The Franciscans — a Catholic Mendicant Order
Its official name is the Order of Friars Minor.
Founded by St Francis of Assisi in Italy in 1209, the Order was approved by Pope Honorius III through the bull Solet annuere on 29 November 1223. It soon spread to other countries of Western Europe. The Franciscan Rule’s requirement of poverty applied not only to individual members but to the Order as a whole. The Franciscans lived not in enclosed monasteries but among the people. They travelled, preached poverty and asceticism in the language of ordinary people, and undertook charitable work. This contributed to their popularity and attracted donations. Emerging in contrast to the wealth and luxury of the Church of its time, the Order eventually became a reliable instrument for defending and rebuilding the Church: the Franciscans opposed heresy. In 1256, they received the right to teach at universities. They also undertook missionary work. During the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, they were expelled from some countries. Today, they are one of the influential Catholic orders. The Order runs a number of institutions of higher education, including universities, as well as missionary and charitable organisations and other initiatives. It is headed by the Minister General, who is elected for six years. The Order is divided into provinces, headed by Provincial Ministers, likewise elected for six years, and assisted by Vice-Provincials. Each province is divided into religious houses, or fraternities, headed by guardians (superiors), who are elected for three years. These fraternities consist of friars entrusted with different duties in their houses and parishes, living out the Franciscan charism in the world. The family of St Francis of Assisi also includes a women’s Franciscan order, the Poor Clares, and the Secular Franciscan Order for brothers and sisters living in the world with their families. Branches of the Order of Friars Minor include the Order of Friars Minor Conventual, which acquired this name and began developing its own structure when the Friars Minor moved from the outskirts into towns and built convents. This process began during Francis’s lifetime. The Order of Friars Minor Capuchin began in 1525, when three Italian Observant Franciscan friars united in their desire to follow St Francis and his first companions more closely. The new Order emerged at a time when various reforms were taking shape in the Catholic Church. These also affected the Order of Friars Minor, within which two main movements emerged alongside several others: the Observant Franciscans and the Reformed Franciscans. In everyday speech, the terms Observants, Reformati, Conventuals and Capuchins gradually came into use to distinguish the different Franciscan friars. In Kraków, Poland, the Franciscan house and church dedicated to St Bernardine, founded in 1454 by St John of Capistrano, also gave rise to the name Bernardines, which became part of the name of the Observant Province. In this way, a great Franciscan tree grew: a family bearing fruit in scholars, blesseds and saints. On 4 October 1897, the Solemnity of St Francis of Assisi, Pope Leo XIII promulgated the constitution Felicitate quadam, uniting four Franciscan groups: the friars following the Observant Rule (Observants, Discalced Friars and Bernardines), the Reformati, the Alcantarines and the Recollects. He abolished these separate names and ordered the use of a single name, Friars Minor, for the sake of unity within the Order. On 5 October 1897, at the General Curia, Cardinal Serafino Vannutelli announced the constitution and the union within the Order of Friars Minor and presented the new leadership appointed by the Pope.
The first Franciscan Friar Minor arrived on Ukrainian soil in 1245, on a mission from the Pope to halt the Tatar invasion, which had overrun almost all of Asia and was advancing towards Europe. Many trials awaited the Franciscan friars here: Tatar attacks and plundering, Cossack wars, and the suppression of monasteries by the russian empire. Yet the greatest tragedy for the Order, the Church in Ukraine and the entire Ukrainian people was the totalitarian communist system, with its ideology and the Holodomor. Only one Franciscan remained: Martynian Wojciech Darzycki, a great missionary of the Roman Catholic Church, restorer of the Franciscan Order in Ukraine and spiritual father of the Province.
After the fall of the atheist regime, the first step was to restore Church structures. In 1993, the Custody of St Michael the Archangel in Ukraine was established with the help of the friars of the Polish (Bernardine) Province of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Kraków. The next step came on 17 June 2004, when a new Franciscan province, the youngest in the Order, was proclaimed.
Today, the Province of St Michael the Archangel rejoices in its vocations and has 17 religious houses and 81 Franciscans.
Address of the Curia of the Friars Minor:
Province of St Michael the Archangel
4 Kyivska Street, 10014
ZHYTOMYR
Tel.: (+380-412) 42-12-74
Tel./fax: (+380-412) 41-87-65
secprov@ofm.org.ua — Provincial Secretariat (Curia)
minprov@ofm.org.ua — Provincial Minister (Provincial Superior)
vicprov@ofm.org.ua — Provincial Vicar (Vice-Provincial)
Source: http://ofm.org.ua