Secular Franciscan Order
The Secular Franciscan Order is part of the third branch of the Franciscan family formed by Catholic men and women who seek to observe the Gospel of Jesus by following the example of Francis of Assisi. Secular Franciscans are not like the other third orders, since they are not under the higher direction of the same institute. Brothers and sisters of the Secular Franciscan Order make a spiritual commitment to their own Rule, and Secular Franciscan fraternities cannot exist without the assistance of the first or second Franciscan Orders. The Secular Franciscan Order was the third of the three families founded by Francis of Assisi 800 years ago.
Originally known as the Brothers and Sisters of Penance, the Order is open to any Catholic, in good standing, at least 18 years in age, not bound by religious vows to another religious order and is made up of both the laity and secular clergy.
Although Secular Franciscans make a public profession and are consecrated, they are not bound by public vows as are religious living in community. The Third Order Regular, which grew out of the Third Order Secular, do make religious vows and live in community.
Because the Order belongs to the spiritual family of the Franciscans, the Holy See has entrusted its pastoral care and spiritual assistance to the Franciscan First Order and Third Order Regular, which belong to the same spiritual family.
History
Foundation of the Secular Third Order
The preaching of St. Francis, as well as his example, exercised such a powerful attraction on people that many married men and women wanted to join the First or the Second Order. Because being married was incompatible with the order, Francis found a middle way and gave them a rule animated by the Franciscan spirit. In the composition of this rule St. Francis was assisted by his friend Cardinal Ugolino di Conti.Where the Third Order was first introduced is unknown. The preponderance of opinion is Florence, chiefly on the authority of Mariano of Florence, or Faenza, who cites the first papal bull known on the subject. The less authoritative Fioretti assigns Cannara, a small town two hours' walk from the Portiuncula, as the birthplace of the Third Order. Mariano, Thomas of Celano, and the Bull for Faenza suggest that 1221 was the earliest date for founding of the Third Order.
Another story tells of Luchesius Modestini, a greedy merchant from Poggibonzi, who had his life changed by meeting Francis about 1213. He and his wife Buonadonna were moved to dedicate their lives to prayer and serving the poor. While many couples of that era who experienced a religious conversion chose to separate and enter monasteries, this couple felt called to live out this new way of life together. Francis was moved to write a Rule for them which would allow them to do so. Thus began the Brothers and Sisters of Penance in the Franciscan movement, which came to be called the Franciscan Third Order. The Chiesa della Buona Morte in the city of Cannara claims to be the birthplace of the Third Order. Another contender from the same city is the Church of S. Francesco.
This way of life was quickly embraced by many couples and single men and women who did not feel called to the stark poverty of the friars and nuns, especially widows. They zealously practiced the lessons Francis taught concerning prayer, humility, peacemaking, self-denial, fidelity to the duties of their state, and above all charity. Like Francis, they cared for lepers and outcasts. Even canonical hermits were able to follow this Rule and bring themselves into the orbit of the Franciscan vision. The Order came to be a force in the medieval legal system, since one of its tenets forbade the use of arms, and thus the male members of the order could not be drafted into the constant and frequent battles between cities and regions in that era.
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 later at Trois-Rivières and Montreal. In 1681 a Recollect notes that "many pious people of Quebec belong to the Third Order". After the cession of Canada to Britain in 1763 following the French defeat in the Seven Years' War, the Third Order, deprived of its directors, gradually disappeared but was revived In the 1840s.The 1840 revival was led by Ignace Bourget, Bishop of Montreal. Noted naturalist Léon Abel Provancher was particularly active. In 1866, having received faculties from the General of the Friars Minor, Provancher established a fraternity in his parish at Portneuf Quebec, and promoted the Third Order in his writings. For two years he edited a monthly review he published on the Third Order.
On a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, Provancher met Frédéric Janssoone and the two became friends. In 1881 Janssoone went to Canada, where he gave new spirit to the Third Order, inaugurating and visiting fraternities. On one occasion, he preached a four-hour sermon on the Stations of the Cross in the church of Sainte-Marie-Madeleine in Cap-de-la-Madeleine, to a women's Third Order group from Montreal. Several bishops, among them Bishop Louis-François Richer Laflèche of Trois-Rivières and Archbishop Taschereau, welcomed him as its promoter.
The foundation of a community of Friars Minor at Montreal in 1890 inaugurated a new era of growth for the Third Order. As of 2016 there were over 5,000 active members in approximately 200 fraternities.
