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Francis and His Followers
The Franciscan Friars have been around for more than 800 years, praying, begging, and helping those that are even less fortunate than them. They live with the bare minimum to survive. It is particularly interesting that in today’s materialistic society, an organization that is based on having so little is still not only around, but thriving in certain areas. This paper will discuss the order of the Franciscan Friars, including the life of their founder Francis, their beginnings, and their role in the world in modern times.
St. Francis was born in 1182 in Assisi, a small town in Italy 100 miles north of Rome (Hauser). Francis’s father was a wealthy cloth merchant, and his mother was from a rich family (Appelbaum). He started to move to a religious lifestyle in his early twenties, having experienced battle, imprisonment, and illness (Appelbaum). His big jump, however, into religion was when he heard a “divine call” to “rebuild my church.” He interpreted it to mean physically reconstructing a crumbling chapel called the Portiuncula (Appelbaum). To get the money for this reconstruction, Francis sold some of his father’s cloth and his own horse (Appelbaum). When his father confronted him about the sold cloth, Francis repaid the cloth prices, and, dramatically, stripped off the clothes he was wearing. He said from then on, his only father would be God (Appelbaum).
Francis then gathered 12 disciples and led them to Rome to ask permission of the pope for his order. The pope expressed doubt, but in 1209 he gave his blessing (“Order”). The early, small group of Franciscans supported themselves by manual work, begging, and accepting non-monetary gifts (Appelbaum). They were content with their identity of “minori,” or lesser citizens (Appelbaum). They sacrificed everything for the greater good, and their order grew with time.
In 1219, Francis fulfilled his desire to travel to Damietta in the midst of the fifth crusade to be a missionary among the Muslims (Powell). In 1224, he is said to have received the stigmata, the wound and nail marks of Jesus when he was crucified (Hauser). Francis is credited with being the first to use a real crib, baby, and beasts in a Christmas celebration (Hauser). Though a substantial amount of Francis’s writings have survived, they aren’t very biographical (Appelbaum). This has given rise to a number of probably false stories about him. These stories often describe his interactions with birds and animals, his love of holy obedience, and his willingness to suffer (Appelbaum). A favorite is of Francis preaching to the birds, who stopped singing to listen to him. One tale that’s accepted as true has Francis praising God for “Brother Sun,” “Sister Water,” and other natural elements (Appelbaum). He was very well known for this love of animals and nature but almost as well known for his preaching. “Francis’s preaching,” described Thomas of Spalato, “was more moral and practical than abstract or theological. He spoke about specific evils and worked to promote peace. His concern about factionalism struck a deep chord in society the even looked to the crusade to relieve itself of those who brought discord” (Powell).
When Francis died in October of 1226, he was with a few close friends (Hauser; Roest). At the time of his death he’d been out of the decision-making process of the Order for a while (Roest). His friends continued to live secluded from others, and away from the changes their Order was going through, which is this paper’s next topic.
The Franciscans were founded, most likely, in 1208 (“Order”). In the early days they managed to obtain the little chapel of Santa Maria degli Angeli, where they built huts out of branches to begin their life of preaching and poverty (“Order”). They visited the villages in the daytime to preach, and returned to their cells in the evening to pray (Roest). Francis set up three orders: the Friars Minor, made up of the brothers; the Poor Clares, made up of cloistered nuns; and the tertiaries, made up of the married or single men and women wishing to live like St. Francis, but without being so cut off from the world (Hauser). Franciscan homes, which were ideally meant to house no more than four friars (Roest), had “mothers” and “sons.” Two friars were “mothers.” They made sure the “sons’” silence wouldn’t be disturbed (Roest). The other two friars were the “sons.” They spent hours in their rooms praying. After a while, “mothers” and “sons” switched places (Roest).
