupils, 6429; orphan asylum, 1; hospital, 1; home for ladies, 1. B. Congregation with mother-house at Mt. Hope, Westchester Co., New York, 1893. Legal title: Sisters of St. Francis, Conventuals of the Third Order of the M.I.V. Sisters, 182; novices, 19; postulants, 9; academy, 1; schools, 6; (ii) Congregation with mother-house at St. Anthony's Convent, Syracuse, New York, 1862. Sisters, 173; novices, 9; candidates, 6; schools, 17; pupils, 4500; hospitals, 3; home for aged, 1; home for children, 1; convents at Hawaiian Islands, 4. (b) Congregation with mother-house at St. Francis's Hospital, Peoria, Illinois; founded in 1867 by Rt. Rev. John L. Spalding, Bishop of Peoria, and sisters from the House of Bethlehem, Herford, Germany. Sisters, 163; novices, 38; postulants, 26; hospitals, 10; patients, 5320. (c) Congregation with mother-house at Tiffin, Ohio. Founded in 1867 by Rev. J. L. Bihn. Sisters, 56; novices, 9; postulants, 4; hospital, 1; orphan asylums, 2; homes for aged, 2; schools, 13. (d) Congregation with provincial house at Peekskill, New York. Founded by Mother M. Gertrude and two sisters from the general mother-house, Gemona, Italy, who, at the request of Rev. Andrew Feifer, O.F.M., came to this country in 1865. Sisters, 284; novices, 18; postulants, 15; academy, 1; schools, 18; day nurseries, 3; institution for destitute children, 1; home for working girls, 1; children in charge of sisters, 7768. (e) Congregation with mother-house at Bay Settlement, Wisconsin, founded 6 Dec., 1867. Sisters, 35.

(3) Sisters of St. Francis:—(a) Congregation with mother-house at St. Elizabeth's Convent, Allegany, New York. Founded in 1857 by Very Rev. Pamfilo di Magliano, O.F.M. Sisters, 300; novices, 25; postulants, 12; schools, 11; hospitals, 2; homes, 4. (b) Congregation with mother-house at St. Francis's Convent, Dubuque, Iowa. Founded in 1876 by Mother Xaveria Termehr and sisters from the house of Bethlehem, Herford, Germany, who on account of the infamous "May laws", were compelled to leave Germany. Sisters, 399; novices, 34; postulants, 20; orphan asylums, 2; industrial school, 1; academy, 1; home for aged, 1; schools, 43; pupils, 6829. (c) Congregation with mother-house at St. Joseph's Hospital, Maryville, Missouri. Founded with the approbation of Rt. Rev. M. F. Burke, Bishop of St. Joseph, Missouri, in 1894. Sisters, 45; novices, 7; postulants, 1; hospitals, 6.

(4) Sisters of St. Francis of Penance and Christian Charity:—Congregation with mother-house at Stella Niagara, near Lewiston, New York. Established in 1874 by Mother M. Aloysia and three sisters from Nonnenwerth, near Rolandseck, Rhenish Prussia, Germany. Sisters 253; academies, 5; schools, 18; pupils, 6348; orphan asylum, 1; Indian schools, 2; pupils, 577; foundling-house, 1.

(5) Franciscan Sisters:—(a) Congregation with mother-house, Grand Avenue and Chippewa Street, St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1872 by sisters from the general mother-house at Salzkotten, Germany. Sisters, 224; hospitals, 6, schools, 1; orphan asylums, 2; house of providence, 1; convent, 1; (b) Congregation with mother-house at Mill Hill, London, England, for coloured missions. Introduced into the United States in 1881. Sisters, 58; industrial school, 1; parochial schools, 4; pupils, 765.

(6) Sisters of St. Francis of the Sacred Heart:—Congregation with mother-house at Mercy Hospital, Burlington, Iowa. Sisters, 22; hospital, 1.

(7) Franciscan Sisters, Minor Conventuals:— Congregation with mother-house at St. Joseph's Convent, Buffalo, New York. Sisters, 58; novices, 16; postulants, 21.

(8) Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis of Assisi, M.C.:—Congregation with mother-house at St. Francis, Wisconsin. Founded in 1849 by sisters from Bavaria. Its rules and constitutions were compiled by Rev. M. Heiss in 1852, and approved by Rt. Rev. J. M. Henni, Bishop of Milwaukee. In June, 1873, this congregation was affiliated to the Order of Minor Conventuals, and Pius X on 6 Dec., 1911, gave it its definite approbation. Sisters, 303; novices, 22; postulants, 30; academy, 1; orphanage, 1; institute for deaf mutes, 1; for feeble minded, 1; schools, 36; pupils, 4500.

(9) School Sisters of St. Francis:—Congregation with mother-house, Greenfield and Twenty-Second Avenues, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The sisters conduct schools in Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Michigan, and Oregon. There are two branch-houses of this congregation in Europe, one in Luxemburg, and other at Erlenbad, Baden. Sisters, 814.

(10) Franciscan Sisters of the Perpetual Adoration:—Congregation with mother-house at St. Rose Convent, La Crosse, Wisconsin. Founded by six sisters from Bavaria, and rules compiled in 1853 by Most Rev. M. Heiss, Archbishop of Milwaukee. The Perpetual Adoration was introduced in 1878. Sisters, 420; novices, 42; postulants, 40; schools, 63; pupils, 8448; orphan asylums, 2; Indian school, 1; domestic science schools, 2.

(11) Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity:—Congregation with mother-house at Holy Family Convent, Alverno, Wisconsin. Founded in 1869 at Manitowoc, Wisconsin, by Rev. Joseph Fessler, it was affiliated to the Order of Friars Minor Conventual 19 March, 1900. Sisters, 303; novices, 40; postulants, 10; hospitals, 2; home for aged, 1; schools, 53; pupils, 8500.

(12) Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Heart:—Congregation with mother-house at St. Joseph's Hospital, Joliet, Illinois. Founded in 1867 at Avila, Indiana, by sisters from Germany. Sisters, 325; novices, 40; postulants, 12; hospitals, 10; home for aged, 1; orphan asylum, 1; schools, 9.

(13) Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration:—Congregation with mother-house at St. Francis's Convent, Nevada, Missouri. Established in 1893 by Sister M. John Hau and sisters from the mother-house at Grimmenstein, Switzerland. Sisters, 25; orphan asylum, 1.

(14) Hospital Sisters of St. Francis:—Congregation with provincial house at St. John's Hospital, Springfield, Illinois. Founded in 1875 by sisters from the general mother-house, Münster, Germany. Sisters, 299; novices, 29; postulants, 11; hospitals, 12.

(15) The Poor Sisters of St. Francis Seraph of the Perpetual Adoration:—Congregation with provincial house at St. Francis Convent, Lafayette, Indiana. Introduced into this country in 1875 by sisters from the general mother-house at Olpe, Germany. Sisters, 613; novices, 35; postulants, 21; academies, 3; orphan asylum, 1; home for aged, 1; schools, 36; hospitals, 18; high schools, 2.

(16) Sisters of the Poor of St. Francis.

(17) Franciscan Sisters of St. Kunegunda (Polish):—(a) Congregation with mother-house at Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1896. Sisters, 107; novices, 22; postulants, 18; orphan asylum, 1; home for aged and crippled, 1; day-nursery, 1; schools, 11; pupils, 2070. (b) Congregation with mother-house at Chicago Heights, Illinois. Foundation of English-speaking Franciscan Sisters. Sisters, 17.

(18) Sisters of St. Francis of the Immaculate Conception:—Congregation with mother-house at Peoria, Illinois. Founded in 1890. Sisters, 47; novices, 20; postulants, 17; schools, 6; homes, 2; asylum, 1.

