Custos (English: guardian) means a religious superior or an official in the Franciscan Order. The precise meaning has differed over time, and among the Friars Minor, Conventuals, and Capuchins.
Francis of Assisi sometimes applied the word to any superior in the Order - Guardians, Ministers Provincial, and even to the Minister General. [1] Sometimes he restricts it to officials presiding over a certain number of friaries in the larger provinces of the Order with restricted powers and subject to their respective Ministers Provincial. It is in this latter sense that he refers [2] to the custodes as having power, conjointly with the Provincials, to elect and to depose the Minister General.
The friaries over which a custos (in this latter sense) presided were collectively called a custody (Latin : custodia). The number of custodies in a province varied according to its size. Already at an early period it was deemed expedient that only one of the several custodes of a province should proceed to the General Chapter with his respective Minister Provincial for the election of the Minister General, although the Rule of St. Francis accorded the right of vote to each custos.
This custom was approved by Pope Gregory IX in 1230 [3] and by other popes, evidently with the view to prevent unnecessary expense. The custos thus chosen was called Custos custodum, or, among the Observants until the time of Pope Leo X, [4] discretus discretorum. This ancient legislation, which has long since ceased in the Order of Friars Minor, still obtained in the Order of Friars Minor Conventuals, in their Constitutions confirmed by Pope Urban VIII.
In the Capuchin Order there are two kinds of custodes: Custodes General and Custodes Provincial. Two Custodes General are elected every three years at the provincial chapters. The first of these has a right to vote at the election of the Minister General should a General Chapter be held during his term of office. Besides, he has the obligation of presenting to the General Chapter an official report on the state of his province. The Custodes Provincial, on the contrary, have no voice in the General Chapters, and their rights and duties are much restricted and unimportant.
In the Constitutions of the Order of Friars Minor there is also mention of two kinds of custodes: one called custos provinciae, the other custos regiminis. The former is elected at the provincial chapter and holds office for three years. Besides having a voice in all capitular acts of his province he takes part in the General Chapter, should his Minister Provincial be impeded. The custos regiminis is a friar who rules over a custody, or sub-province. He possesses ordinary jurisdiction and has all the rights and privileges of a Minister Provincial. The number of friaries in a custodia regiminis ranges from four to eight.
The Custodian of the Holy Land is an appointed office in the Franciscan Order, which is approved by the Vatican.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Custos". Catholic Encyclopedia . New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Organisations founded or inspired by Saint Francis (1181–1226) | ||
| General |  | |
| Orders and groups |
| |
| Popes | ||
The Franciscans are a group of related mendicant Christian religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi, these orders include three independent orders for men, orders for nuns 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.
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 (OFMConv). 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.
Agnellus of Pisa, was an Italian Franciscan friar. As its first Minister Provincial in England (1224–1236), he is considered the founder of the Franciscans in England. His feast day is variously observed in the Catholic church on 7 May or 10 September.
Lawrence of Brindisi, OFM Cap., born Giulio Cesare Russo, was an Neapolitan Catholic priest, theologian and member of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin. An accomplished linguist, in addition to his native Italian, Lawrence could read and speak Latin, Hebrew, Greek, German, Czech, Spanish, and French fluently. Lawrence was ordained a priest at the age of 23. Lawrence was beatified on 1 June 1783 and canonized as a saint on 8 December 1881.
The Order of Friars Minor Conventual (O.F.M.Conv.) is a male religious fraternity in the Catholic Church and a branch of the Franciscan Order. Conventual Franciscan Friars are identified by the affix O.F.M.Conv. after their names. They are also known as Conventual Franciscans or Minorites.
Peter of Alcántara, OFM was a Spanish Franciscan friar who was canonized in 1669.
Francis of Assisi founded three orders and gave each of them a special rule. Here, only the rule of the first order is discussed, i.e., that of the Order of Friars Minor.
Haymo of Faversham, O.F.M. was an English Franciscan scholar. His scholastic epithet was Inter Aristotelicos Aristotelicissimus, referring to his stature among the Scholastics during the Recovery of Aristotle amid the 12th- and 13th-century Renaissance. He acquired fame as a lecturer at the University of Paris and also as a preacher when he entered the Order of Friars Minor, probably in 1224 or 1225. He served as the Minister Provincial for England (1239–1240) and as the Minister General of the Order .
The Third Order Regular of St. Francis of Penance or simply the Third Order Regular of St. Francis is a mendicant order rooted in the Third Order of St. Francis which was founded in 1221. The members add the nominal letters T.O.R. after their names to indicate their membership in the congregation.
Marco Tasca, O.F.M. Conv. is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church, a member of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual who served as the 119th Minister General of the Order from 2007 to 2019. He was appointed as the Metropolitan Archbishop of Genoa on 8 May 2020.
Giovanni Parenti, O.F.M. was an Italian Friar Minor and St. Francis of Assisi's successor as head of the order. Parenti had a legal background. He served as Minister Provincial in Spain before being chosen Minister General in 1227. Parenti held a literal interpretation of poverty as it applied to the order; a view that was not shared by everyone. He stepped down in 1232 and was succeeded by Elias of Cortona.
Matteo Serafini was the co-founder and first Superior-General of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchins, the principal branch of the Franciscans issued from the Reform of the Observance.
The Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate is a religious institute founded in 1970 by Conventual Franciscans Stefano Maria Manelli and Gabriel Maria Pellettieri and canonically erected by Pope John Paul II in 1998. Their rule of life is the Regula Bullata of Saint Francis of Assisi according to the Traccia Mariana.
Francis Nugent was an Irish priest of the Franciscan Capuchin Order. He was the founder of the Irish and the Rhenish Provinces of the Order.
The Custody of the Holy Land is a custodian priory of the Order of Friars Minor in Jerusalem, founded as the Province of the Holy Land in 1217 by Saint Francis of Assisi, who had also founded the Franciscan Order in 1209. In 1342, the Franciscans were declared by two papal bulls as the official custodians of the Holy Places in the name of the Catholic Church.
Pamfilo of Magliano, O.S.F., was an Italian Franciscan friar, who went to the United States in 1855 to help establish the Order there. He was responsible for the establishment of major institutions of the Order in the Northeastern United States. He founded two religious institutes of Sisters of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis.
The Order of Friars Minor is a mendicant Catholic religious order, founded in 1209 by Francis of Assisi. The order adheres 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, among many others. The Order of Friars Minor is the largest of the contemporary First Orders within the Franciscan movement.
Paškal Buconjić was Herzegovinian Croat Franciscan and a prelate of the Catholic Church who served as the first bishop of Mostar-Duvno from 1881 to 1910, as the apostolic administrator of Trebinje-Mrkan from 1890 to 1910, as the apostolic vicar of Herzegovina from 1880 to 1881, and as custos of the Franciscan Custody of Herzegovina between 1874 and 1879.
Herzegovina Affair or Herzegovina Case refers to a conflict between the Franciscan Province of Herzegovina and the Diocese of Mostar-Duvno over the redistribution of parishes in the said diocese. The conflict between the Franciscans and the diocesan clergy started with the restoration of the regular church hierarchy in Bosnia and Herzegovina after its occupation by Austria-Hungary in 1881. The Herzegovina Case presents a problem in the relationship between the Herzegovinian clergy, as well as the Catholic faithful.
Mauro Gambetti OFMConv is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who was appointed archpriest of Saint Peter's Basilica, Vicar General for the Vatican State, and president of the Fabric of Saint Peter on 20 February 2021. He was consecrated a bishop on 22 November 2020 just before Pope Francis raised him to the rank of cardinal on 28 November 2020.
