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<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <title>CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Franciscan Order</title><script src="https://dtyry4ejybx0.cloudfront.net/js/cmp/cleanmediacmp.js?ver=0104" async="true"></script><script defer data-domain="newadvent.org" src="https://plausible.io/js/script.js"></script><link rel="canonical" href="https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06217a.htm"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <meta name="description" content="An article on the history of the Franciscan order and its role within the Catholic Church"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS" href="http://feeds.newadvent.org/bestoftheweb?format=xml"><link rel="icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><link rel="shortcut icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><meta name="robots" content="noodp"><link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="../utility/screen6.css" media="screen"></head> <body class="cathen" id="06217a.htm">  <br/> <div id="capitalcity"><table summary="Logo" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width="100%"><tr valign="bottom"><td align="left"><a href="../"><img height=36 width=153 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></td><td align="right"> <form id="searchbox_000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0" action="../utility/search.htm">  <input type="hidden" name="safe" value="active"> <input type="hidden" name="cx" value="000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0"/> <input type="hidden" name="cof" value="FORID:9"/>  <label for="searchQuery" id="searchQueryLabel">Search:</label> <input id="searchQuery" name="q" type="text" size="25" aria-labelledby="searchQueryLabel"/>  <label for="submitButton" id="submitButtonLabel" class="visually-hidden">Submit Search</label> <input id="submitButton" type="submit" name="sa" value="Search" aria-labelledby="submitButtonLabel"/> </form> <table summary="Spacer" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td height="2"></td></tr></table> <table summary="Tabs" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr> <td bgcolor="#ffffff"></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../"> Home </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_white_on_color" href="../cathen/index.html"> Encyclopedia </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../summa/index.html"> Summa </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../fathers/index.html"> Fathers </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../bible/gen001.htm"> Bible </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../library/index.html"> Library </a></td> </tr></table> </td> </tr></table><table summary="Alphabetical index" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"> <a href="../cathen/a.htm"> A </a><a href="../cathen/b.htm"> B </a><a href="../cathen/c.htm"> C </a><a href="../cathen/d.htm"> D </a><a href="../cathen/e.htm"> E </a><a href="../cathen/f.htm"> F </a><a href="../cathen/g.htm"> G </a><a href="../cathen/h.htm"> H </a><a href="../cathen/i.htm"> I </a><a href="../cathen/j.htm"> J </a><a href="../cathen/k.htm"> K </a><a href="../cathen/l.htm"> L </a><a href="../cathen/m.htm"> M </a><a href="../cathen/n.htm"> N </a><a href="../cathen/o.htm"> O </a><a href="../cathen/p.htm"> P </a><a href="../cathen/q.htm"> Q </a><a href="../cathen/r.htm"> R </a><a href="../cathen/s.htm"> S </a><a href="../cathen/t.htm"> T </a><a href="../cathen/u.htm"> U </a><a href="../cathen/v.htm"> V </a><a href="../cathen/w.htm"> W </a><a href="../cathen/x.htm"> X </a><a href="../cathen/y.htm"> Y </a><a href="../cathen/z.htm"> Z </a> </td></tr></table></div> <div id="mobilecity" style="text-align: center; "><a href="../"><img height=24 width=102 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></div>  <div id="mi5"><span class="breadcrumbs"><a href="../">Home</a> > <a href="../cathen">Catholic Encyclopedia</a> > <a href="../cathen/f.htm">F</a> > Franciscan Order</span></div> <div id="springfield2"> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-top' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <h1>Franciscan Order</h1> <p><em><a href="https://gumroad.com/l/na2"><strong>Please help support the mission of New Advent</strong> and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more  all for only $19.99...