Conventual Franciscans

The Order of Friars Minor Conventual (OFMConv), is a branch of the order of Catholic Friars founded by Saint Francis of Assisi in 1209. As early as 1224, the members of this Franciscan Order is called by the people in English as Greyfriars from the color of their garments).^[1] The Religious of this Order are also called Minoriten in the German speaking countries (Minorites in English) and Cordelier in France.^[2]

Founder

Saint Francis of Assisi, Italian San Francesco d’Assisi, baptized Giovanni, renamed Francesco, original name Francesco di Pietro di Bernardone (born 1181/82, Assisi, duchy of Spoleto [Italy]—died October 3, 1226, Assisi; canonized July 16, 1228; feast day October 4), founder of the Franciscan orders of the Friars Minor (Ordo Fratrum Minorum), the women’s Order of St. Clare (the Poor Clares), and the lay Third Order. He was also a leader of the movement of evangelical poverty in the early 13th century. His evangelical zeal, consecration to poverty, charity, and personal charisma drew thousands of followers. Francis’s devotion to the human Jesus and his desire to follow Jesus’ example reflected and reinforced important developments in medieval spirituality. The Poverello (“Poor Little Man”) is one of the most venerated religious figures in Roman Catholic history, and he and Catherine of Siena are the patron saints of Italy. In 1979 Pope John Paul II recognized him as the patron saint of ecology.^[3]

From the founding of his Order, it was the desire of Father Francis, that it would be a true fraternity; its members would come together as brothers of one family, joining in the life and work of the community according to one’s ability. Everyone had equal rights and responsibilities. St. Francis desired that his brothers be called Friars Minor, because "from their very name" they would "enter into the school of the humble Christ, in order to learn humility". They came together in a common fraternity, with the goal of achieving greater devotion, a more ordered life, a more solemn Divine Office, a greater formation of candidates, the study of theology, and other works at the service of the Church, and thus extend the reign of Christ to all the earth under the guidance of the Immaculate.^[4]

History

St. Francis of Assisi, Novaliches (Philippines)

The Order of Friars Minor Conventual (in Latin: Ordo Fratrum Minorum Conventualium, initials: OFM Conv.), is one of the three separate bodies, forming with the Friars Minor and the Capuchins what is commonly called the First Order of St. Francis. All three bodies today follow the rule of the Friars Minor, but whereas the Friars Minor and the Capuchins profess this rule pure and simple, differing only accidentally in their particular constitutions, the Conventuals observe it with certain dispensations lawfully accorded.^[2]

The Order of Friars Minor Conventual is historically regarded as the mother branch of the First Order that was originally known as the "Friars of the Community." They are different from the "Friars of the Reform," consisted of many subdivided communities that are formed before and after 1517. These branches were united into a single group in 1897 by Pope Leo XIII and its members were now called "Friars Minor" (OFM). They is an another branch, the "Capuchins" (OFMCap) which was formally founded in 1528.^[5]

The member of this Order, has accepted the dispensation given by the Church in order to minister to all peoples. They sought to spread the ideals of Saint Francis throughout the new urban social order of the Middle Ages. Some friars settled in the urban slums, or the suburbs the medieval neighborhoods where the huts and shacks of the poorest were built outside the safety of the city walls. Since the suburbs were also the place where hospitals were set up, the friars were often commissioned by the city government to facilitate the care of the sick. The friars also helped to construct sturdier buildings, replacing the previous huts, and constructed churches. A testimony to this fact is was given by Robert Grosseteste, then Bishop of Lincoln, who marvelled that the people "run to the friars for instruction as well as for confession and direction. They are transforming the world."^[6]

These ministries and movement of the Conventual Franciscans into the cities was controversial and split the Franciscan Order into two factions: those who desired the traditional Franciscan life of solitary meditation in rural areas, and those who desired to live together in friaries and work among the urban poor like the Conventual Franciscans. This latter group was first known as the "Friars of the Community," but by 1250 they were also referred to as Fratres Conventuales, however, their official title remained Fratres Minores until the division of 1517, when these followers of Saint Francis became definitively known as Fratres Minores Conventuales or the Friars Minor Conventual.

Basilica of St. Francis, Assisi, the most important church of the Order, where the saint's body is preserved.

