History of the Franciscan Order

For 300 years, Franciscans were at the forefront of the spread of Catholicism in the New World. In the late seventeenth century, Franciscans developed a far-reaching, systematic missionary program in Spain and the Americas. After founding the first college of propaganda fide in the Mexican city of Querétaro, the Franciscan Order established six additional colleges in New Spain, ten in South America, and twelve in Spain. From these colleges Franciscans proselytized Indians in frontier territories as well as Catholics in rural and urban areas in eighteenth-century Spain and Spanish America.

To Sin No More is the first book to study these colleges, their missionaries, and their multifaceted, sweeping missionary programs. By focusing on the recruitment of non-Catholics to Catholicism as well as the deepening of religious fervor among Catholics, David Rex Galindo shows how the Franciscan colleges expanded and shaped popular Catholicism in the eighteenth-century Spanish Atlantic world. This book explores the motivations driving Franciscan friars, their lives inside the colleges, their training, and their ministry among Catholics, an often-overlooked duty that paralleled missionary deployments. Rex Galindo argues that Franciscan missionaries aimed to reform or "reawaken" Catholic parishioners just as much as they sought to convert non-Christian Indians.

Introduction et traduction en français de l’Histoire des Mongols de Jean de Plancarpin, accompagnée d’une traduction de documents ayant trait au voyage dans l’empire mongol de Jean de Plancarpin (lettres et privilèges missionnaires rédigés par Innocent IV, Histoire des Tartares du frère C. de Bridia, compte-rendu de Benoît de Pologne, extraits de la chronique de Salimbene de Adam avec la réponse au pape du grand-khan Güyük).

Generations of scholars have studied the multifaceted experiences of the Franciscans in Mexico and how the Franciscan order shaped New Spain and the early Mexican republic. Recent scholarship has given long-overdue attention to the evangelized natives. Most of these works focus on a specific region or period, or on a particular aspect of Franciscan ministries in New Spain. A comprehensive account of the Franciscans in Mexico over the long term has been missing, until now.

This book analyzes the Franciscans’ engagement with native peoples, creole populations, the viceregal authorities, and the Spanish empire as a whole in order to offer a broad picture of Catholic evangelization in North America while keeping the Franciscans at the center of the story. Published in 2021, during commemoration of the quincentenary of the Spanish—and thus the Franciscan—presence in Mexico, the book brings together the research of junior and senior scholars from Mexico, Spain, and the United States on the long-enduring and far-reaching Franciscan presence in Mexico.

This book presents the present relevance of the Franciscan charism and tradition in facing the socio-environmental and communicative challenges of our globalized society. The Franciscan perspective fits well with the type of horizontal, intuitive, and interactive communication that predominates in the digital age. Francis of Assisi is also universally recognized as a model of dialogue and integral ecology. By reassuming the core of their own charism, Franciscans will be able to nurture “a more passionate concern for the protection of our world” and will be able to foster authentically human communication.

The book shows the current importance of certain basic human attitudes, such as listening, contemplation, discernment, dialogue, and a good economic management. Franciscan witness of the logic of gift in these areas should be as important and significant today as it has been throughout history.

Con la predicazione dei Mendicanti nel corso dell'Alleluia (1233) si ha la prima affermazione pubblica dei frati entro il mondo comunale italiano. Essi seppero modellare la loro comunicazione pubblica sui modelli elaborati dalla retorica comunale, in particolare la concio e ottennero un insperato successo presso la popolazione. La loro predicazione in favore della pacificazione e del rinnovamento dei costumi fu alla base del successo politico di alcuni esponenti di entrambi gli Ordini (Giovanni da Vicenza e Gherardo da Modena, soprattutto), che furono proclamati 'rettori' rispettivamente di Bologna, di Vicenza e di Parma.
Il modello inaugurato in questa occasione dai Mendicanti ottenne un duraturo successo e rivelò al papato le potenzialità insite nella predicazione dei frati.