(19) Missionary Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception:—Congregation with mother-house, Rome, Italy. The sisters conduct establishments in the Archdioceses of New York and Boston, the Diocese of Newark, Pittsburgh, and Savannah.

(20) Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception:—(a) Congregation with mother-house at Little Falls, Minnesota. Sisters, 60; postulants, 3; orphan asylum, 1; hospitals, 3. (b) Congregation with mother-house at St. Anthony's Hospital, Rock Island, Illinois. Sisters, 18; novices, 6.

(21) Polish Franciscan School Sisters:—Congregation with mother-house, 3419 Gasconde Street, St. Louis, Missouri. Founded 29 May, 1901, by Most Rev. John J. Kain, Archbishop of St. Louis. Sisters 63; schools, 9; pupils, 700.

(22) Felician Sisters, O.S.F.,:—Congregation with general mother-house, Cracow, Austria. Founded in 1855 by Sophia Truszkowska at Warsaw, Russia. Introduced into the United States in 1874. (a) Western Province of the Presentation B.V.M. Mother-house, Detroit, Michigan. Sisters, 273; novices, 30; postulants, 55; candidates in preparatory course, 65; schools, 33; pupils, 12,500; orphan asylum, 1. (b) Eastern Province. Mother-house at Buffalo, New York, established 20 Aug., 1900. Choir Sisters, 278; novices, 32; postulants, 93; lay sisters, 66; novices, 6; postulants, 21; candidates in preparatory course, 73; schools, 55; pupils, 21,556; orphan asylums, 2; home for aged, 1; emigrant home, 1; working-girls' home, 1; day nursery, 1. (c) North-western Province of the Presentation B. V. M. Mother-house, St. Joseph's Orphanage, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, established 1910. Sisters, 170; novices, 17; postulants, 27; schools, 24; pupils, 6482; orphan asylums, 3.

(23) Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis of the Congregation of Our Lady of Lourdes. Mother-house, Rochester, Minnesota. Established 1877 by sisters of St. Francis, Joliet, Illinois. Sisters, 336; novices, 9; postulants, 16; academies, 5; normal school, 1; schools, 20; pupils, 5767; hospitals, 1; nurses' training school, 1.
Province of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Prior to 1906 several communities of the Third Order existed in the United States all lay institutes dedicated to teaching and other works of charity. Amongst these were three branches of Franciscan Brothers: at Brooklyn, New York; at Loretto, Pennsylvania; and at Spalding, Nebraska. The communities at Loretto and Brooklyn were founded more than half a century ago from Mount Bellew Monastery, Archdiocese of Tuam, Ireland; Spalding Institute was a branch of the Brooklyn community. In 1905 Brother Linus Lynch, then superior of the institute, asked the ordinary of the diocese for permission to have some of his subjects ordained priests. This request the bishop refused, as the community had been introduced into the diocese for the care of parish schools, and he feared that in the event of its members becoming priests this work would suffer. A petition was then sent to the minister-general, Rt. Rev. Angelus de Mattia, asking for union with the third Order Regular; as this union could not be effected, some of the community determined to ask for a dispensation from their vows in order to enter the institute. In 1907 fifteen were dispensed; these, together with eleven novices, went to Spalding, Nebraska, where a small community of brothers had been united to the order in 1906. They were received by Very Rev. Dr. Stanislaus Dujmoric, commissary-general, and by dispensation of Pius X from the ordinary year of probation they made the vows of the order. A college was then opened at Spalding, giving the order its first house in the United States.

In 1908 the diocesan community of Franciscan Brothers at Loretto, Pennsylvania, were admitted to solemn profession, and eight young men were received into the novitiate.

In 1910-11 Rt. Rev. Eugene A. Garvey, D.D., Bishop of Altoona, requested the fathers to take charge of the Italian Church of St. Anthony of Padua at Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and the Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Altoona, Pennsylvania. The four houses in the United States were erected into a province, 24 Sept., 1910, Very Rev. Dr. Jerome Zazzara being elected provincial. The Archbishop of Chicago has since given the fathers charge of Sts. Peter and Paul's Slavic Church in that city, and a new college is to be opened at Sioux City, Iowa, in 1912. The provincial mother-house is at St. Francis's College, Loretto, Pennsylvania. The American Province has now five convents, two colleges, sixty-five professed members, and twenty novices and postulants.
The Third Order Secular of St. Francis

Established in the United States by the early Franciscan missionaries for the white settlers and soldiers and Indian converts, especially in the Southern States. A confraternity existed at Santa Fe long before 1680. Another confraternity existed in New Mexico almost from the time of the reconquest (1692-1695). The document stating this fact is a report of the Father custos, José Bernal, dated Santa Fe, 17 Sept., 1794. There is no documentary evidence of the existence of a Third Order for lay people as a regularly organized confraternity anywhere else, though we learn from documents that single individuals were termed tertiaries among the Indians. It is most probable, however, that a confraternity existed at St. Augustine, Florida, before the close of the sixteenth century, and at San Antonio, Texas, before the middle of the eighteenth century. The establishment of provinces of the order of Friars Minor brought about the establishment of many confraternities. There are at present 186 confraternities of Franciscan Tertiaries in this country, with a membership of 35,605. Of these, 142 congregations with 27,805 members are under the direction of the Friars Minor, 32 with 6800 members under the direction of the Friars Minor Capuchin, and 12 congregations with 1000 members under the direction of the Friars Minor Conventual. Besides these, there are many hundreds of tertiaries throughout the country not belonging to any congregation.
The Third Order Secular of the Servites

Established in the United States in 1893. There are at present 2 congregations, with membership of 400.
The Third Order Regular of Servites

SeeSERVANTS OF MARY.

Capuchin (OFM) - History

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An autonomous branch of the first Franciscan Order, the other branches being the Friars Minor simply so called (but until lately usually known as Observants or Recollects), and the Conventual Friars Minor. This division of the first Franciscan Order has come about by reason of various reforms; thus the Observants were a reform which separated from the Conventuals, and the Capuchins are a reform of the Observants.

Genesis and development

The Capuchin Reform dates from 1525. It had its origin in the Marches, the Italian province where, after Umbria, the Franciscan spirit seems to have found its most congenial dwelling-place. Cut off by the mountains from the great highways of Italy, the inhabitants of the Marches have to this day retained a delightful simplicity of character and blend a mystical tendency with a practical bent of mind. They may be said to possess the anima naturaliter Franciscana, and it is easy to understand the quick response of the people of this province to the Franciscan teaching, and the tenacity with which the friars of the Marches clung to the primitive simplicity of the order. We have a monument of the enduring vigour of the Franciscan spirit in the Marches in the "Fioretti di San Francesco", wherein the first freshness of the Franciscan spirit seems to have been caught up and enshrined. From the Marches, too, we get another book, of a very different character, but which in its own way bears eloquent witness to the zeal of the brethren of this province for poverty, the "Historia VII Tribulationum" of Angelo Clareno. And at Camerino, on the borders of the province, are preserved the relics of Blessed John of Parma, another of the leaders of the "Spiritual" Friars. The Marches were, in fact, from the earliest days of the order, a centre of resistance to the secularizing tendency which found an entrance amongst the friars even in the days of St. Francis, of which tendency the famous Brother Elias is the historic type.

At the beginning of the sixteenth century the Franciscans in the Marches, as elsewhere, were divided into the two distinct families of Conventuals and Observants or Zoccolanti. The dividing line between the two families was their adhesion to the primitive ideal of Franciscan poverty and simplicity; the Conventuals accepted revenues by papal dispensation; the Observants refused fixed revenues and lived by casual alms. At least such was the principle; but in practice the Observants had come themselves to relax the principle under various legal devices. Thus, though they would not accept money themselves, they allowed secular persons, styled syndics, to accept money for their use; they accepted chaplaincies to which were affixed regular stipends. To those who looked to the primitive custom of the order, such acceptances seemed but legalized betrayal of the rule, nor were these relaxations at any time allowed to pass without protest from the more zealous of the Observants. But the question was not merely concerning this or that point; it was one of general tendency. Was the order to maintain itself in the simplicity and unworldliness of St. Francis, or was it to admit and bow to the spirit of the world? Was it to be dominated by the spirit of St. Francis or by the spirit of Brother Elias? Such was the question as it shaped itself in the minds of the reforming friars; and one has to recognize this truly to appreciate the history of the various Franciscan reforms. The difficulty which met each reform, as it arose and acquired an independent constitution, was the difficulty which meets every unworldly ideal in its attempt to propagate itself in the actual world. To live on and endure it must take to itself a secular embodiment, and in the process is apt to acquire something of the secular spirit; and the more unworldly the original ideal, the more difficult is its process of secular development. This is peculiarly so in the case of a religious community like the Franciscan Order, which aims at realizing a principle of life so entirely opposed to the principles commonly accepted in the world at large. Hence it is that the Observants, after breaking away from the Conventuals, themselves gave rise to various reforms which aimed at a more perfect return to the primitive type. In this way the Capuchin Reform took its origin from amongst the Observants of the Marches. The leader of the reform was Father Matteo di Bassi, a member of the Observant community in the Diocese of Fermo. He was an exemplary religious and a zealous preacher. It is said that Leo X had given him permission to institute a reform amongst the Observants; but if so Father Matteo did not avail himself of the permission, perhaps because of the death of that pontiff. But in 1525, a year of Jubilee, he went to Rome and whilst there obtained from Clement VII leave to wear the Capuchin habit and to live in strictest poverty. Matteo di Bassi was finally led to this step by an incident which recalls to mind the history of St. Francis. The friar had been attending a funeral and was returning to his convent, when he met a beggar by the wayside barely clad. Moved with compassion, Father Matteo gave the beggar part of his own clothing. Shortly afterwards the friar was in prayer when he heard a voice, which three times admonished him, saying "Observe the Rule to the letter". Whereupon he arose, and took an old habit, and made a long pointed hood out of the cappa, and donning the habit at once set out for Rome. This story, retailed by all the earliest chroniclers, makes it certain that the aspiration to observe the rule to the letter was the one compelling motive of the reform, and that the taking of the habit with the long pointed hood was the symbol of this aspiration. For the habit in this shape was supposed to be the original form of the Franciscan habit, whilst the habit with the cappa and small rounded hood was held by many to be an innovation introduced with the spirit of relaxation. Certain it is that the habit adopted by Father Matteo and his followers was known in the order before their time. In the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, is a copy of an altar-piece dating from the fifteenth century, representing Our Lady with a number of friars gathered under her outspread mantle; and they are wearing a habit similar in form to that of the Capuchins. In a picture of St. Francis in the library of Christchurch, Oxford, attributed to Margaritone, we find the same form of habit; and in at least one other instance of early portraiture of the Seraphic saint he seems to have been represented with a habit of this sort. (See "On the Authentic Portraiture of St. Francis of Assisi", by N. H. J. Westlake, London, 1897.) Thomas of Celano again seems to speak of it as a novelty that a certain friar went about wearing a habit "with the hood not sewn to the tunic" (II Celano, 32 — ed. d'Alençon, Rome, 1906). And at the Ognisanti, in Florence, is preserved a habit, said to be one worn by St. Francis, the hood of which is sewn to the tunic. At any rate the reforming friars, in assuming the pointed hood sewn to the habit, claimed to be assuming the form of habit worn by St. Francis and the first friars, and in their eyes it was a symbol of their return to the primitive observance.
In putting his hand to the reform, Matteo di Bassi had no intention of separating himself from the jurisdiction of the Observants; he thought rather to introduce the reform amongst them. All he asked from Clement VII was liberty for himself and other friars of a like mind to wear the habit of St. Francis, to observe the rule strictly in accordance with the earliest tradition, and to preach the Word of God in the world. From the days of St. Francis himself the liberty of the stricter observance had been allowed; and the friars enjoying such liberty had usually dwelt apart in small houses or hermitages, but under the effective jurisdiction of the superiors of the order. But when, on Matteo di Bassi's return from Rome, two other friars, Louis of Fossombrone and his brother Raphael, sought to join the new reform, they were stoutly opposed by the superiors, especially by the minister provincial, John of Fano, who, however, himself eventually joined the Capuchins. Nevertheless, the two friars were at length, through the intervention of the Duke of Camerino allowed to proceed to Rome. On 18 May, 1526, they received from the Cardinal-Bishop of Palestrina, the Grand Penitentiary, the Brief, "Ex parte vestrâ", whereby Clement VII formally allowed them, together with Matteo di Bassi, to separate from the community of the Observants and live in hermitages, in order that they might be free to observe the rule as they desired; and, to protect them against molestation on the part of the superiors of the order, they were placed under the protection of the Bishop of Camerino. They were by the same Brief permitted to aggregate others to their manner of life. They were, however, still considered to belong to the Observant family, though separated from the community; but on 3 July, 1528, owing to the continued opposition of the Observant superiors, Clement VII, by the Bull "Religionis zellus", released them from their obedience to the Observants and constituted them a distinct family of the order, in a certain dependence, however, upon the Master-General of the Conventuals, to whom it belonged to confirm the vicar-general to be elected by the new reform.
In the following April, 1529, the first chapter was held at Albacina. At this time the reform numbered eighteen friars and four convents or hermitages. Matteo di Bassi having been elected vicar-general, the chapter drew up the new constitutions designed to safeguard the primitive observance of the rule. No one can read these "Constitutions of Albacina" without being struck with the similarity of tone and purpose between them and the "Speculum Perfectionis", about which so much has been heard since M. Paul Sabatier published his edition in 1898. The provisions relating to poverty and studies would almost seem an echo of that celebrated legend. Thus, when "hermitages or monasteries" are to be erected, the constitutions decree that no more land is to be taken than is in keeping with their poor estate; the houses are to be built, if possible, of mud and wattles, but earth and stones may be used where wattles cannot be obtained; the churches, however, shall be of more becoming structure, yet small and narrow. The friars are to bear in mind the admonition of St. Francis that their churches and houses must be such as to proclaim that those who dwell in them are but pilgrims and strangers on the earth. The houses are to be built outside the cities or towns, yet not far distant from them. In the houses near large cities not more than twelve friars might dwell, and in the other houses not more than eight — "for such indeed was the will of St. Francis as is set forth in the chronicles of the Order." The proprietorships must always be vested in the municipality or the donor, who may turn the friars out at will, and should this happen the friars are to go out at once without delay and seek another place. To each house a hermitage must be attached, where the friars may retire for solitary contemplation. In regard to alms they were not to quest for meat, eggs, or cheese, but they might receive these things when offered spontaneously. They were never, however, to lay in a store of food, but to depend on daily alms. At the utmost they might receive sufficient food to last for three days, and rarely for one week. They are forbidden to have syndics or procurators to receive property for them. — "No other syndic shall there be for us save Christ our Lord; and our procurator and protector shall be the most Blessed virgin Mother of God; our deputy shall be our blessed Father Francis; but all other procurators we absolutely reject." The preachers were to be kept busy in the vineyard of the Lord, not only during Lent, but at all other times. They were not, however, allowed to use many books; two or three at most were deemed sufficient. They sermons were to be simple and plain, without studied rhetoric; nor were they to be allowed to receive any remuneration for their preaching. Classes for the study of literature were not be established; but they might study the Scriptures and such devout authors as "love God and teach us to embrace the Cross of Christ". The friars were not to hear the confessions of seculars except in cases of extreme necessity. In the houses of the order only one Mass was to be said each day, at which all the priests should be present, except on Sundays and solemn feasts, when all might celebrate; nor were they to receive any honoraria for Masses. They were, moreover, forbidden to follow funerals or celebrate dirges, except in case of necessity. Finally, they were to go barefoot, shod only in simple sandals; and to recite the Divine Office at midnight even on the three last days of Holy Week; and on no account were extra Offices to be added to the canonical Office, so that the friars might have more time for private prayer.