</a></em></p> <p>A term commonly used to designate the members of the various foundations of religious, whether men or <a href="../cathen/15687b.htm">women</a>, professing to observe the <a href="../cathen/06208a.htm">Rule of St. Francis of Assisi</a> in some one of its several forms. The aim of the present article is to indicate briefly the origin and relationship of these different foundations.</p> <h2>Origin of the three orders</h2> <p>It is customary to say that <a href="../cathen/06221a.htm">St. Francis</a> founded three orders, as we read in the <a href="../cathen/11219a.htm">Office</a> for 4 October:</p> <blockquote><p>Tres ordines hic ordinat: primumque Fratrum nominat Minorum: pauperumque fit Dominarum medius: sed Poenitentium tertius sexum capit utrumque. (Brev. Rom. Serap., in Solem. S.P. Fran., ant. 3, ad Laudes)</p></blockquote> <p>These three orders  the <a href="../cathen/06281a.htm">Friars Minor</a>, the <a href="../cathen/12251b.htm">Poor Ladies or Clares</a>, and the Brothers and Sisters of Penance  are generally referred to as the First, Second, and <a href="../cathen/14637b.htm">Third Orders</a> of St. Francis.</p> <h3>First order</h3> <p>The existence of the <a href="../cathen/06281a.htm">Friars Minor</a> or first order properly dates from 1209, in which year St. Francis obtained from <a href="../cathen/08013a.htm">Innocent III</a> an unwritten <a href="../cathen/01656b.htm">approbation</a> of the simple rule he had composed for the guidance of his first companions. This rule has not come down to us in its original form; it was subsequently rewritten by the <a href="../cathen/04171a.htm">saint</a> and solemnly confirmed by <a href="../cathen/07457a.htm">Honorius III</a>, 29 Nov., 1223 (Litt. "Solet Annuere"). This second rule, as it is usually called, of the <a href="../cathen/06281a.htm">Friars Minor</a> is the one at present professed throughout the whole First Order of St. Francis (<em>see</em> <a href="../cathen/06208a.htm">R<font size=-2>ULE OF</font> S<font size=-2>AINT</font> F<font size=-2>RANCIS</font></a>).</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <h3>Second order</h3> <p>The foundation of the <a href="../cathen/12251b.htm">Poor Ladies</a> or second order may be said to have been laid in 1212. In that year <a href="../cathen/04004a.htm">St. Clare</a> who had besought St. Francis to be allowed to embrace the new manner of life he had instituted, was established by him at St. Damian's near <a href="../cathen/01801a.htm">Assisi</a>, together with several other <a href="../cathen/12748a.htm">pious</a> maidens who had joined her. It is <a href="../cathen/05525a.htm">erroneous</a> to suppose that St. Francis ever drew up a formal rule for these Poor ladies and no mention of such a document is found in any of the early authorities. The rule imposed upon the <a href="../cathen/12251b.htm">Poor Ladies</a> at St. Damian's about 1219 by <a href="../cathen/06796a.htm">Cardinal Ugolino</a>, afterwards <a href="../cathen/06796a.htm">Gregory IX</a>, was recast by St. Clare towards the end of her life, with the assistance of Cardinal Rinaldo, afterwards <a href="../cathen/01287b.htm">Alexander IV</a>, and in this revised form was approved by <a href="../cathen/08017a.htm">Innocent IV</a>, 9 Aug., 1253 (Litt. "Solet Annuere"). (<em>See</em> <a href="../cathen/12251b.htm">P<font size=-2>OOR</font> C<font size=-2>LARES</font></a>).</p> <h3>Third order</h3> <p>Tradition assigns the year 1221 as the <a href="../cathen/04636c.htm">date</a> of the foundation of the Brothers and Sisters of Penance, now known as tertiaries. This third order was devised by St. Francis as a sort of middle state between the <a href="../cathen/04060a.htm">cloister</a> and the world for those who, wishing to follow in the <a href="../cathen/04171a.htm">saint's</a> footsteps, were debarred by marriage or other ties from entering either the first or second order. There has been some difference of opinion as to how far the <a href="../cathen/04171a.htm">saint</a> composed a rule for these tertiaries. It is generally admitted, however, that the rule approved by <a href="../cathen/11057a.htm">Nicholas IV</a>, 18 Aug., 1289 (Litt. "Supra Montem") does not represent the original rule of the third order.