Though keeping Francis' remains in the Basilica of St. Francis, generally the Conventuals did not remain at the sites associated with Francis's actual presence. The Friars of the Community sought to take Francis's ideals to the far reaches of a universal Church. After the founder's death, they began the task of translating Francis's earthly existence into a socially relevant message for current and future generations.

Contributions

Science, Music and Arts

• John Peckham (+1292), English. First Franciscan Archbishop of Canterbury. Scientist, poet, philosopher. Authored hundreds of scientific works. His treatise on optics was used as a common textbook in universities.
• Roger Bacon (+1292), English. Father of Modern Science. Transformed methodology of experimental study. First scientific classification of nature, the elements and music. His study of light led to the invention of eyeglasses.
• Giovanni Giocondo of Verona (+1515), Italian. Archeologist, sculptor, illuminator, philologist, hydraulic engineer. Named Architect of the Kingdom by Louis VIII of France. Assisted Raphael in the construction of Saint Peter's Basilica.
• Luca Pacioli (+1517), Italian. Father of Modern Accounting. Inventor of the double-entry system and other devices to aid merchants to organize assets and to aid the poor break their cycle of poverty.^[7]
• Ivan Lukačić (+1648), Croatian. Music director of cathedral in Split. Published first song book in Croatia preserving sacred and traditional music. Popularized transition from polyphony to syncopation in liturgical music.
• Vincenzo Coronelli (+1718), Italian. 78th Minister General. Authored hundreds of works of terrestrial and celestial cosmography. Founded first Geographical Society. Authored first encyclopedia in a modern language.
• Bohuslav Matěj Černohorský (+1742), Czech. The Bach of Bohemia. Music director in Prague, Assisi, and Padua. Mentor of Giuseppe Tartini, a prodigy who transformed the bowing and fingering technique of the violin.
• Giovanni Battista Martini (+1784), Italian. Founded the music archives of Universities of Bologna and Vienna. Authored the first book on the history of music. Teacher and mentor of the young Mozart.
• Girolamo Moretti (+1963), Italian. Major advocate for validating handwriting analysis as a behavioral science of psychology. Founder of Handwriting Analysis School at University of Urbino, Italy.^[8]
• Czeslaw Klimuszko (+1981), Polish. Gifted with incredible extra-sensory perception, he studied and lectured on parapsychology. An expert in organic remedies, he also wrote numerous books on herbal medicine.^[9]

Influence on the Roman liturgy & religious devotions

St. Francis prescribed for his Order the abridged Breviary then reserved for the Roman Curia. As this and the Missal were revised by the general, Haymo of Faversham, at the command of Gregory IX, and these liturgical books have by degrees, since the time of Nicholas III (1277–80), been universally prescribed or adopted, the order in this alone has exercised a great influence. The Breviary of General Quiñonez (1523–28) enjoyed a much shorter vogue. To the Franciscan Order the Church is also indebted for the feast of St. Joseph (19 March) and that of the Blessed Trinity. The activity of the Franciscans in promoting devotion to the Immaculate Conception, since Scotus (d. 1308) defended this doctrine, is well known. St. Francis himself labored earnestly to promote the adoration of Our Lord in the Blessed Eucharist, and Cherubino of Spoleto founded a sodality to accompany the Blessed Sacrament to the houses of the sick. In 1897 Leo XIII declared Paschal Baylon (d. 1592) patron of eucharistic leagues. The Christmas crib was introduced and popularized by the Order. The ringing of the Angelus morning, noon, and evening, was also inaugurated by them, especially by St. Bonaventure and Bl. Benedict of Alrezzo (d. about 1520).^[10]

Franciscan missions

St. Francis devoted himself to missionary labors from 1219 to 1221, and devoted in his rule a special chapter (xii) to missions. In every part of the world, the Franciscans have labored with the greatest devotion, self-sacrifice, enthusiasm and success, even though, as the result of persecutions and wars, the result of their toil has not always been permanent. The four friars sent to Morocco in 1219 under Berard of Carbio were martyred in 1220.^[11] Electus soon shared their fate, and in 1227 Daniel with six companions was put to death at Ceuta.^[12]