Such were the "Constitutions of Albacina". Their intention is evident to any one conversant with the early Franciscan legends: they sought to re-establish the Franciscan life in the spirit and letter of the earliest Franciscan tradition. One point needs explanation here. In the earliest pontifical documents concerning the new reform, it is stated that the friars are to be free to observe the rule strictly in the eremitical life. The meaning of this, however, was not that they should be hermits in the sense of living always a retired and solitary life. Matteo di Bassi had asked of Clement VII liberty to observe the Rule of St. Francis in hermitages, to preach the Word of God in the world, and to bring sinners to repentance. The preaching of the Word of God was an essential feature of the Capuchin reform. We have already seen how the constitutions of the order bade the preachers be frequently employed in their work of souls at all times of the year. Matteo di Bassi himself had no sooner received the sanction of Clement VII than he returned to the Marches and began to preach and to nurse the sick during the pestilence which swept through the Marches in 1525. The explanation, however, is simple enough to those who know the Franciscan legends. Amongst the Franciscans the hermitage stood in opposition to the large convent. The first houses of the order were built outside the city walls in some quiet spot where the friars, when not engaged in active ministry for others, could live undisturbedly in the cultivation of the spirit. These houses were small, and only a few friars dwelt in the same place. Besides the small communities, there were also hermitages, technically so called, at some distance from the community, whither the friars might retire for a still more secluded life. The original Franciscan life was thus a commingling of the active life with the eremitical. As the order increased in numbers, large convents were built in which the simplicity and seclusion of the original Franciscan community were in great measure lost; in these large houses it became impossible to observe the primitive standard of poverty, and the tendency was to conform to the more complex life and ceremonial of the monastic orders, properly so called. Hence every reform of the order turned again towards the ideal of the small community and the more secluded situation, where the original simplicity and poverty could more easily be maintained.
Matteo di Bassi remained vicar-general of the reform only for two months; then he resigned his jurisdiction into the hands of Louis of Fossombrone, as commissary general, in order that he might be free to give himself to the work of the apostolate. From this time he can hardly be said to belong to the family of the reform; though he seems to have still availed himself of the privileges granted him in 1525 by Clement VII. He died in 1552 and was buried in the church of the Observants in Venice, where his body was for a long time accorded the honours given to the relics of a saint, until a recent decree of the Congregation of Sacred Rites restricted such honours to those formally beatified. But though not formally beatified, Matte di Bassi is styled 'Blessed" in the martyrologies of the order. During the government of Louis of Fossombrone the reform began to spread quickly and widely. Shortly after the Chapter of Albacina the friars were invited to Rome and given a house, Santa Maria dei Miracoli, near the Flaminian Gate, from which they removed in the following year to the convent of Santa Euphemia near Santa Maria Maggiore. Meanwhile a movement for reform was taking place amongst the Observants of Calabria, which was to have a marked influence upon the development of the reform in the Marches. Two friars, Louis of Reggio and Bernardine of Reggio, surnamed lo Giorgio, had, about the same time that Matteo di Bassi had visited Rome, also arrived in the Eternal City, and with the sanction of Clement VII had attempted to reform movement amongst the Observants of Santi Apostoli. Their efforts proving futile, they obtained leave, in 1526, to return to Calabria and choose three convents for their purpose. They assumed the name of Recollects - a name very generally given to the reforming friars, for the reason stated above. Here, as in the Marches, the superiors of the Observants regarded the reform with disfavour and treated the reformers as rebellious subjects; hence, at a chapter held by the Minister General of the Observants, at Messina, in 1532, the Calabrian Recollects petitioned to be allowed to pass to the Capuchin jurisdiction. Their petition, however, only drew upon them further rebuke. As they continued to persist in their demand, the minister general obtained from the pope a Brief of excommunication against them; but this was shortly withdrawn through the intervention of the Duke of Nocera and the Duchess of Camerino, and the Calabrian Recollects passed into the Capuchin family, forming the first province of the order outside of Marches.
Following the example of the Calabrians, the most zealous Observants began to pass over to the Capuchins in such numbers that Paul III, at the instance of the Minister General of the Observants, issued two Briefs, the first dated 18 December, 1534, and the second 12 January, 1535, forbidding any more Observants to be received by the Capuchins until the next general chapter of the Observant family. The second of these Briefs is noteworthy by reason of the fact that in it the friars of the new reform are for the first time called Capucini — Capuchins. Hitherto, in the pontifical documents they had been styled Fratres Ord. S. Francisci Capucciati. But in the Brief of 12 January, 1535, the pope adopted the name already conferred upon the new reform by the populace, who, seeing the long hoods, at once called the friars Cappuccini. Henceforth the friars are officially styled "Friars Minor of the Order of St. Francis, Capuchin".
At the chapter of the order held at Rome in November, 1535, Bernardine of Asti was elected vicar-general. He was a remarkable man — the genius and saviour of the new reform. He combined great prudence and power of organization with a rare humility and sweetness of character. He had held high office amongst the Observants before he joined the Capuchins in 1534. He died in 1554, and is styled blessed in the martyrology of the Franciscan Order. His election was providential, for the Capuchin family had now to pass through a time of storm and stress, which the wisdom and fame of Bernardine of Asti, in great measure, enabled it to survive. Hardly had Bernardine of Asti taken up the reins of government than Louis of Fossombrone created a disturbance amongst the friars, alleging that the election was invalid. He himself had aspired to the headship of the order. A new chapter was thereupon convoked, in April, 1536, and Bernardine of Asti was again elected, whereupon Louis of Fossombrone threw off the habit and apostatized. His apostasy perhaps influenced Paul III when on 3 January, 1537, he forbade the Capuchins to establish any houses of their reform outside Italy. But a greater blow fell in 1542 when Bernardine of Siena — the famous Occhino, not to be confounded with Saint Bernardine, who d. in 1444 — the successor of Bernardine of Asti as vicar-general, apostatized and joined the Protestant Reformers. The scandal caused by this defection gave new vigour to the efforts of those who were opposed to the Capuchins, and at this time it was seriously considered at the Roman Court whether they should be suppressed. In fact it was generally said amongst the people that their suppression was already decreed. To dispel this rumour the new vicar-general, Francis of Jesi, assembled two hundred of his brethren at Assisi for the feast of the Portiuncula, in 1543. But it was Bernardine of Asti who pleaded the cause of the reform at the Council of Trent and averted the threatened disaster. And by his eloquent pleading he saved not only the new reform from extinction, but also the essential character of the Franciscan Order. For the conciliar Fathers had resolved that in future all religious orders should possess common property, and not be dependent upon alms. This resolution struck at the very fundamental principle of the Franciscan life, since, according to the Rule of St. Francis, his friars were to possess property neither individually nor in common, but to depend for their daily sustenance upon their labour and upon alms. As St. Francis had pleaded for this absolute poverty before Pope Innocent III, so Bernardine of Asti now pleaded before the council, and with such success that the Capuchin Friars and the Observants were expressly exempted from the general law and allowed the privilege of common, as well as of individual, poverty. By a providential coincidence, whilst the fate of the new reform was hanging in the balance, it received a new recruit in a poor countryman who was destined perhaps more than anyone else to establish the Capuchin family in the love and veneration of the Roman people: this was St. Felix of Cantalicio, the lay brother friend of St. Philip Neri. But in a short while the cloud passed away, and the Capuchin family grew with amazing swiftness in numbers and in fame. At the chapter of 1536 the reform numbered five hundred friars; in 1587 it had increased to five thousand nine hundred and fifty-three friars. In 1574 Gregory XIII revoked the decree of Paul III, and granted Capuchins the right to establish ultramontane provinces; and in 1619 the reform was released from all dependence upon the Conventuals, and given a minister general of its own election. It need hardly be said that, as the order increased in numbers and spread to various countries, it was found necessary to modify the stringent regulations of the first constitutions. The Council of Trent compelled the Capuchins to establish courses of studies for the friars destined for the priesthood; larger convents were built, and the regulation forbidding the friars to hear the concessions of secular people was rescinded. Yet a constant effort was made to maintain the simplicity of the Franciscan life. Notwithstanding the Council of Trent, the Capuchins obtained from St. Pius V for their lay brothers the privilege of voting in the elections of the order, thus conserving the original democratic character of the Franciscan family. In the ordinances of the general chapter of 1613 great stress was laid on simplicity of life, and regulations were made forbidding such innovations as high masses and introduction of spiritual exercises for novices, after the manner of the Jesuits. The same spirit and intention are found in the definitive constitutions formally approved by Urban VIII, in 1643. This pontiff had already, by a decree of the Sacred congregation of Bishops and Regulars (30 April, 1627), declared the Capuchins to be true sons of St. Francis, and on 28 June of the same year had issued the Bull "Salvatoris et Domini", in which he reaffirmed a former constitution of Paul V, "Ecclesiæ Militantis", of 15 October, 1608, setting forth that the Capuchins are the spiritual descendants of St. Francis in the direct line, and not a mere offshoot of the Franciscan Order.
In the time of Urban VIII the reform numbered over seventeen thousand friars in forty-two provinces; a century later, at the general chapter of 1754, there were representatives from sixty-three provinces, and the number of the friars was given as thirty-two thousand eight hundred and twenty-one. But during the French Revolution the order suffered severely; nearly all the provinces were disorganized or suppressed; and in the subsequent revolutions on the European continent the Capuchins suffered the fate of all the religious orders, being continually oppressed and dispersed. Yet during the last twenty years a notable revival has taken place. In 1889 the order had 636 houses and 7852 friars; in 1906 there were 731 houses and 9970 friars, divided into 56 provinces.