</p> <p>Some recent writers have tried to show that the third order, as we now call it, was really the starting point of the whole Franciscan Order. They assert that the Second and <a href="../cathen/14637b.htm">Third Orders</a> of St. Francis were not added to the First, but that the three branches, the <a href="../cathen/06281a.htm">Friars Minor</a>, Poor ladies, and Brother and Sisters of Penance, grew out of the lay confraternity of penance which was St. Francis's first and original intention, and were separated from it into different groups by <a href="../cathen/06796a.htm">Cardinal Ugolino</a>, the protector of the order, during St. Francis's absence in the East (1219-21). This interesting, if somewhat arbitrary, theory is not without importance for the early history of all three orders, but it is not yet sufficiently proven to preclude the more usual account given above, according to which the Franciscan Order developed into three distinct branches, namely, the first, second, and third orders, by process of addition and not by process of division, and this is still the view generally received.</p> <h2>Present organization of the three orders</h2> <h3>First order</h3> <p>Coming next to the present organization of the Franciscan Order, the <a href="../cathen/06281a.htm">Friars Minor</a>, or first order, now comprises three separate bodies, namely: the <a href="../cathen/06281a.htm">Friars Minor</a> properly so called, or parent stem, founded, as has been said in 1209; the <a href="../cathen/04344a.htm">Friars Minor Conventuals</a>, and the <a href="../cathen/03320b.htm">Friars Minor Capuchins</a>, both of which grew out of the parent stem, and were constituted independent orders in 1517 and 1619 respectively.</p> <p>All three orders profess the rule of the <a href="../cathen/06281a.htm">Friars Minor</a> approved by <a href="../cathen/07457a.htm">Honorius III</a> in 1223, but each one has its particular constitutions and its own minister general. The various lesser foundations of Franciscan <a href="../cathen/06280b.htm">friars</a> following the rule of the first order, which once enjoyed a separate or quasi-separate existence, are now either extinct, like the Clareni, Coletani, and <a href="../cathen/16020a.htm">Celestines</a>, or have become amalgamated with the <a href="../cathen/06281a.htm">Friars Minor</a>, as in the case of the Observants, Reformati, Recollects, Alcantarines, etc. (On all these lesser foundations, now extinct, see <a href="../cathen/06281a.htm">F<font size=-2>RIARS</font> M<font size=-2>INOR</font></a>)</p> <h3>Second order</h3> <p>As regards the Second Order, of Poor ladies, now commonly called <a href="../cathen/12251b.htm">Poor Clares</a>, this order includes all the different <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monasteries</a> of <a href="../cathen/04060a.htm">cloistered</a> <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nuns</a> professing the Rule of <a href="../cathen/04004a.htm">St. Clare</a> approved by <a href="../cathen/08017a.htm">Innocent IV</a> in 1253, whether they observe the same in all its original strictness or according to the <a href="../cathen/05041a.htm">dispensations</a> granted by <a href="../cathen/15212a.htm">Urban IV</a>, 18 Oct., 1263 (Litt. "Beata Clara") or the constitutions drawn up by <a href="../cathen/04099b.htm">St. Colette</a> (d. 1447) and approved by <a href="../cathen/12126c.htm">Pius II</a>, 18 March, 1458 (Litt. "Etsi"). The <a href="../cathen/01543a.htm#I">Sisters of the Annunciation</a> and the <a href="../cathen/04190c.htm">Conceptionists</a> are in some sense offshoots of the second order, but they now follow different rules from that of the <a href="../cathen/12251b.htm">Poor Ladies</a>.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <h3>Third order</h3> <p>In connection with the Brothers and Sisters of Penance or Third order of St. Francis, it is <a href="../cathen/10733a.htm">necessary</a> to distinguish between the third order secular and the third order regular.</p> <p><em>Secular.</em> The third order secular was founded, as we have seen, by St. Francis about 1221 and embraces devout <a href="../cathen/11726a.htm">persons</a> of both sexes living in the world and following a rule of life approved by <a href="../cathen/11057a.htm">Nicholas IV</a> in 1289, and modified by <a href="../cathen/09169a.htm">Leo XIII</a>, 30 May, 1883 (Constit. "Misericors"). It includes not only members who form part of <a href="../cathen/09324a.htm">logical</a> fraternities, but also isolated tertiaries, <a href="../cathen/07280a.htm">hermits</a>, <a href="../cathen/12085a.htm">pilgrims</a>, etc.</p> <p><em>Regular.