"In 1224 Francis decided to send some friars to England and appointed Agnellus of Pisa to lead a small expedition. On Tuesday, 10 September of the same year, a small boat landed near Dover and nine roughly-dressed figures disembarked, and so the Franciscan Order was implanted in England. The nine friars were led by an Italian, Agnellus of Pisa, who had previously been Custos in Paris. It included three Englishmen who had joined the Order, probably in Paris where many Englishmen of the time went to study, five Italians and one Frenchman. Within seven weeks of arrival they had established friaries in Canterbury, London and Oxford, the ecclesiastical, political and intellectual capitals of England. The friars served the poor and the outcast and preached the Gospel to them. In those early days the friars lived very poorly, receiving no money and only accepting the basic necessities of life. They ate what they begged in food, or what they were given in recompense for their work. In Canterbury, at first, they lived at the back of a schoolroom and survived by eating the leftovers from the boys' meal after the boys had finished school. But soon they were given a plot of land to build some wooden huts on for their friary At one time in these early days one of the friars was suffering from exposure after a journey in the snow and the only way the friars had to warm him was to huddle up to him, because they had no way to buy firewood. Their poverty and their humble preaching gained them popularity, so the Order spread quickly, establishing houses in most major towns. We know all this because early on a friar called Thomas of Eccleston wrote an account of the adventures of the friars as they arrived in England. In the years after their establishment in England they added new houses to the Province year by year: Northampton (the administrative centre of the north of England) was added in 1225; Cambridge 1226; Norwich 1226; Worcester 1227. By 1230 the Province was large enough to be divided into seven Custodies based at Oxford, Cambridge, London, York, Salisbury and Worcester. Just thirty years after arriving in England the Province consisted of 1,242 friars in 49 friaries. The Province covered Scotland and Wales as well as England and one of the first English friars, Richard of Ingworth, was sent to establish the Order in Ireland in 1230. Agnellus of Pisa became the first Provincial Minister of the English Province and established a house of studies for the friars in Oxford." ^[13]

Odoric de Porderone

In Northern Europe, which in the 13th century was not yet completely converted to Christianity, the friars established missions in Lithuania, where 36 were butchered in 1325. The first Bishop of Lithuania was Andreas Vazilo. During the 15th century John, surnamed the Small, and Blessed Ladislaus of Gielniow^[14] labored most successfully in this district. In then Prussia (the provinces of West and East Prussia), Livonia, and Courland (where the Conventual Franciscan Albert was Bishop of Marienwerder (1260–90) and founded the town of Reisenburg), as well as in Lapland, the inhabitants of which were still non-Christians. The Reformation put an end to the ministry of the friars. Their numerous houses in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, which formed the province of Denmark (Dania, Dacia), and the provinces of England, Scotland, and to some extent those of Holland and Germany, were also overthrown.

Meanwhile, Odoric of Pordenone laboured in Persia, India, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Canton, Tibet, and China, passing through the Philippines from 1320 to 1325. In 1333 John XXII dispatched twenty-seven Franciscans to China, Giovanni de' Marignolli (Florence) following them in 1342. In 1370 William of Prato was sent as archbishop to Peking with twenty fellow-Minorites (Conventual Franciscans). A few words may here be devoted to those Friars minor who stood forth as fearless defenders of the Faith in the Northern countries during the Reformation period. The Franciscans and Dominicans supplied the greatest number and the most illustrious champions of the Church, and comparatively few yielded to temptation or persecution and deserted their order and their Faith. As in the case of the scholars, artists, missionaries, and holy men of the order, only a few names can be mentioned here. Among the hundreds of names from Great Britain may be cited: Godfrey Jones (d. 1598), Thomas Bullaker (d. 1642), Henry Heath (d. 1643), Arthur Bell (d. 1643), Walter Colman (d. 1645) whose heroism culminated in every case in death. Similarly in Ireland we find Patrick O'Hely (d. 1578), Boetius Egan (d. 1650), etc. Among the most distinguished Danish defenders of the Faith is Nicolaus Ferber (Herborn), mockingly called "Stagefyr" (d. 1535); in France, Christophe de Cheffontaines (d. 1595) and François Feuradent; in Germany Thomas Murner (d. 1537), Augustine of Alfeld (d. 1532), Johannes Ferus (Wild) (d. 1554), Konrad Kling, (d. 1556), Ludolf Manann (d. 1574), Michael Hillebrand (d. about 1540), Johann Nas (d. 1590), etc. Between 1520 and 1650 more than 500 Conventuals laid down their lives for the Church.