Influence of the reform upon the general history of the Church

The Capuchins, together with the Jesuits, were the most effective preachers and missionaries of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. We have already seen that the privilege granted by Clement VII to Matteo di Bassi was not only to observe the Rule of St. Francis in its primitive simplicity, but also to go about preaching the Word of God. In this matter the friars of the reform were but reasserting the primitive Franciscan life; and it is to be noted that the method of their apostolate was also thoroughly in accord with what the early legends of the order tell us about St. Francis's method. In their preaching they eschewed artificial oratory and set forth their message with simplicity and directness which came from the heart. But perhaps what most endeared them to the people, and gave them that singular power with all classes to which the history of the times bears witness, was their all-embracing charity. The picture of the Capuchin friar drawn by Manzoni in "I Promessi Sposi" is historical. In their apostolate they not merely preached from the pulpits; they mingled in the daily life of the people, ministering to suffering humanity in its temporal as well as its spiritual needs. In the frequent pestilences which devastated Italy and Europe generally in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Capuchins were constantly found doing a notable part in the service of the sick. The annals of the order and the chronicles of the times tell us of the heroism of the friars in the pestilences which swept through Northern Italy and Spain in 1589, through Switzerland in 1609, through Germany in 1611. In the great pestilence of 1630 the friars took charge of the lazarettos at Milan, and acted as confessors, nurses, cooks, and dispensers to the victims. They did the same at Marseilles and Freiburg. At Siena the friars were assembled for the provincial chapter when the pestilence broke out; they prorogued the chapter and went out to nurse the sick, and forty-three of them fell victims to their charity. During the pestilence of 1636 in Franche-Comté, so many Capuchins died in ministering to the sick that Urban VIII allowed young clerics to be ordained priests before the canonical age to take the place of those who had succumbed. St. Laurence of Brindisi, sent as missionary Apostolic to Germany in 1599, began his apostolate by nursing the sick in the pestilence of that year. Undoubtedly their universal charity, united to the austerity of their lives, accounts for much of their success as missionaries, whether with Catholics or non-Catholics.
And not only were they popular with the multitude; they had the confidence of the authorities. This is shown in the frequent choice of the friars by the popes and princes to fill responsible positions. Thus in the wars against the Turks in the sixteenth century, it was usually the Capuchins who were appoint ed chaplains and spiritual directors to the Christian forces. In the Venetian expedition of 1571, a number of Capuchins accompanied the Venetian navy by command of St. Pius V, and at the battle of Lepanto, Father Anselmo da Pietramolara was in the thick of the fight, urging on the Christian forces with raised crucifix; in fact, it was his indomitable bravery which prevented the ship he was in from being captured by the Turks. The friars were similarly employed in the struggles of the German princes against the Turks in the seventeenth century. St. Laurence of Brindisi, in 1610, went as chaplain general with the Christian army, and so did Venerable Mark of Aviano, in 1687. It is pleasing to note that the friars obtained, from Gregory XII, power to absolve Christians who, during the wars, freed or hid captive Turks.
They were moreover not infrequently commissioned to transact affairs of state. St. Laurence of Brindisi was sent as ambassador by the Emperor Rudolph to solicit the alliance of Spain with the Catholic League of Germany. Gregory XIII employed the Capuchins to negotiate for the ransom of Christian captives in Algiers. Father Giacinto da Casale was commissioned by Gregory XV to unite the Catholic princes of Germany in defence of the Faith. Sometimes their personal influence, without any official status, enabled them to intervene with success in public matters, as in Switzerland, when the canton of Appenzell was hesitating whether to ally itself with the Catholic cantons or with the Protestant, the Capuchins went in and drew Appenzell to the Catholic side. In similar fashion, in 1637, a Swiss Capuchin acted as arbitrator in the canton of Aargau. These public acts testify to the great influence acquired by the friars in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; but their influence was gained by hard and strenuous labours both as home and as foreign missionaries. They were to be found everywhere, preaching and ministering to the people. Not only were they established in almost every country of Europe, but as foreign missionaries their activity seems almost incredible. At the general chapter of 1662 the list of foreign missions served by the friars included the Congo, Benin, Morocco, Egypt, Ethiopia, Smyrna, Mingrelia, Cyprus, Mesopotamia, Chaldea, Ecbatana, Kurdistan, Persia, Tatary, Brazil, New Granada, Canada, Morea, the Grecian Archipelago, whilst they also had missions, under Propaganda, in Rhætia, the Grisons, and the Valtellina.
As "home" missionaries they were mainly instrumental in reforming the pulpit, substituting solid teaching, with burning and convincing piety, for the vapid rhetoric so common amongst the preachers of the sixteenth century. Their object was always to reach the heart of the people. To be convinced of the solidity and piety of their preaching, one has only to consult the many books of sermons and treatises of devotion which the missionary friars have left us. According to Baronius and the chroniclers of the order, the devotion of the Quarant' Ore owes its origin to the missionary zeal of the Capuchins. Father Giuseppe da Ferno is said to have been the first to expose the Blessed Sacrament for forty hours' prayer, during a mission he was preaching in the Duomo at Milan, in 1637. Giuseppe da Ferno certainly wrote a treatise on the method of the Quarant' Ore, and from this time we find frequent mention of the devotion in the missionary chronicles of the order. But the supreme monument to their missionary zeal is the Congregation of the Propaganda itself. This congregation was instituted by Gregory XV, in 1622, at the suggestion of Father Girolamo da Narni, Vicar-General of the Reform. He was a noted preacher and experienced in missionary labours. When the congregation was established, its first prefect was the Capuchin Cardinal of Sant' Onofrio; and its first martyr was another Capuchin, St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen, whom the propaganda had appointed Prefect of the Mission of Rhætia. The friars had already been established for some years in Switzerland, whither they had been called by St. Charles Borromeo in his capacity as Protector of the Catholics in those parts. The saint, backed by Pope Gregory XIII, had requested the general chapter of 1581 to send friars thither, and the chapter had at once acceded to the request. Such was their success in combating the errors of the Calvinists and in preserving the Faith in many cantons that to this day they are accorded a privileged position in the churches of the Catholic cantons as confessors and preachers. It was in the Grisons that Saint Fidelis was martyred, in 1622. Here the Calvinists had practically gained over the whole population, as also in the Valtellina, and only by heroic efforts were the friars able to keep alive any remnant of the Faith. The missions in these parts are still under the jurisdiction of the Capuchins.
In Savoy the friars, under the leadership of Father Cherubino da Mariana, the friend of St. Francis of Sales, were at work in 1596, and the mission of Thonon was especially given into their charge in 1610. Father Cherubino also introduced the friars into the Vallese in 1610, at which time, as St. Francis of Sales reported, the religious condition of that country seemed hopeless. Under St. Laurence of Brindisi twelve Capuchins were sent, in 1599, to combat the influence of Protestantism in Germany, where by their public controversies with Protestants, as well as by their preaching, they did much to win back many to the Faith. They rapidly established houses in all parts of Southern Germany, and in 1611 they were established in the Rhine Provinces by Father Francis Nugent, a distinguished Irish friar.