THE FIRST PATRONS OF VILNIUS FRIARS MINOR CONVENTUAL: A STUDY OF THE 1522 CHARTER OF KING SIGISMUND THE OLD
Darius Baronas
Summary
On December 3, 1522, king of Poland and grand duke of Lithuania Sigismund the Old issued a charter whereby he confirmed all donations and emoluments granted by his predecessors, by magnates, boyars and townspeople to the Franciscans of Vilnius established there in about 1387. The documents were brought to the royal attention by guardian George of Cracow who asserted that he managed to collect only 54 ones, while the rest must have perished due to the lack of care on the part of his own predecessros. Fortunately, the guardian was not quite right as no less than 27 pertinent documents do survive to this day. The analysis of all of them (81) allowed us to break down the patrons into such groups as grand dukes 4 (4,9%), magnates 15 (18,5%), boyars 55 (67,9%) and townspeople 7 (8,6%). It was then possible to establish what kind of relations and by what families were maintained between the lay people and friars. It has turned out that the grand dukes and magnates provided only grants and did this up to the mid-15th century, while the townspeople and boyars displayed a more variegated pattern of relations ranging from grants to sales for real price to sales below the real value. The most intense relations between the friars and the boyars started sometime from the mid-15th century onward, and this correlates well with the advancement of boyars as founders and patrons of churches and other charitable activities. The 1522 charter contains information relevant to the establishment of this mother-house of the Lithuanian Franciscans and its subsequent rise to prominence. It also displays data valuable in terms of historical geography and persons involved. The reason for the making of this charter itself is to be viewed in the attempts of the Franciscans to safeguard their holdings around the manor of Kena and inside Vilnius by having them declared to be exempt from secular authorities and placed under the regime of ecclesiastical immunity. This concern was timely enough as the movement of Protestant Reformation was gathering pace in German lands and was beginning to be felt in this part of Europe too.
Appendix 1 contains a critical edition of this hitherto unpublished charter. Its original is kept at Cracow, in Biblioteka Naukowa PAU i PAN – Ms. 481.

Caterina Vigri's practice of "exhorting and leading" her sisters, especially in the setting of their weekly Chapter Meeting, was at the core of her Clarissan Observant identity.  Thus, this chapter will use the Sermoni to explore the educational mechanics that defined Clarissan community at the end of the Middle Ages. Caterina herself describes this all-encompassing process of spiritual learning at the end of Sermon II.  Here, she, as teacher, addresses her ultimate instructor – Christ: 

I have – so as to gain your greatest favor and mercy – learned all of the things that I have said above, as well as those that will be related in writing below, out of most holy love for you. I learned them partly from reading your holy books, and partly from listening to our preacher fathers.  I also learned them from reading an even greater compendium of your holy mysteries in the book of your most loving person on the cross, and in the wound of your open side, the true entry into your wisdom…

These words evoke the imbricated practices of preaching and writing, listening and reading, feeling and thinking that were required ofthe virtuous sisters of the Corpus Domini monasteries.  This chapter will explore the foundation of such practices, exploring how Caterina constructed the authority to preach and examining the communal setting in which she did so. It will then expose the conversational nature of her teaching style and probe its origins.  It will finally evaluate, to the extent possible, the effects of this regular preaching on the communal life of Clarissan Observants.

This paper highlights the positive aspects of economic, financial, legal and cultural globalization. Then, it exposes the dangers and disadvantages that attend the rise in globalization. Specifically, it treats the ways that apathy and indifference become a new global phenomenon. It concludes  with a consideration of how a Franciscan imagination counteracts these increasingly globalized forms of indifference.

In questo momento assai delicato della nostra storia e del nostro presente, aggravato da una difficile crisi economico-finanziaria, non è fuori luogo il ricorso al paradigma etico-economico e socio-politico della Scuola francescana. Esso propone una sintesi tra concorrenza e condivisione, tra competizione e solidarietà, aggregando ai due elementi classici del sistema economico – valore d’uso e valore di scambio – un terzo elemento che racchiude entrambi: il valore legame. Superando quindi la contrapposizione for profit/no profit, il pensiero francescano suggerisce un operare economico fondato sul donare e ricevere, su condivisione e scambio.
Il francescanesimo non è, pertanto, solo prassi ascetico-mistica, né solamente una filosofia e una teologia, ma anche – e in particolare – una metodologia etico-sociale, alla quale Oreste Bazzichi ci introduce a partire dalle idee e dai testi di pensatori come Duns Scoto e Bernardino da Siena. Un percorso che ha come esito l’istituzione dei Monti di Pietà e l’invenzione del microcredito, e che ci porta a riconsiderare la storia del pensiero economico secondo un’etica del profitto profondamente rinnovata.