Under the greatest difficulties and frequently with small fruit, in consequence of the recurrent devastating wars and insurrections, the missionaries have labored in south-eastern Europe. Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia, and Bulgaria received many Conventual Franciscans in the 13th century, about which period many of the order occupied the archiepiscopal See of Antivari, and in 1340, Peregrinus of Saxony was nominated first Bishop of Bosnia. All their work was interrupted in 1460 by the Turks, who in 1476 cast 40,000 Christians from these districts into prison. Boniface IX transferred the episcopal see to Bakau, Benedict XIV to Sniatyn.

"In 1492 Christopher Columbus, a Secular Franciscan, sought the advocacy of the Conventual friars of the Rabida Friary in Seville, Spain. It was Juan Perez, an astronomer, who pleaded Columbus' case before King Ferdinand, to whom he was financial advisor, and to Queen Isabella, to whom he was confessor. Needless to say, the monarchs were won over. Friar Juan Perez was able to sail with Columbus on his second voyage in 1493. He is credited with celebrating the first Mass in the New World."^[15]

Next we have Venerable Giambattista Lucarelli "who was born in Montelevecchie (now Belvedere Fogliense fraction of Tavullia), in Pesaro in 1540. In 1554, entered the Order of Friars Minor Conventual in the convent of Mondaino where his uncle Nicholas was. He took his profession in Pesaro and on November 30, 1568 he was appointed master of studies in the convent of San Lorenzo Maggiore in Naples, where he lived in 1569-71. He participated in the Battle of Lepanto (October 7, 1571) next to Francesco Maria Della Rovere, who then accompanied him to Madrid in an official capacity as a confessor. There he in 1572, he in his desire to go to missions he transferred to the local friary of St. Bernardino. On 31 March 1577 he met Antonio S. Gregory, lay brother Spanish, who received from Gregory XIII permission to find 12 religious willing to go to missions. Lucarelli volunteered. They arrived in Manila the 2nd of July 1578 and soon after erected the first church dedicated to St. Anne. He availed himself as a missionary in Pangansinan, Ilocos Region and later at Agoo, La Union were he founded and built a church. He also went to China, India and Macao. He went back to Rome to plead for the cause of the missions, presented his travels to the Pope. He died in Naples died in 1604."^[16]

The first Conventual Franciscan to arrive in Australia was Louis Receveur, a Frenchman (1757-1788). He was a young priest-scientist who was commissioned by King Louis XVI to assist the Lapérouse expedition to circumnavigate the globe to gather new plants to be used in medicine. Landing at Botany Bay (Sydney) only a few days after the First Fleet, Receveur died unexpectantly on 17 February 1788.^[17]

Fr. Ignatius Maternowski, OFM Conv. was only Catholic chaplain to die on the morning of 6th June 1944, the D-Day landing on the coast of Normandy, France. Enlisting in the Army in July of 1942, Fr. Ignatius volunteered for the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division. Attaining the rank of Captain, Fr. Ignatius trained in England and Ireland with his men for the battles that would reclaim the freedom of Europe. Landing with his men in the early morning hours of June 6, 1944, Fr. Ignatius immediately searched for an adequate building to serve as a field hospital for the wounded. Removing his helmet and wearing his chaplain insignia and Red Cross armband, Fr. Ignatius crossed enemy lines to seek the cooperation of his German counterpart in establishing a joint hospital. Fr. Ignatius was shot in the back by sniper fire on his walk back to his Regiment. Fr. Ignatius’ body lay in the roadway for three days as the German commander would not allow him to be removed. On June 9, when the 90th Infantry Division claimed the area, Fr. Ignatius’ body was recovered and buried near Utah Beach. In 1948, his remains were returned to the United States and interred at the Franciscan Friars’ Mater Dolorosa Cemetery in South Hadley, Massachusetts.^[18]

Saints & holy men of the Order

The family of the Friars Minor Conventual considers itself in historic and spiritual continuity with the original Order of Minors founded by St. Francis: it is inspired and feels particularly linked to all the saintly figures that the Order, even before the division, has experienced. The greatest among these is the Founder, the Saint of Assisi. Along with him, we cannot forget those who launched the Second and Third Orders: St. Clare of Assisi for the Poor Clares, and Saints Elizabeth of Hungary and Louis IX of France for the lay people, who today are called the Secular Franciscan Order (OFS).