On the foreign missions they were equally energetic. The first foreign mission was undertaken in 1551, when two friars were commissioned by Julius III to go to Constantinople. They were, however, expelled, after being imprisoned and tortured. But we find them shortly afterwards in Crete, where Father Ignazio d'Apiro established five missionary centres in two years, besides a hospital at Canea. He was a man well versed in Oriental languages. He died in 1569. About this time two Capuchins were put to death in Palestine. But it was at the general chapter of 1581 that the friars put their hand definitively to the matter of foreign missions. They then obtained a faculty from Sixtus V to send missionaries to the East, and a band of friars, amongst whom was St. Joseph of Leonessa, were despatched to Constantinople. Imprisonment and torture awaited them; but from that time the friars have held fast to their missions in the Turkish dominions. In 1623 the Propaganda commissioned the Capuchins to found missions in Syria, Egypt, and Abyssinia. Six friars were sent to Constantinople, where they at once established a school for the study of Oriental languages; others went to Aleppo, Alexandria, and Armenia. Their method was to open schools wherever they settled, and they were active in publishing books. As a result of their labours in Syria at this time, a schismatic Armenian metropolitan and a schismatic Greek metropolitan sought reunion with the Church. In 1618 the general chapter, at the request of Paul V, sent missionaries to the Congo. They encountered great difficulties, owing to the Dutch traders, and success seemed hopeless. Yet they struggled on till 1654, when a fresh effort was made, and a new band of missionaries was sent out, including Father G. Antonio Cavazzi, the writer of a well-known work on the Congo.
From Aleppo friars were sent, in 1630, to Cairo, under the leader ship of the Blessed Agathange de Vendôme, one of the most remarkable missionaries of the seventeenth century. He was an Arabic scholar, and had published books in Arabic setting forth the Catholic Faith. On the coming of the friars to Cairo Urban VIII addressed a letter to the Catholics in Egypt, bidding them welcome the friars and accord them every assistance. But unhappily the friars found that their work amongst the Copts, for whose reunion with the Roman See they more particularly laboured, was hindered chiefly by the scandalous lives of the European Catholic merchants. Yet the friars obtained leave from the Coptic Patriarch of Alexandria to preach in the churches of the Copts, and the pope even granted them permission to celebrate Mass in the same churches. Father Agathange's influence with the Copts was such that he persuaded the Coptic patriarch to appoint for the Copts in Abyssinia a bishop who would live in peace with the Catholics. In 1637 Father Agathange, together with Father Cassian de Nantes, entered Abyssinia, but owing to the treachery of a German Lutheran they were at once seized and imprisoned, and the following year suffered martyrdom. The Capuchin mission in Abyssinia was thus brought swiftly to a close, but only to be renewed in later years. Towards the end of the last century the friars were again established in the dominions of the Negus, chiefly through the exertions of the celebrated Capuchin missionary afterwards known as Cardinal Massaïa. He has left a record of his experiences in his book, "I miei trentacinque anni nell' alta Etiopia" (Rome and Milan, 1895).
Towards the middle of the seventeenth century the friars established missions in India at Surat, Pegu, Golconda, and Madras, and a little later at Pondicherry. The story of their Indian missions is much the same as elsewhere; they established schools, wrote books in the vernacular of the country, held public conferences with the learned heathen, and found their chief obstacle in the European traders — in this case, the Portuguese. At the present day the missions in India are amongst the most important in the order: the Archdiocese of Agra (the premier diocese in India), the Dioceses of Lahore and Allahabad, and the Prefecture of Rajputana, are entirely served by Capuchins. They still carry on their work in Asia Minor, where they have a flourishing missionary seminary at Smyrna. Other present-day missions are in Central and South America, in Arabia and Somaliland, in the Seychelles, Philippines, and Caroline Islands, in Abyssinia and Mesopotamia; whilst in Europe they carry on missionary work in Constantinople and Bulgaria. In 1906 eight hundred and fifty-five friars of the reform were engaged in foreign missionary labour.
The reform has produced few writers of the first order in literature or scholarship, though the "Bibliotheca Scriptorum Ord. Min. Cap." (Genoa, 1680; Venice, 1747) gives the names of a great number of writers and goodly list of works, many of them of no mean merit. But most of their writings are connected with their apostolic labours — books of sermons, devotional treatises, and works dealing with the history of the missions. In this last department they have produced several valuable works, such as Cavazzi's treatise on the Congo, Dionigi Carli's book on the customs, rites, and religion of the people of Africa, Merolla da Sorrento's account of the Congo and South Africa, and Cardinal Massaïa's work on Abyssinia. In the seventeenth century the French Capuchins were noted for their studies of Oriental languages, and in view of the present revival of the Celtic tongues, it may be recalled that a Breton Capuchin, Gregorius de Rostrenen, published in 1732 "Dictionarium Gallo-Celticum, seu Gallo-Aremoricum" (Rennes, 1732) and "Grammatica cum Syntaxi Gallo-Celtica, seu Gallo-Aremorica" (Rennes, 1738). In Scriptural exegesis Bernardine a Piconio has a deservedly high name as the author of the "Triplex expositio" (1706), whilst in the sixteenth century Francis Titelmann, who left the theological chair of Louvain to put on the habit of St. Francis, gained European repute by his treatises on Scripture and his controversy with Erasmus. Amongst devotional writings, the works of Gaetano da Bergamo, published in the first half of the eighteenth century, have an enduring value; his treatise on humility and meditations on the Passion have both been translated into English. Benedict Canfield's treatise "On the Holy Will of God" has an enduring place in ascetical literature. Amongst modern theologians of merit a place must be given to Albert of Bulsano; and as an authority on canon law the Belgian Capuchin Piatus is much esteemed. In the late revival of Franciscan historical studies, Père Edouard d'Alençon has issued new editions of the "Sacrum Commercium" (Rome, 1900), and the legends of Thomas of Celano (Rome, 1906). Amongst the chroniclers of the order the first place must be given to Boverius, a man of great learning not only as an historian, but as a controversial writer of the sixteenth century. In 1640 Carolus de Arembergh published at Cologne "Flores Seraphici", a voluminous work concerning the noted members of the order.
But the Capuchin friars have at all times been men of action rather than students, and the enormous influence they possessed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was due to their extensive labours as home and foreign missionaries and to the universality of their genius in dealing with the spiritual needs of the people. Amongst the special marks of favour shown them by the Holy See must be mentioned their custody of the Holy House of Loreto, given to them in 1608, and the fact that since 1596 they have had the privilege of supplying the Apostolic preacher at the Roman court. Pope Urban VIII was a special patron of the order. His friendship with the friars was in part due to the fact that his brother, Antonio Barberini, afterwards Cardinal of Sant' Onofrio, was a member of the order. This pope built for them the famous convent of the Barberini in Rome, the architect of which was himself a Capuchin friar, Fra Michaele da Bergamo; and the new church attached to the convent was the first church in Rome to be dedicated in honour of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin. The convent was opened with great solemnity on 15 April, 1631, and Urban VIII signalized the event by appointing Fra Michaele architect of the Apostolic palace. The convent was the headquarters of the order until a few years ago, when the minister general and his curia were expelled by the Italian government, which now uses the greater part of the convent as a barracks, leaving only a few friars to take care of the church. We may here take note that the reform has given many cardinals and bishops to the Church; sixteen of its members have been canonized or beatified, and the cause of others is in process at Rome with a view to canonization.
That the friars came in for much of the abuse levelled against the Church and especially against the religious orders, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, only testifies to their influence and zeal. Except the Jesuits, no religious order has, perhaps been more vilely lampooned. In France, during the seventeenth century, book after book appeared defaming the friars; one of these was translated into English and published in London in 1671 under the title of "The Monk's Hood pull'd off, or the Capuchin Fryar described".