Even before Francis’s death, the order was having problems (Roest). Ironically, poverty became an issue. Some reasoned that Friars Minor should be able to hold property in common, something never allowed before (Hauser). A sub-group of the Friars Minor, called Franciscan Spirituals, advocated poverty, even though, in order to survive, the friars felt that they could no longer permit it (Roest). The Spirituals hated convents or settled life. They grew stronger, and one of their heroes became Pope St. Celestine V. They became a major social and religious debate in Italy (“Franciscans”). Some Spirituals even took over some Friaries by force in the early 14th century to make sure Francis’s ideals were upheld to the full (Roest). Most friaries, though, were used as halfway houses to keep oppositioners under control. Rebellious friars were imprisoned there for a time (Roest).
In 1322, Pope John XXII let the Franciscans own property, effectively putting a stop to their boast that their way was better (“Franciscans”). The Spiritual movement was suppressed, but the underlying tension never went away (Roest). In the 16th century, the group split into the Friars Minor, the property-owning Conventuals, and the strict Capuchins (Hauser). These orders still exist in modern times.
Today, there are friars all over the globe. American friars run a number of radio and TV programs, like the Hour of St. Francis, along with some religious publishing houses, producing publications like St. Anthony’s Messenger (Hauser). They run a number of schools and colleges, including St. Bonaventure University, Quincy College, and St. Francis College (Hauser). Their churches are jam-packed, especially on Tuesdays, when their world wide known specialty devotions take place (Hauser). Franciscan service churches are always open, with at least one friar in attendance to hear confessions or administer the sacraments (Hauser). They work on spiritual duty in the coal mines in the Ruhr, serve as chaplains in hospitals or American prisons, and care for lepers in the tropics (Hauser). At home they teach or preach, administer the sacraments, or care for the sick and the poor (Hauser). They have been granted custody of the Holy Land by the pope, and they maintain and service the Christian sanctuaries in Jerusalem, Nazareth, Bethlehem, and Jericho (Hauser).
So many jobs require a lot of friars. In America, 200 new members join each year (Hauser). The friars are doing well in Poland and Germany, too, but in Hungary, Lithuania, and Romania they have all but been forgotten. But being forgotten is better than being jailed or expelled, which is what has happened to the friars in Red China. Before the Communist takeover, there were 400 friars, now, who knows (Hauser)? Still, there are 46,000 Franciscans worldwide (Hauser). They’re the second largest order in the Roman Catholic Church, with only the Jesuit Order being bigger (Hauser). Thousands of Americans still visit the Franciscan shrines in Italy every year, no matter what their religion (Hauser). People are still going through the ten years it takes to become a friar, often leaving their house at 17, studying for a year at a novitiate, then going to a Franciscan study home, then taking college courses in theology and philosophy, usually in Latin (Hauser). Around 21 or 22 each trainee takes vows of Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience. These are symbolized in three knots on a white cord that every Franciscan wears around his waist (Hauser). The trainee then enters the priesthood at 26, completes a one-year apprenticeship, and is assigned his place within the Order (Hauser). If he is one of the 6,000 like him, he’ll be a missionary, usually in Latin America or Asia (Hauser).
No matter what the task, as a rule, to be a Franciscan, one has to go without. The individual Franciscan is not allowed to own property (Hauser). Their rooms are called “cells,” and for good reason. The average friar’s cell may have hot running water, clean bedding, an easy chair, a desk, and possibly a telephone, if he lives in the United States (Hauser). But in North Africa and Europe there are friars who have tiny, drafty, dripping rooms, eat once or twice a week, and wear dirty old clothes they haven’t changed in a while (Hauser). In Italy, Franciscans walk the countryside at Harvest, begging for their food (Hauser). It is just part of their lifestyle.
The Franciscans have always held a firm policy of taking only what was necessary. And even though today they aren’t living in huts and wishing they could own a donkey, they’re still one of the least materialistic orders out there, after eight centuries. They have survived while many others like them have not. Perhaps it’s because of their famous good humor and strong sense of obedience, or maybe they’re just too important for the world to give up. Anyway, the Franciscan Friars are going to be around for a while.
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