Among the more significant Saints of Franciscan origin, and particularly linked to the Conventual tradition, one must not forget to mention: the First Martyrs of the Order, Berard and Companions, Saint Bonaventure, Thomas of Celano, St. Anthony of Padua and his constant travel companion Blessed Luke Belludi of Padua, John Duns Scotus, Andrew of Conti (of Anagni), Odoric of Pordenone, James of Strepa, and Angelo of Monteleone of Orvieto.

Polish Conventual martyrsː Michael Tomaszek & Zbigniew Strzalkowski

Following the Division of 1517, we continued to be blessed with Saints recognized and revered by the Church, as well as witnesses who have remained silent and anonymous.

The Church canonized Joseph of Cupertino in the XVIII century is known to worldwide as Patron of Students Taking Exams as well as Patron of Aviators.^[19] In more recent times, Pope John Paul II elevated Maximilian Kolbe, the Polish Conventual priest who founded the Militia Immaculatatae and Francis Anthony Fasani to the honors of the altar.

Among the already beatified are:

• Bonaventure of Potenza was born of poor but virtuous parents in Potenza in the kingdom of Naples. A pious priest gave the boy instructions in Latin. At the age of 15, Bonaventure received the Franciscan habit among the Conventuals. After his profession, he resumed his studies with great ardor, but his zeal for perfection was less ardent. His superiors sent him to Amalfi, where he lived eight years under the guidance of an eminent director of souls. This spiritual director trained his pupil above all in humility, self-abnegation, and obedience, and Bonaventure achieved a high degree of perfection in these virtues. As a priest Blessed Bonaventure of Potenza labored with remarkable success. His words, conduct, prayer, and mortification combined to produce blessed results. His simple sermons made a deep impression on all hearts. At times a single word of his was enough to move the most hardened sinner to contrition. His ministry to the sick and the poor know no limit. When an epidemic broke out among the townsfolk, and Bonaventure at once sacrificed himself. Fearless of contracting the disease, he hastened from end to end of the town, rendering every possible service to the stricken, even the lowliest, and administering the sacraments to them. He cured many miraculously; he multiplied their insufficient provisions by his blessing, and he foretold future events. He died peacefully on October 26, 1711. Pope Pius VI beatified Blessed Bonaventure of Potenza in 1775.^[20][21]
• Raffaele Chylinski, born Chylinski Melchiorre in Wysoczko on January 8, 1694 in the district of Poznan in Poland. He was priest of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual, who, in Kraków, during the plague, visited the patients to help them prepare for a holy and honorable and Christian death. He died in December 2, 1741. On 29 August 1772, his cause for beatification was introduced by the Diocese of Warsaw and came under the decree on May 13, 1949. A miracle attributed to his intercession was approved January 22, 1991, he was beatified by Pope John Paul II June on 9, 1991 in Warsaw, during his apostolic visit to Poland.^[22][23]
• Antonio Lucci was a friend of St. Francesco Antonio Fasani, who after Antonio Lucci’s death testified at the diocesan hearings regarding the holiness of Lucci. Born in Agnone in southern Italy. He attended the local school run by the Conventual Franciscans and joined the Order at the age of 16. He was ordained in 1705. Later he was a teacher in Agnone, Ravello and Naples. He also served as guardian in Naples. In 1718, he was elected minister provincial and then the following year he was appointed professor at St. Bonaventure College in Rome, a position he held until Pope Benedict XIII chose him as bishop of Bovino (near Foggia) in 1729. The pope explained, "I have chosen as bishop of Bovino an eminent theologian and a great saint. His 23 years as bishop were marked by visits to local parishes and a renewal of gospel living among the people of his diocese. He dedicated his episcopal income to works of education and charity. At the urging of the Conventual minister general, Bishop Lucci wrote a major book about the saints and blesseds in the first 200 years of the Conventual Franciscans. He was beatified in 1989, three years after his friend Francesco Antonio Fasani was canonized.^[24]
• Jean-Baptiste Triquerie of Laval, was a Franciscan Conventual priest. He was about 56 years old at the time of his martyrdom. There were fifteen men and four women who were martyred together by anti-Catholic French Revolutionaries in 1794. Known as the 19 Martyrs of Laval, France, 16 of these blesseds are Franciscan.^[25] There are also the seven Polish Martyrs, and five Martyrs of the Spanish Revolution.