The reform in English-speaking countries

It was in 1599 that the first friars of the reform came to England. These were Father Benedict Canfield, an Englishman, and Father Chrysostom, a Scotchman. Benedict Canfield was of Puritan parentage, but had embraced the Catholic Faith whilst yet a student. As a friar he was reputed a powerful preacher, and was a writer of note. But he had hardly landed in England when he and his companion were seized and imprisoned. He was released at the end of three years and expelled the kingdom. Amongst other friars who came to England about this time were Father Archangel, "the Scotch Capuchin", who became the subject of a popular Italian biography, written by the Papal Legate Rinuccini, in which, however, the author's imagination played freely around historical fact; and Epiphanius Lindsay, described in the Memoir of P. Cyprien de Gamache as "son of the Count of Maine", but probably of the family of the Lindsays, lairds of Mains in Kirkcudbrightshire. But in 1630 the missionaries were withdrawn, when Henrietta Maria, Queen of Charles I, brought over twelve Capuchins as royal chaplains. Under the protection of the court, the friars publicly celebrated Mass and preached, sometimes holding controversies with the Protestants, and they are said to have made many conversions. Their mission, however, was abruptly terminated when Queen Henrietta went to Holland to solicit aid for the king against the Parliament. The royal chapel was closed, and the friars told to consider themselves prisoners in their own house. They were afterwards sent back to France. They returned at the Restoration of Charles II, but only for a few years. From this time no Capuchin seems to have come to England until Father Arthur O'Leary, the brilliant Irish friar, settled in London, in 1789, ostensibly as chaplain to the Spanish Embassy, but really to minister to the Irish Catholics, for whom he built St. Patrick's Church in Soho Square. He died in 1802. The present province of England was not established until the latter end of the last century, through the instrumentality of Father Louis of Lavagna, an Italian friar, who came to England in 1850 with the intention of proceeding to Canada, but having arrived in London he was induced to stay there and minister to the wants of the Catholics in the district of Peckham. Here he built a small church, and at his request other friars were sent over to assist him. At this time the Franciscan Order had virtually died out in England. Only one Father of the Recollect Province founded in the time of Queen Mary remained, and he ended his days a few years later in the house of the Capuchins at Pontypool, thus creating a link between the new Franciscan foundation and the old.
The order rapidly took root on English soil. Ten years after the coming of Father Louis of Lavagna the friars had four canonical communities at Peckham, Pantasaph, Chester, and Pontypool, besides several stations; during the next few years they established several houses in the Diocese of Southwark, so that in 1873 it was thought expedient to erect the English houses into a canonical province. The province is yet too young to afford much matter in the way of history of general interest; but it may be noted that in little more than half a century the friars have established thirty-five missions, most of which have been given over to the bishops when they were able to support a secular priest; besides the parochial work thus entailed, they are continually employed in missionary labours outside their own parishes. In 1904 several friars of the province were sent to establish a house in Mendocino, California, which is to be the centre for missionary work in Mendocino county, now given into their charge by the Archbishop of San Francisco. They also have undertaken to supply missionaries for the Vicariate of Aden in Arabia. In 1905, at the request of the Bishop of Southwark, the friars undertook a unique mission to Catholic hop-pickers. Every year in the month of September there is a large exodus of the London poor into the hop-gardens of Kent; of these poor Catholics average yearly about ten thousand. Until 1905 no provision was made for the spiritual needs of the Catholic hop-pickers, and hardly any of them during the period of picking were able to hear Mass or receive the sacraments. Now each year when the hop-picking begins, Capuchin friars, assisted by Sisters of Mercy and lay workers, men and women, go down to the hop-district. The work has distinctive characteristics. The majority of the hop-pickers are of the very poorest class, whence chiefly comes the leakage from the Church; they seldom enter a church, and often are lost to the priest in the shiftings and maze of London life. In the Kentish hop-gardens they come again under the influence of the priest and religion. The work is as yet in its infancy, but it is big with possibilities for regaining to the Faith the indifferent and lapsed amongst our Catholic London poor; and it is characteristically Franciscan in its object and methods, for once again the friar is seen celebrating Mass and preaching in the open fields amongst the ill-clad and the hungry. In 1906 the friars were able to restore one of the broken links in the history of English Franciscans by their return to Oxford, once glorified by the learning amidst poverty of the sons of the Poverello. On the outskirts of the city they have secured a school for the training of candidates for the order, whence they can look down upon Merton College, where, according to tradition, Duns Scotus lectured, and upon the site of the ancient friary where the relics of Blessed Agnellus of Pisa — sent by St. Francis to establish the English province — were enshrined until their dispersion in the reign of Henry VIII.
It was in 1615 that the first friar of the Capuchin reform came to Ireland, Father Stephen Daly. He was sent over by father Francis Nugent, whom in 1608, had received a papal commission to establish the reform in his native land. According to Bernardine of Colpetrazo, the other branches of the Franciscan Order had, in 1549, petitioned the general chapter of the Capuchins to send over friars to introduce the reform into the Franciscan houses of that country; but this was impossible, since at that time the decree of Paul III was still in force which forbade the Capuchin reform to establish houses outside Italy. Francis Nugent, the actual founder of the Irish province, was a remarkable man. He had already introduced the reform into the Rhine country when he petitioned the Roman authorities to set aside a house of the order for the reception of Irish friars. Accordingly, the convent of Charleville, in the Low Countries, was given him for this purpose, and thither the Irish friars from all provinces were sent to form a community whence the Irish foundation might be begun. The convent of Charleville thus became the novitiate and alma mater of the province of Ireland. In 1615, first Stephen Daly and then four other friars were sent over. At first they lived separately wherever they could; but in 1623 or 1624 (the exact date seems uncertain) they took a house in Bridge Street, Dublin, where they lived in community. But in 1630 the house was seized by the Lords Justices and conferred upon the University of Dublin. The friars, however, remained in the country, and were gradually reinforced