Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, known as Francis of Assisi, was an Italian mystic, poet and Catholic friar who founded the religious order of the Franciscans. He was inspired to lead a Christian life of poverty as a beggar and itinerant preacher. One of the most venerated figures in Christianity, Francis was canonized by Pope Gregory IX on 16 July 1228. He is commonly portrayed wearing a brown habit with a rope tied around his waist, featuring three knots that symbolize the three Franciscan vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.
The Franciscans are a group of related mendicant Christian religious orders within the Christian tradition. 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.
Camillo Ruini is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who was made a cardinal in 1991. He served as president of the Italian Episcopal Conference from 1991 to 2007 and as Vicar General of the Diocese of Rome from 1991 to 2008.
The Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Order of Friars Minor Conventual in Assisi, a town in the Umbria region in central Italy, where Saint Francis was born and died. It is a papal minor basilica and one of the most important places of Christian pilgrimage in Italy. With its accompanying friary, Sacro Convento, the basilica is a distinctive landmark to those approaching Assisi. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000.
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.
Portiuncula, also spelled Porziuncola or Porzioncula, is a small Catholic church located within the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary of the Angels in Assisi in the frazione of Santa Maria degli Angeli, situated about 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) from Assisi, Umbria. It is the place from where the Franciscan movement started.
Elias of Cortona was the best friend of St. Francis of Assisi and among the first to join his newly founder Order of Friars Minor. He was a lay friar and became vicar general and minister general of the Order. Saint Francis himself appointed Elias vicar general in 1221.
José Rodríguez Carballo is a Spanish prelate of the Catholic Church who has served as Coadjutor Archbishop of Mérida-Badajoz since September 2023. He was secretary of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life from 2013 to 2023 and minister general of the Order of Friars Minor from 2003 to 2013.
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.
The Fabric of Saint Peter is an institution of the Roman Catholic Church responsible for the conservation and maintenance of St. Peter's Basilica and exercising vigilance over its sacred character and the organization of visitors. While it is not part of the Roman Curia, the 2022 apostolic constitution Praedicate evangelium recognized it as "associated with the Holy See." The Fabric has existed under various names and varying responsibilities since 1523, when Pope Clement VII established a commission to build and administer the Basilica.
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.
Chiara Offreduccio, known as Clare of Assisi, was an Italian saint who was one of the first followers of Francis of Assisi.
Pope Francis has created cardinals at nine consistories held at roughly annual intervals beginning in 2014, most recently on 30 September 2023. The cardinals created by Francis include 142 cardinals from 70 countries, 24 of which had never been represented in the College of Cardinals. His appointments include the first Scandinavian since the Reformation, the first from Goa since an episcopal see was established there in 1533, the first from Latin America's indigenous peoples, the first from India's Dalit class, and the first active head of a religious congregation.
The Church of Saint Francis of Assisi is a Gothic-style, Roman Catholic church of Palermo. It is located near a major and ancient street of the city, via Cassaro, in the quarter of the Kalsa, within the historic centre of Palermo. The building represents the main Conventual Franciscan church of Sicily, and has the title of minor basilica.
The Treasure Museum of the Basilica of Saint Francis contains a collection of sacred art that is on display in two halls found on the northern side of the Cloister of Pope Sixtus IV which is part of the Sacro Convento in Assisi, Italy. The entrance is found on the second level of the Renaissance cloister behind the apse of the Basilica of Saint Francis, which houses the remains of St. Francis of Assisi. Since 1986 the museum has also displayed a collection of works donated to the Conventual Franciscan Friars by the Secular Franciscan and American art critic, Frederick Mason Perkins, who died in Assisi in October 1955.
Pierbattista Pizzaballa is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who has been the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem since 6 November 2020. A Franciscan friar, he served as Custos of the Holy Land from 2004 to 2016, Apostolic Administrator of the Latin Patriarchate from 2016 to 2020, and was made a cardinal by Pope Francis on 30 September 2023.
Nicolò Cortese - in religious Placido - was an Italian Catholic priest and professed member from the Order of Friars Minor Conventual. He served as both a parish priest and as the director for the "Il Messaggero di Sant'Antonio" magazine in Padua before and during World War II. It was in that conflict that he set up an elaborate network designed to protect Jewish people as well as British prisoners of war and Yugoslavs. But the Nazis soon discovered his plans and organized his arrest in October 1944 before killing him some weeks later after brutal tortures in their interrogations.
François-Xavier Bustillo OFMConv is a French Catholic prelate of Spanish origin who has been the Bishop of Ajaccio in Corsica since 2021. He is a member of the Conventual Franciscans.
Vittorio Francesco Viola O.F.M. is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who joined the Roman Curia in May 2021 as secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments with the rank of archbishop. A member of the Order of Friars Minor, he was bishop of Tortona from 2014 to 2021. His education specialized in liturgy; he has taught sacred liturgy at several institutions, managed the liturgy office of the Ecclesiastical Region of Umbria for almost two decades, and served as a member of the Italian Bishops Conference commission for liturgy.
Fortunato Frezza is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who devoted his career to Biblical scholarship and teaching. He has been a canon of St. Peter's Basilica since 2013.