There are also those who are Servant of God. These are those whose life and works are being investigated in consideration for official recognition by the Catholic Church as a saint, they are as follows:^[26]

• John of Montecorvino (+1328), an Italian medical doctor in court of Holy Roman Emperor. Later, missionary to court of Khan of China. Translated New Testament into Mongolian. First Archbishop of Peking and Patriarch of Orient.
• Casimir Cypher (+1975), Martyr of Honduras. American missionary tortured and shot by soldiers.
• Carlos de Dios (+1976), Martyr of Argentina. Shot by soldiers for advocating legal rights for the poor.
• Zeno Zebrowski (+1982), Polish. Companion of St. Maximilian in Nagasaki, Japan. Founded trade schools and centers for the orphaned, the handicapped, and the elderly. Received national service awards in Japan and Poland.
• Francesco Mazzieri (+1983), Italian. Established the Church in Western Zambia. First Bishop of Ndola. Promoted schools, clinics, leper villages, centers for handicapped. Honored with “Order of Illustrious Service.”

Modern day martyrs includes Blesseds Michael Tomaszek & Zbigniew Strzalkowsk (+1991, Polish. Martyrs of Peru). They ministered to rural mountain villages in particular attending to the sick in their parish in Pariacoto, the Conventual Franciscan missionaries were killed on Aug. 9, 1991, after being abducted in front of their many parishioners.^[27] They are killed by 'Shining Path' terrorists because of their ministry and influence with the poorer members of society, preaching hope for a brighter future.

Current Conventual Franciscans

Rome

On May 26, 2007, at the Sacred Convent in Assisi, the Ordinary General Chapter elected him the 119th successor to St. Francis. He was reelected as minister general in January 2013.^[28]

Philippines

Conventual Franciscans are known missionaries and they took part in the efforts of the Catholic Church. Prominent missionaries who came here in the Philippines were Blessed Odorico from Friuli (Italy), Venerable Giambattista Lucarelli of Pesaro (Italy) and St. Maximilian Kolbe (Poland).

Blessed Odorico (from Friuli, Italy). Friar Odoric was dispatched to the East in April 1318 and made many journey to Asia especially from India to Sumatra, visiting various ports on the northern coast of that island, and thence to Java, to the coast (it would seem) of Borneo, to Champa^[29]:91 (Indochina), and to Guangzhou (Canton), at that time known as Chin-Kalan or Great China (Mahachin). From Guangzhou he travelled overland to the great ports of Fujian, at one of which, then called Zayton Xiamen (Amoy) harbour, he founded two friaries of the Franciscan Order.

Then from Fuzhou he struck across the mountains into Zhejiang and visited Hangzhou, then renowned, under the name of Cansay, Khanzai, or Quinsai (i.e. Kin gsze or royal residence), as the greatest city in the world, of whose splendours Odoric, like Marco Polo, Marignolli, or Ibn Batuta, gives notable details. Passing northward by Nanjing and crossing the Yangzi, Odoric embarked on the Grand Canal of China and traveled to the headquarters of the Great Khan (probably Yesün Temür Khan), namely the city of Cambalec (AKA Cambaleth, Cambaluc, &c.) or present-day Beijing, where he remained for three years, probably from 1324 to 1327, attached, no doubt, to one of the churches founded by Archbishop John of Monte Corvino, at this time in extreme old age.