Indice:

Prefazione
Introduzione
1. Il metodo francescano dell’ agire socio-economico e politico
2. Fecondità del paradigma etico-economico francescano
3. Il modello socio-economico nel pensiero e nella predicazione di Bernardino da Siena
4. Fra Luca Pacioli, ideatore della moderna economia aziendale
5. Attualità dell’ invenzione dei Monti di Pietà
6. Un approccio al discorso “politico” francescano
7. La predicazione socio-politica e pastorale in piazza
8. Dal discorso socio-economico e politico francescano al modello “civile”
Conclusione
Nota bibliografica ragionata
Appendice antologica
Indice dei nomi

Nota sull'Autore
Oreste Bazzichi è docente di Sociologia alla Pontificia Facoltà Teologica S. Bonaventura – Seraphicum (Roma) e di Deontologia nel Master in comunicazione d’impresa alla Pontificia Università S. Tommaso (Roma). Collabora a diversi periodici e fa parte della redazione della rivista scientifica della Fondazione Giuseppe Toniolo, La Società. Dal 1968 al 2005 ha svolto la sua attività professionale come funzionario e poi come dirigente di Confindustria: da questa esperienza è nato il volume Cent’anni di Confindustria (1910-2010). Un secolo di sviluppo italiano, pubblicato nel 2009 per libreriauniversitaria.it Edizioni. La sua attività di studioso si rivolge oggi all’analisi dei rapporti tra etica ed economia, con particolare attenzione ai teologi e canonisti della Scuola francescana. Tra le sue pubblicazioni più recenti: Dall’usura al giusto profitto. L’etica economica della Scuola francescana, Torino, 2008; Il paradosso francescano tra povertà e società di mercato. Dai Monti di Pietà alle nuove frontiere del credito, Torino, 2011; Giuseppe Toniolo. Alle origini della dottrina sociale della Chiesa, Torino, 2012. Ha realizzato inoltre dei contributi per l’Istituto dell’Enciclopedia Italiana Treccani.

,,Dann war der heilige Franz von Assisi gekommen und hatte eine Liebe zur Armut gepredigt, die den Vorschriften der Kirche nicht widersprach [... ]. So hätte nun eine Zeit des Friedens und der Heiligkeit anbrechen können, doch im gleichen Maße, wie der franziskanische Orden wuchs und die besten Männer in seinen Bannkreis zog, wuchs auch seine Macht und sein Hang zu den irdischen Dingen, weshalb immer mehr Franziskaner aufbegehrten und die Brüder zurückführen wollten zur ursprünglichen Reinheit. Was freilich eine recht schwierige Sache war, hatte der Orden doch zur Zeit meines Besuchs in der Abtei schon mehr als dreißigtausend Mitglieder in aller Welt." (Umberto Eco, Der Name der Rose).

Franziskus von Assisi (1181/82 - 1226) war der Sohn des reichen Tuchhändlers Pietro Bernardone aus Assisi und sollte der Gründer eines der beiden großen christlichen Bettelorden werden. In welcher Radikalität Armut innerhalb dieses Ordens praktiziert werden sollte, war bereits zu Lebzeiten des kurz nach seinem Tod heilig gesprochenen Ordensgründers umstritten. Dieser Streit erreichte im ersten Viertel des 14. Jahrhunderts einen ersten Höhepunkt als er sich mit dem politischen Konflikt zwischen Papst Johannes XXII. und dem römisch-deutschen Kaiser Ludwig IV. (dem Bayern) verband.

Ein auf die Minderbrüder beschränkter Entwurf basierend auf "Die frühe Ordenskleidung der Franziskaner und Dominikaner" mit neueren Überlegungen.
Was trugen die frühen Minderbrüder - und warum? Beantwortet mit Quellenarbeit, der gleichberechtigten Zusammenschau von Bild-, Text- und Sachquellen und Wissen um zeitgenössische Kleidung.