</em> The early history of the third order regular is uncertain and is susceptible of controversy. Some attribute its foundation to <a href="../cathen/05389a.htm">St. Elizabeth of Hungary</a> in 1228, others to Blessed Angelina of Marsciano in 1395. The latter is said to have established at <a href="../cathen/06124b.htm">Foligno</a> the first Franciscan <a href="../cathen/04340c.htm">monastery</a> of enclosed tertiary <a href="../cathen/11164a.htm">nuns</a> in <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a>. It is <a href="../cathen/03539b.htm">certain</a> that early in the fifteenth century tertiary communities of men and <a href="../cathen/15687b.htm">women</a> existed in different parts of <a href="../cathen/05607b.htm">Europe</a> and that the Italian <a href="../cathen/06280b.htm">friars</a> of the third order regular were recognized as a <a href="../cathen/10183c.htm">mendicant</a> order by the <a href="../cathen/07424b.htm">Holy See</a>. Since about 1458 the latter body has been governed by own minister general and its members take solemn <a href="../cathen/15511a.htm">vows</a>.</p> <p><em>New Foundations.</em> In addition to this third order regular, properly so called, and quite independently of it, a very large number of Franciscan tertiary congregations  both of men and <a href="../cathen/15687b.htm">women</a>  have been founded, more especially since the beginning of the ninteenth century. These new foundations have taken as a basis of their institutes a special rule for members of the third order living in community approved by <a href="../cathen/09162a.htm">Leo X</a>. 20 Jan., 1521 (<a href="../cathen/03052b.htm">Bull</a> "Inter"). Although this rule is a greatly modified by their particular constitution which, for the rest, differ widely according to the end of each foundation. These various congregations of regular tertiaries are either autonomous or under episcopal <a href="../cathen/08567a.htm">jurisdiction</a>, and for the most part they are Franciscan in name only, not a few of them having abandoned the habit and even the traditional cord of the order.</p> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-bottom' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <div class="cenotes"><h2>Sources</h2><p class="cenotes">For the vexed question of the origin and evolution of the third orders, see MÜLLER, Die Anfange des Minoritenordens und der Bussbruderschaften (Freiburg, 1885), 33 sqq; EHRLE in Zeitschr, j.k. Theol., XI, 743 sqq; MANDONNET, Les regles et le gouvernement de l Ordo de Paeniltentia au XIII siccle in Opuscules de critique historique, vol. l. fasc. IV (Paris, 1902); LEMMENS in Rom. Quartalschrift, XVI, 93 sqq; VAN ORTROY in Analecta Bollandiana, XVIII, 294 sqq. XXIV, 415 sqq; D'ALENCON in Etudes Franciscaines, II, 646 sq; GOETZ in Zeitschrift for Kirchengeschichte, XXIII, 97-107. The rules of the three orders are printed in Seraphicae Legislationis Textus originates (Quaracchi, 1897). A general conspectus of the Franciscan Order and its various branches is given in HOLZ-APPEL, Manuale, Historia, O.F.M. (Freiburg, 1909); HEIM-BUCHER, Die Orden und Kongregationen (Paderborn, 1907); II, 307-533; also PATREM, Tableau synoptique de tout l Ordre Seraphique (Paris, 1879): and CUSACK, St. Francis and the Franciscans (New York, 1867).</p></div> <div class="pub"><h2>About this page</h2><p id="apa"><strong>APA citation.</strong> <span id="apaauthor">Robinson, P.</span> <span id="apayear">(1909).</span> <span id="apaarticle">Franciscan Order.</span> In <span id="apawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="apapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company.</span> <span id="apaurl">http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06217a.htm</span></p><p id="mla"><strong>MLA citation.</strong> <span id="mlaauthor">Robinson, Paschal.</span> <span id="mlaarticle">"Franciscan Order."</span> <span id="mlawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="mlavolume">Vol. 6.</span> <span id="mlapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company,</span> <span id="mlayear">1909.</span> <span id="mlaurl"><http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06217a.htm>.</span></p><p id="transcription"><strong>Transcription.</strong> <span id="transcriber">This article was transcribed for New Advent by Beth Ste-Marie.</span> <span id="dedication"></span></p><p id="approbation"><strong>Ecclesiastical approbation.</strong> <span id="nihil"><em>Nihil Obstat.</em> September 1, 1909. Remy Lafort, Censor.</span> <span id="imprimatur"><em>Imprimatur.</em> +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.</span></p><p id="contactus"><strong>Contact information.</strong> The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is webmaster <em>at</em> newadvent.org. Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.</p></div> </div> <div id="ogdenville"><table summary="Bottom bar" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"><center><strong>Copyright © 2023 by <a href="../utility/contactus.htm">New Advent LLC</a>. 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