Franciscan Order

FRANCISCANS ARE members of a Roman Catholic religious order that requires poverty of its members.

The men's or First Order was founded by Giovanni Francesco Bernardone, an Italian mystic and preacher, known as St. Francis of Assisi. The women's or Second Order was first led by Francis's disciple, Clare Offreduccio, who became known as St. Clare of Assisi.

The Franciscans were one of four 13th-century orders of mendicant or begging friars, the Franciscans, Dominicans, Carmelites, and Augustinians. Unlike earlier monastic orders, which lived in the solitude of monasteries, Franciscans served active lives within the world, ministering to the needy. Their early ministry, dwelling places, and clothing were those of the poorest and most despised of their day: lepers. Francis wrote several Rules of Life that set out how his followers were to live out their vows. These included:

Earlier Rule VII: “None of the brothers should be administrators or managers in whatever places they are staying among others to serve or to work, nor should they be supervisors in the houses in which they serve. Instead, they should be the lesser ones and subject to all who are in the same house. And they may receive for their work everything necessary except money.”

Earlier Rule VIII: “None of the brothers should in any way carry, receive, or have received either money or coins, whether of clothing or books or payment for any work. If by chance some brother has collected or is hoarding money or coins all the brothers are to consider him as a false brother and an apostate and a thief and a robber.”

Later Rule VI: “The brothers shall not acquire anything as their own, neither a house nor a place or anything at all.”

After five Franciscan missionaries were put to death by the Sultan of Morocco on January 16, 1220, Francis counseled the friars to go gently and humbly into mission lands. Earlier Rule XVI instructed: “One way to conduct oneself in mission lands is to not engage in arguments or disputes, but to be subject to every human creature for God's sake and to acknowledge that they are Christians.”

Franciscans were to identify themselves with the marginalized of society by being vulnerable and powerless. Shortly before his death, Francis dictated a Testament summarizing the religious ideals he wished to bequeath to his followers: “And those who came to [Page 394]receive life gave to the poor everything which they were capable of possessing and they were content with one tunic, patched inside and out, with a cord and short trousers. And we had no desire for anything more. And we were simple and subject to all.”

As a young man, Francis had led a worldly, carefree life. As a prisoner of war in 1204, he suffered a severe illness during which he renewed his faith. Upon his release, he began performing charities among the lepers and worked on the restoration of dilapidated churches. Francis's change of character and his expenditures for charity angered his father.

He devoted himself to the care of outcasts in the woods of Mount Subasio. In 1208, while restoring the ruined chapel of Santa Maria degli Angeli, he felt a divine call to go out into the world and to follow Christ's instructions in Matthew 10:5–14 to possess nothing but to preach the Gospel through word and deed. Clad in his customary rough garment, barefoot and without a staff or money, he began to preach repentance. He was joined by a prominent fellow townsman, Bernardo di Quintavalle, who sold all that he had, gave it to the poor, then followed. Soon 11 others had joined the group and lived in a deserted lepers’ hut.

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