Third Order of St. Francis in Great Britain
Little is known of the Third Order in Great Britain prior to the Reformation. In 1385 there were 8 fraternities in the British Isles, compared with twenty-nine in France. William Staney, the first commissary of the order in England after the Dissolution of the Monasteries, wrote "A Treatise of the Third Order of St. Francis", published at Douai in 1617. Alice Ingham became a member of the lay society of the third order of St Francis in 1872. She later went on to found the Sisters of St. Joseph's Society for Foreign Missions. In 1877 the English Franciscans initiated publication of The Franciscan Annual and monthly bulletin of the Third Order. A national conference of British tertiaries, with a view to strengthening and consolidating the order, was held in 1898 at Liverpool. A second national conference was held at Leeds.As in other regions, the members of the Order are now self-governing, under the auspices of a National Fraternity. In Britain, the National Fraternity is made up of nine regional fraternities. In Scotland there are fraternities in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Inverness.
Third Order of St. Francis in Ireland
The Third Order was active in Dublin during the medieval period. There were tertiaries assisting the Conventual Franciscans at Drogheda in 1855. Although the friary closed in 2000, the Secular Franciscans continue to meet in Drogheda. A renewal of the Third Order in Dublin began around 1860. A fraternity was established by the Capuchins in Cork in 1866 and another in Kilkenny. Matt Talbot joined the Third Order in Merchants Quay in 1890. Merchants Quay was later turned into a Third Order Centre with rooms where tertiaries could meet and relax.In the late nineteenth century the Irish Franciscans produced the Irish Franciscan Tertiary, a monthly journal for the Third Order Franciscans. Six hundred tertiaries met in Dublin in 1971 to celebrate the seven hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the order. As of 2014, Secular Franciscans in Ireland numbered over 1200.
Third Order of St. Francis in the United States
Early Franciscan missionaries established fraternities in the Southern and Southwestern states, where there was extensive French and Spanish Catholic influence. A fraternity was established at Santa Fe before 1680. Another fraternity operated in Santa Fe, New Mexico almost from the time of the Reconquest, as reported by the Father Guardian, José Bernal, dated 17 September 1794. Single individuals among Native Americans were sometimes classified as tertiaries. It is likely that a confraternity was founded at St. Augustine, Florida, before the close of the 16th century, as this was the first Spanish settlement in what is now the United States. A confraternity was established at San Antonio, Texas, before the middle of the 18th century. The establishment of provinces of the order of Friars Minor brought about the establishment of many confraternities. In 1919 a number of friar provincials set up a national organization.With the approval of a new Rule in 1978, the fraternities were reorganized as an independent arm of the Franciscan Movement. The National Fraternity of the United States was formed and divided into thirty regions. As of 2016, there are over 12,000 Secular Franciscans in the United States.
Third Order of St. Francis in Oceania
The Secular Franciscans Oceania is the National Fraternity for Australia, Papua New Guinea, Sabah, Singapore, and New Zealand. The Republic of Korea has its own National Fraternity.The Rule
The earliest Rule was found in the Guarnacci Library in Volterra. This primitive document is known as the Earlier Exhortation, or the Earlier Version, of "The Letter to All the Faithful" and was likely composed before 1215. An expanded version, the Later Exhortation, was completed by about 1220. Both Exhortations were composed by Francis. Both documents call the lay faithful to a life of penance, i.e., of turning away from sin and toward God. In the Earlier Exhortation, Francis describes the elements of the conversion process:
1) love God
2) love one's neighbor
3) turn away from our sinful tendencies
4) "receive the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ" and, as a result of the above,
5) producing worthy fruits of penance – a renewed life characterized by charity, forgiveness and compassion toward others.
Francis speaks in ecstatic terms of those who embrace this way of life: "Oh, how happy and blessed are these men and women when they do these things and persevere in doing them since the Spirit of the Lord will rest upon them and He will make His home and dwelling among them. They are children of the heavenly Father whose works they do, and they are spouses, brothers and mothers of Our Lord Jesus Christ."
The "primitive rule" was approved by Pope Honorius III in 1221 with the Memoriale Propositi, and revised in 1289 by the Franciscan Pope Nicholas IV with the Supra montem, and by Pope Leo XIII approving in 1883 Misericors Dei Filius. The current rule was given by Pope Paul VI in 1978 with the Apostolic letter Seraphicus Patriarcha and is designed to adapt the Secular Franciscan Order to the changing needs and expectations of the Church.
The spirit of the Rule is found in Article 4: