The Franciscans are a group of related mendicant Christian religious orders, primarily within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Francis of Assisi, these orders include three independent orders for men, orders for women religious such as the Order of Saint Clare, and the Third Order of Saint Francis open to male and female members. They adhere to the teachings and spiritual disciplines of the founder and of his main associates and followers, such as Clare of Assisi, Anthony of Padua, and Elizabeth of Hungary. Several smaller Protestant Franciscan orders exist as well, notably in the Anglican and Lutheran traditions.
Maximilian Maria Kolbe was a Polish Catholic priest and Conventual Franciscan friar who volunteered to die in place of a man named Franciszek Gajowniczek in the German death camp of Auschwitz, located in German-occupied Poland during World War II. He had been active in promoting the veneration of the Immaculate Virgin Mary, founding and supervising the monastery of Niepokalanów near Warsaw, operating an amateur-radio station (SP3RN), and founding or running several other organizations and publications.
The dissolution of the monasteries, occasionally referred to as the suppression of the monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents, and friaries in England, Wales, and Ireland, expropriated their income, disposed of their assets, and provided for their former personnel and functions. Although the policy was originally envisaged as increasing the regular income of the Crown, much former monastic property was sold off to fund Henry's military campaigns in the 1540s. He was given the authority to do this in England and Wales by the Act of Supremacy, passed by Parliament in 1534, which made him Supreme Head of the Church in England, thus separating England from papal authority, and by the First Suppression Act (1535) and the Second Suppression Act (1539). While Thomas Cromwell, Vicar-general and Vice-regent of England, is often considered the leader of the Dissolutions, he merely oversaw the project, one he had hoped to use for reform of monasteries, not closure or seizure. The Dissolution project was created by England's Lord Chancellor Thomas Audley, and Court of Augmentations head Richard Rich.
The Order of Friars Minor Capuchin is a religious order of Franciscan friars within the Catholic Church, one of Three "First Orders" that reformed from the Franciscan Friars Minor Observant, the other being the Conventuals. Franciscans reformed as Capuchins in 1525 with the purpose of regaining the original Habit (Tunic) of St.Francis of Assisi and also for returning to a stricter observance of the rule established by Francis of Assisi in 1209.
Francesco Forgione, OFM Cap., better known as Padre Pio and also Saint Pius of Pietrelcina, was an Italian Franciscan Capuchin friar, priest, stigmatist, and mystic. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church.
Joseph of Copertino was an Italian Conventual Franciscan friar who is honored as a Christian mystic and saint. He was said to have been remarkably unclever, but prone to miraculous levitation and intense ecstatic visions that left him gaping. Joseph began to experience ecstatic visions as a child, which were to continue throughout his life, and made him the object of scorn. He applied to the Conventual Franciscan friars, but was rejected due to his lack of education. He then pleaded with them to serve in their stables. After several years of working there, he had so impressed the friars with the devotion and simplicity of his life that he was admitted to their Order, destined to become a Catholic priest, in 1625.
The Order of Friars Minor Conventual is a male religious fraternity in the Roman Catholic Church that is a branch of the Franciscans. The friars in OFM CONV are also known as Conventual Franciscans, or Minorites.
Peter of Alcántara was a Spanish Franciscan friar who was canonized in 1669.
In the Roman Catholic Church, Theologian of the Pontifical Household is a Roman Curial office which has always been entrusted to a Friar Preacher of the Dominican Order and may be described as the pope's theologian. The title was formerly known as the Master of the Sacred Apostolic Palace before the changes implemented in Pope Paul VI's 1968 apostolic letter Pontificalis Domus.
Joseph of Leonessa, O.F.M. Cap., (1556 – February 4, 1612) is a saint of the Catholic Church.
The Secular Franciscan Order is 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 profess to their own Rule, and Secular Franciscan fraternities can exist without the presence 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.
Francis Anthony Fasani, O.F.M. Conv. was an Italian friar of the Order of Conventual Friars Minor who has been declared a saint by the Catholic Church.
The Shrine of St. Anthony is a Roman Catholic shrine honoring St. Anthony of Padua. The shrine is located within the St. Joseph Cupertino Friary in Ellicott City, Maryland, USA. The shrine is a ministry of the Conventual Franciscan Friars, Our Lady of the Angels Province, USA.
Joseph Petracca was an American novelist, short story writer, screenwriter, and television writer of Italian descent. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Petracca moved to Los Angeles after the end of World War II and worked a series of full-time jobs, mainly as a steam press operator for a laundry and linen rental service, while he pursued his writing in the evenings and began raising a family with his wife Lena. In the early fifties Petracca began publishing fiction in the popular magazines of the day. Throughout the fifties Petracca wrote and collaborated on numerous films for such studios as 20th Century Fox and Paramount Pictures and in the sixties wrote episodes for such television shows as The Untouchables, Rawhide and Route 66. Petracca is survived by a daughter, Frances Petracca, a neuroscientist and AIDS researcher, and a son, novelist and university Lecturer Emeritus Michael Petracca.
Joseph Asajirô Satowaki was a Japanese prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Nagasaki from 1968 to 1990, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1979.
Gregory John Hartmayer, O.F.M. Conv. is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. A Conventual Franciscan, he serves as the archbishop of Atlanta in Georgia, having returned to the archdiocese where he worked from 1995 to 2011. From 2011 to 2020, Hartmayer served as the bishop of the Diocese of Savannah in Georgia
The Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God are an institute of religious sisters in the Catholic Church belonging to the Third Order Regular of St. Francis. They were founded in 1910 in Santarém, Brazil, by the Rt. Rev. Armand August Bahlmann, O.F.M., and Mother Immaculata, both natives of Germany, to educate the children of the poor throughout the world.
Giacinto Bonaventura Longhin - in religious Andrea di Campodarsego - was an Italian Roman Catholic prelate and professed member from the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin who served as the Bishop of Treviso from 1904 until his death. Longhin held various roles of leadership within his order following his ordination such as acting as a teacher in Udine and acting as the Provincial Minister for his order. He became close friends with the Patriarch of Venice Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto. The latter became Pope Pius X in 1903 who made his old friend Longhin the new head for the vacant Treviso episcopal see.
Padre Pio: Miracle Man is a 2000 Italian television movie directed by Carlo Carlei. The film is based on the book Padre Pio: Man of Hope by Renzo Allegri and it depicts real life events of Roman Catholic friar and later Saint Pio of Pietrelcina.
The Compagnia dell'Immacolata Concezione is a religious confraternity founded in 1596 inside the Church of Saint Francis of Assisi in Alcamo, in the province of Trapani.