It was during time, between the opening of 1323 and the close of 1328 on one of his trips, his ship was nearly capsized by a typhoon but they landed safely in Bolinao, Pangasinan, Philippines. He is said to have held a mass there, in around 1324 which predated the Mass held in 1521 by the group of Ferdinand Magellan by some 197 years. Fr. Luigi Malamocco of the Stigmatine Fathers, took this position as well as Antonio Del Castillo, a professor and writer at Lingayen University who added that that after landing in Bolinao during one stormy weather, an Italian friar-missionary celebrated a Mass (in Bolinao) and he also baptized many of Malayan immigrants. However, historian William Henry Scott, a Protestant missionary of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, concluded after examining Odoric's writings about his travels that he likely never set foot on Philippine soil and, if he did, there is no reason to think that he celebrated mass.^[30]

Conventuals Friars before 1989

St. Maximilian Kolbe, visited the Philippines on the 30th of May 1936 in route to Poland from Japan. He offered the Mass and prayed for the future missionary presence of the Conventuals in the Philippines and that the Immaculata whom he loved so much would always triumph on this land known to be "Il Pueblo Amante di Maria". It was because of this visit of the saint and his desire to win the whole world to the Sacred Heart through Mary Immaculate and his Franciscan-Marian way of life that inspired the Conventual Fathers to establish the Order here in the Philippines.

The first group of missionaries arrived in Manila on 24 August 1979.^[31] They were accommodated by the Franciscan Friars (OFM) at Bagbag, Novaliches, Q.C. until October 15, 1979. In December 29, 1979, the Parish that they helped to establish was entrusted to them, this church is St. Francis and Sta. Quiteria Parish Church in Caloocan, Metro Manila. They stayed there for three years (1980-1983) with Fr. Gabriel M. Pellettieri as rector.^[32] Later a presence was established in Novaliches (June 2, 1982) while in the process giving up the ministry in Caloocan. Then an additional friary at Tagaytay City (June 1, 1987) and Parañaque (August 15, 1988) followed.

These growth was soon challenged by an particular situation, that is, when the Italian mission who came to the Philippines refused to lived according to the approved Constitutions of the Conventual Franciscans instead insist on a particular Marian way of life that took its inspiration from St. Maximilian's Franciscan-Marian ideals. Majority of these missionaries left the Order and initiated the diocesan religious institute called the Friars of the Immaculate, established by the Archbishop of Benevento, Italy in June 23, 1991.^[33]

Conventual Franciscans Philippines 2015

Conventual Franciscan Order sent missionaries to the Philippines from many parts of the world especially from Malta, the different parts of Italy (Naples, Padua, Genoa), an American who is a missionary in Japan and another Italian who was then a missionary in Korea --- they and many others who came from 1989-2001 were instruments of a rebirth from being a mission presence to becoming a strong Provincial Custody. One friar Pietro M. D’Andria who came in 1983 died in Manila on November 9, 1997. He is buried in Tagaytay City.

At present, the Conventual Franciscans in the Philippines are committed in parochial ministries in San Agustin, Moonwalk (Parañaque) and at Binangonan (Rizal) and in Novaliches (Q.C.) where they also have a charity clinic and a retreat center. The formation houses are in Tagaygay City (Cavite) & Parañaque. An important presence is kept as a mission station among the people of Dolores (Eastern Samar)

Australia

It was in 1954, when the Conventual Franciscan Order was able to establish a permanent presence under the patronage of Our Lady Help of Christians. Throughout the years the friars have served the Church in Australia in a variety of ways: by establishing and ministering to people in parishes across the Autralian continent, both urban and rural; assist with the chaplaincy of the Secular Franciscan Order, and organize the Militia Immaculata (a ministry of the Conventual Friars)and teaching Catechism in local schools; in addition on many occasions they have been asked to present conferences and retreats to local and diocesan level groups; and outreach to the poor through organisations such as the St. Vincent de Paul Society and Caritas Australia. The frias latest ministry is the foundation of our new Shrine of the Holy Innocents, to promote the sanctity of human life from birth till natural death.^[17]

References

Sources

• Ordo Fratrum Minorum Conventualium - Conventual Franciscans
• Conventual Franciscan Friars in the United States

External links

• Order of Friars Minor Conventuals Article from the Catholic Encyclopedia
• Papal Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi
• St. Anthony of Padua, Basilica of the Saint
• Friars Minor Conventual in Uganda Greyfriars in Uganda
• Conventual Franciscans in Wrocław, Poland History with pictures
• Basilica of St. Josaphat: A ministry of the Conventual Franciscans
• VIDEO: OFM Conv - Ordo Fratrum Minorum Conventualium OFM Conv - Ordo Fratrum Minorum Conventualium

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