“Legenda minor” di Bonaventura: un conciso elogio di san Francesco ad uso liturgico.
L’articolo nella sua prima (e più estesa) parte è dedicato alla questione della datazione della Legenda minor e il suo rapporto alla Legenda maior. Il punto di partenza è costituito dalla recente discussione sorta a questo proposito tra Felice Accrocca e Timothy J. Johnson. Vengono riesaminate le testimonianze storiche, il contenuto e i dati contenuti nei più antichi codici dell’opuscolo bonaventuriano, specialmente le rubriche o didascalie relative all’uso del testo e alla sua copiatura. Si propone come periodo di composizione l’arco di tempo tra l’estate del 1262 e la fine dell’inverno del 1263 e come luogo Parigi, dove sarebbero stati eseguiti anche i primi exemplaria del testo.
Nelle parti successive si parla delle fonti della Legenda minor, della sua struttura e dell’immagine di san Francesco che san Bonaventura vuole trasmettere ai lettori. L’accento particolare viene posto al ruolo della croce e del Crocifisso nella vita di Francesco, al suo amore per la pace. Inoltre vengono analizzati i titoli di Francesco e le figure bibliche a lui applicate.

A Franciscan historian comes to learn of an ancient manuscript being auctioned off in the United States; it seems like the plot of a mystery novel. Indeed , this is the premise needed to comprehend the origin of the publication. The scholar senses the priceless value of this little codex, so battered, so completely unknown until today. His intuition is confirmed by more extensive studies: the manuscript is the only witness to come down to us of a " Life of Blessed Francis " written by Thomas of Celano between 1232 and 1239. This is the first " life " written expressly for the brothers at the request of Brother Elias, their Minister General and beloved companion of Francis. The " life " presented in this text, even if it was found some eight hundred years after it was written, has not lost any of its fascination as it offers us a surprisingly contemporary face of the Poverello of Assisi. (From the Italian edition)

"Franciscan models in the hagiography on Bernardino of Siena
A comparison between several legendae on Bernardino and the main texts of franciscan hagiographical tradition (Legenda maior and Legenda minor by Bonaventura of Bagnoregio, vita of Anthony of Padua by Julian of Speyer, the liturgical officia of the two saints) shows many intertextual links (style, structure, etc.) and the persistance of a unique model of holiness. Bernardino is not seen by hagiographers as an observant saint, but as a franciscan one, and he is a glory for both observant and conventual part. Yet, he is not a mere alter Franciscus, but rather an alius Franciscus, for he renewed - in a different age and in different ways - the historical and eschatological role recognized to the founder of this Order.
"

Książka zawiera biogramy 202 bernardynów, których obecność jako gwardianów, wikariuszy, kaznodziejów bądź lektorów udało się potwierdzić w Świeciu nad Wisłą w XVIII wieku. Biogramy zostały napisane w schematyczny sposób, w celu ułatwienia późniejszej analizy prozopograficznej. Analizie poddane zostało m.in. pochodzenie społeczne i geograficzne zakonników, przydzielono ich do zaproponowanych modeli kariery, a nawet obliczono średnią długość życia w poszczególnych grupach.

As Executive Editor of Medieval Encounters. "The Influence of Inter-Cultural Engagement on the Perceptions of Mendicant Friars in the Thirteenth Century Concerning Islam and Muslims" (Rickie Lette); "A Medieval Hebrew Adaptation of Two Crusading Texts: Presentation, Analysis and Edition" (Pinchas Roth and Jonathan Rubin); "Tradition in Transition: Mudejar Art and the Emergence of the Illuminated Sephardic Bible in Christian Toledo"
(Sarit Shalev-Eyni); Review of Kitāb Nāṣir al-Dīn ʿalā ’l-Qawm al-Kāfirīn. (The Supporter of Religion against the Infidels) , written by Aḥmad ibn Qāsim al-Ḥajarī, edited by P. S. Koningsveld, Q. Al-Samarrai, and G. A. Wiegers (Teresa Soto).