in numbers: several of them suffered imprisonment and banishment for the Faith. In 1642, the Irish mission numbered fifty-one friars, with houses in Dublin, Slane, Limerick, Mullingar, Drogheda, and Cork. In 1733 they had fourteen houses in Ireland and two in France, and were that year erected into a canonical province. Just then began one of the saddest periods in the history of the Irish people. Persecution and famine for a time seemed to break the spirit of the people; vocations became scarce, and the Irish province became almost extinct. It lingered on, however. In 1771 Father Arthur O'Leary built a church in Cork, and the friars reopened houses in Dublin and Kilkenny. The last days of the old province were made illustrious by the apostolic labours of the world-famous Father Theobald Mathew, the propagator of the temperance movement. After being for a while united with the friars in England under a commissary-general, the Irish friars were again, in 1873, formed into a separate "custody", with autonomous government, and in 1885 the canonical province was re-established. There are now four convents of the order in Ireland, with eighty- nine friars. From the days of Father Mathew, the Irish friars have been to the front in forwarding the temperance movement initiated by him; but in October 1905, the Irish hierarchy formally entrusted to them the preaching of a national crusade of temperance. Since then the friars are to be found in all parts of the country carrying out their mission.
On the American continent the Capuchins not only have flourishing missions in Central and south America, they have also two provinces in the United States a missionary district in California, served by the English province, and missions in Canada, served by French friars. The present establishment of the friars in the United States dates from 1857; but there were missionary Capuchins in the present territories of the United States and Canada early in the seventeenth century. In 1632 friars of the province of Paris were put in charge of the missions in Acadia. The centre of the mission was at Port Royal, now Annapolis, but it extended from Hancock County, in Maine, northwards, to the Bay of Chaleur. They seem also to have had missions in the Antilles, for in 1641 the friar, Father Pacifique, was murdered there whilst on a visitation of the missions. The missions in Acadia were in a flourishing condition when the English Puritans broke up the settlement in 1655 and expelled the friars. Yet in 1656 the friars were still at work amongst the Micmac Indians. In 1714 French Capuchins were invited to undertake missions in Louisiana by the coadjutor Bishop of Quebec, de Mornay, himself a Capuchin Friar. They remained there until 1770, when for political reasons, Spanish friars took the place of their French brethren. They had missions in New Orleans, St. Louis, Galveston, Mobile, Pensacola, Natchez, Natchitoches, and other places. But in 1800 the friars were withdrawn. In 1787 two German friars were in charge of the Holy Trinity Church, Philadelphia.
But, as has been said, the present establishment of the friars in the United States dates from 1857; and its history is one of romantic incidents in the history of the reform. The chance visit of a young Swiss from the United States to his native land, and his recital of the spiritual needs of America, inspired two secular priests in Switzerland with the idea of introducing the Capuchin Order into the United States. They resigned their parishes and, going out to America, were given Mt. Calvary, Wisconsin, as the site of a Capuchin convent, by the Bishop of Milwaukee. At the express with of Pope Pius IX these two secular priests were then clothed with the religious habit and commissioned to lay the foundation of a new province. At the present day this province has houses at Mt. Calvary, Milwaukee, New York, Brooklyn, Detroit, Appleton, and Yonkers. In New York they have four parishes, and three parishes in Milwaukee; at Mt. Calvary they have a flourishing college, begun in 1864. Besides the province of Mt. Calvary, there is also the province of Pennsylvania, established by Bavarian and Westphalian friars, driven from their native home by the Kulturkampf. The first house of this province was established at Pittsburg in 1874; but it was not till 1882 that the province became autonomous, at which time it had houses in Pittsburg, Herman, Pa.; Victoria, Kan.; Peoria, Metamora, Ill., and Cumberland, Md. The fathers of this province have introduced into the United States a charitable institution which has had remarkable success in Germany, the Seraphisches Liebeswerk — the "Seraphic Work of Charity". This society aims at assisting destitute Catholic children to obtain Catholic education, by placing them in institutions or in private families. The centre of this work is at the Capuchin convent, Pittsburg, Pa.
In Canada, the French Capuchins have houses in Ottawa and Quebec, and a missionary centre for work amongst the Micmac Indians at Sainte-Anne de Restigouche. The work carried on here is reminiscent of the heroic days of the Canadian mission. From the mission centre the fathers make missionary tours amongst the scattered Indians. The Micmac number about four thousand; they are much attached to their religion and language, and show no signs of decay.
Amongst Capuchins of note who have laboured in North America, mention must be made of Ignazio Persico, Bishop of Savannah from 1870 till 1872, and afterwards cardinal. Another cardinal still living, Cardinal Vives y Tuto, took his vows as a Capuchin Friar at Santa Clara College, San Francisco, in 1872, and was for a time a member of the community at Milwaukee. Nor may we omit the name of Bishop Charbonel, who resigned the See of Toronto to take the Capuchin habit. It was he who invited the saintly friar, Louis of Lavagna, founder of the present English province, to take up missionary work in Toronto in 1856. The friar only lived nine months after reaching Toronto, drying on 17 March, 1857; yet during that short period he had gained the reputation of a saint.
Thus are the Capuchins, together with their brethren of the other families of the Franciscan Oder, taking up again in English-speaking lands the traditions of past centuries with renewed vigour. The troubles of the past may have purified, they have not broken, the Franciscan spirit.
By way of distinction from other religious, the Capuchin Friars in most countries append the "O.M. Cap."(Ordinis Minorum, Capuccinorum) after their names; but in England and Ireland they sign "O.S.F.C." (Ordinis Sancti Francisci, Capuccinorum) in accordance with the use of the ancient English province.

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Sources

Collectio Authentica Ordinationum Capit. Gen. in Anaclecta Ord. Cap., V. Vi; BOVERIUS, Annales Ord. S. Fr. Cap. (Lyons, 1632), I, II; Bullarium Ord. Cap. (Rome, 1740); Innsbruck, (1883-4); Bibliotheca Script. Ord. Cap. (Venice, 1747); Chronica Fr. Joannis Romoei, in Analecta Ord. Cap., XXII; D'AREMBERGH, Flores Seraphici (Cologne, 1640); PELLEGRINO DA FORLI, Annali Cappuccini (Milan, 1882); ROCCO DA CESINALE, Missione dei Cappuccini (Paris, 1867); Chronicle of the English Province, in Franciscan Annals (Crawley, England,) XIII; The Capuchins in English-speaking Lands, in Seraphic Child of Mary (pub. By the Capuchins of Pennsylvania), IV. V.