One of the topics developed by the Clarissan abbess Isabel de Villena in her work "Vita Christi" was the politics. This text is framed in the cultural and political polemic known as "Querelle des Femmes" that was developed in the Late Middle Ages. The author vividly poses the issue "gender and sovereignty". She designs a complete political theory represented in a feminine paradigm: the Virgin is the theoretical and practical model of the “marvelous science” of human government. Strikingly, Mother Isabel offers this female model to any class of rulers, including men, who should look at themselves in that model, but especially those with institutional, secular or ecclesiastical, power. In order to develop these ideas, the Virgin is presented as the performer of the two main instances of power of that time embodying the functions of queen and female pope and offering a new basis to the “art of government” of the kingdoms and the Church.
Uno de los temas desarrollados por la abadesa clarisa Isabel de Villena en su obra "Vita Christi" fue la política. Esta obra se enmarca en la polémica política y cultural conocida como "Querella de las Mujeres", que se desarrolló en la Baja Edad Media. La autora plantea vívidamente el tema "género y soberanía". Diseña una teoría política completa encarnada en un paradigma femenino: la Virgen es el modelo teórico y práctico de la "ciencia maravillosa" del gobierno humano. Sorprendentemente, la madre Isabel ofrece este modelo femenino a cualquier clase de gobernantes, incluidos los hombres, que se deben mirar en él, pero especialmente aquellos con poder institucional, secular o eclesiástico. Para desarrollar estas ideas, la Virgen se presenta como la titular de las dos principales instancias de poder de aquel tiempo encarnando las funciones de reina y papisa y ofreciendo  un nuevo fundamento al "arte del gobierno" de los reinos y la Iglesia

Lo studio abborda la questione della varietà delle redazioni in cui ci sono giunti i Sermoni di san Bonaventura da Bagnoregio. Per uno stesso discorso, infatti, esistono non di rado perfino quattro redazioni differenti. Si tratta spesso di abbreviazioni riportate da diversi ascoltatori, tra i quali uno privilegiato è da identificare nel segretario personale di Bonaventura durante il suo generalato: Marco da Montefeltro. Il contributo propone l'analisi di alcuni campioni e offre un elenco di una settantina di brevi reportationes presenti nel ms. Napoli, BN, VIII.A.30, mettendole a confronto con il ms. A.11.sup. della Biblioteca Ambrosiana di Milano e Lat. 14595 della Nazionale di Parigi.

The authorial role of Francis of Assisi has a minor part in his current image of saint as well as in his hagiographical memory. Most of franciscan vitae (e. g. Thomas of Celano, De inceptione, Bonaventura), although devoted to celebrate the Order’s founder and to propagate devotion to him, propose a model of religious life that is based on the history and legislation of the Order itself (the life of Francis and of the early friars, the general chapters and constitutions, the franciscan Rule) rather than on Francis’ spiritual teaching. From the late forthies of XIII century, the rigoristic and Spiritual tradition (from brother Leo and the socii to Clareno) rediscovers and makes use of only a few writings like the Testamentum or the Regula non bullata in order to detect the original intentio of saint Francis about the Rule and its exegesis. Meanwhile a different tendency arises, that laid the foundations of modern studies and editions: brother Leo and several anonymous compilers of the XIII-XIV centuries collect the extant writings of saint Francis, even if unuseful in the disputes about the Rule, regarding every opusculum as a relic of his experience of God.

La Villa de San Felipe de Linares y los problemas de su fundación son un micro reflejo de la macro realidad de la Nueva España, con sus problemas de corrupción, racismo y burocracia, pero también cómo los órganos de justicia finalmente resuelven a favor de un pequeño pueblo de indios, en los confines de la Colonia, frente a los grandes poderes e intereses económicos.
También se muestra la forma en que la historia oficial del entonces Partido Único se construye a los servicios del poder e intenta borrar nuestro pasado indígena.

Evidenced by their establishment and patronage of the Franciscan Monastery in Donegal, and dependence on Franciscan spiritual and material guidance in exile, the princely dynasty of the O'Donnells of Tyrconnell has long had a special relationship with the Franciscans in Ireland and abroad. The friars were also the spiritual counselors of the ruling O'Donnell dynasty, and educators of their children. Indeed the role of the Franciscans as confessors and moral authorities over the O'Donnells, from youth to old age and at death is well documented and O'Donnell princes were often laid to rest in Franciscan robes. Now, new challenges lie ahead to preserve this spiritual, monumental and intangible cultural heritage.

Barbara E. Mundy "Extirpation of idolatry and sensory experience in sixteenth-century Mexico." In Sensational Religion: Sensory Cultures in Material Practice, Sally Promey, ed. 515-535. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014.
Centering on images that a group of Indigenous artists created for Diego Muñoz Camargo’s Historia de Tlaxcala, this chapter looks at violent campaigns meant to extirpate Indigenous religious practice, spearheaded by members of the Franciscan order, specifically Martín de Valencia, during the 1520s. It considers religious experience as it takes place across sensory registers to argue that that the “extirpation” campaigns entailed strategies of preservation and replacement, despite a Franciscan rhetoric of destruction.