Franciscan Federation USA

The Franciscan Federation of the Sisters and Brothers of the Third Order Regular of the United States P. O. Box 29080 Washington, DC 20017 TEL: (202) 529-2334 FAX: (202) 529-7016

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A Brief History

Third Order Franciscans
in the United States

From the thirteenth century on, Franciscans had spread throughout Europe and beyond. During the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Franciscan friars of the First Order were engaged in missionary activities among the Indians in the future United States, especially in the southwest. Not until the nineteenth century, however, did Franciscan men and women of the Third Order create foundations in the United States.

By mid-nineteenth century more and more active communities of Third Order Regular Franciscan women in Europe had begun to emerge from cloistered foundations or were newly founded to serve the poor, the ill and the uneducated. These beginnings occurred during the political, religious and social movements in Europe which caused widespread emigration to the United States.

The first group of Third Order men to come to the United States did so in 1847. At the request of Bishop M. O'Connor of Pittsburgh, PA, six Third Order brothers came to Loretto, PA from the monasteries of Roundstone and Chfden, Ireland. They began their educational ministry by establishing St. Francis Academy for Boys.

In 1849 a group of six women, the same number of men, and two priests, all members of the Third Order Secular, came to Milwaukee from Ettenbeuren, Bavaria. The women succeeded in forming a religious community of the Third Order of St. Francis. These two totally unrelated ventures were the beginnings of many more that were to occur during the rest of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth.

We find thirteen men's Third Order Regular Franciscan communities in the United States offlcially approved by the Church. Several that have been more recently founded are in a state of formation. The generalate or motherhouse of seven of these is in the United States. Two have generalates in Germany, two in Italy, one in Spain and one in Ireland. Eight are communities of brothers, five include both friars (ordained clerics) and brothers. The first independent group of brothers to be founded in the United States is the Congregation of the Religious Brothers of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis, commonly called the Franciscan Brothers of Brooklyn.

Of the seventy-seven women's Third Order Regular Franciscan communities listed in the Official Catholic Directory, 1994, thirty-nine originated in the United States although their founders may have emigrated from a European country. one of these is a recent reunification of two communities and one, the amalgamation of two unrelated Franciscan communities. The other thirty-eight were founded by religious congregations from fifteen countries. Most of these are provinces or some kind of subdivision of a motherhouse located outside the United States. Many of the women founders belonged to the Third Order Secular before taking the step to form a Third Order Regular religious community both in Europe and in the United States.

In the United States the founders of the Franciscan communities and their companions were holy and intrepid women determined to live what they understood as the Franciscan way of life and, in doing so, bring Christ's love and compassion to those they served, particularly through education and health care. Sometimes they came in fulfillment of their own vision and sometimes at the request, direction and encouragement of bishops and clergy, sometimes of Franciscan friars. They pioneered, not only alongside immigrant families, but often emerged as leaders and innovators by stepping outside and beyond the perceived role of their women counterparts.

When Third Order sisters and brothers came to the United States, however, during the nineteenth century, the combination of the counter-reformation Church, the unmet social needs of the "new poor", the working classes of the Industrial Revolution, the demands of frontier life, as well as the constitutional jurisdictional interpretations of the time, profoundly affected their lives and spirituality. Recent research into the increasingly accessible Franciscan sources has brought about a deeper understanding and enlightened interpretation of the Franciscan vocation in a society experiencing the throes of change similar to the days of Francis.

Since Vatican II, Third Order sisters and brothers, through their research have come to know not only their thirteenth century Franciscan founders better, but they have also come to know the founders of their individual communities better, as well as the circumstances of the time and subsequent developments. They have discovered how these women and men struggled against almost insurmountable odds to fulfil their mission, how they persisted in the face of various kinds of opposition sometimes clerical, so they could be true to the spirit of Francis as they interpreted Gospel living for their time.

Ministries

At the first Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1852 the Bishops of the United States accepted the goal of the Provincial Councils that there be a parochial school in every parish. This goal, combined with the belief that the Catholic faith was best preserved if learned in one's native language, motivated ethnic parishes to build schools and seek religious sisters and brothers to staff them. As a result, elementary and secondary education in parochial and diocesan settings became the primary ministry of most of the Franciscan Congregations. Some also established schools and academies of their own, especially with the intent of providing secondary education for young women and men.

Catechetics and religious education for children and adults also became a ministry for many of the sisters and some of the brothers, as well as Montessori, pre-school and day-care programs. These and ministries in social services, retreat and pastoral work in parishes and health care institutions developed as communities expanded and societal needs changed.

Especially in the nineteenth century and earlier days of the twentieth, dioceses established orphanages for the care and education of children who had lost parents because of disease, war and hazards concomitant with pioneer living. Some of these orphanages, when there were fewer orphans, became havens for troubled and disturbed children. A number of Third Order men's and women's congregations have developed schools and homes for the mentally retarded, both children and adults.

Many congregations continue their work among Native Americans on reservations, in parishes for the Blacks in the south and inner cities, among Hispanics, Asians and migrant workers. Originally missionaries to the United States, Franciscan congregations as they grew in membership sent missionaries abroad, especially to China in the 1920s until 1949. They are now found in many countries in Africa, Asia, South and Central America.

Education of others demanded that the sisters and brothers become educated themselves. To this end they began to attend institutions of higher learning and to establish normal schools and/or colleges for the education of their own members and other religious. Presently Franciscan Third Order women sponsor fifteen colleges which offer 4-year baccalaureate degree and some master degree programs. The men sponsor two colleges. Most of the institutions of higher education sponsored by the men and women are now coeducational.

More than half of the Third Order women's congregations are involved in some form of healing ministry which often began as home care and developed from sponsorship of a single hospital to numerous hospitals; schools of nursing; nursing homes, hospice and home care and related social services. At least thirty congregations sponsor health care systems, some of which constitute more than 30 entities. The Third Order men also sponsor homes and services for the elderly, engage in nursing and provide various social services for the ill and homeless.

The Beginning

FRANCISCAN FEDERATION, U.S.A.

In the 1960s, the major superiors of the Franciscan communities of women, became convinced that the time had come for collaboration among themselves. They founded the Federation of Franciscan Sisters in 1965 for the purpose of working together to renew religious life as followers of St. Francis. Sixteen years later  (I981) the federation widened its membership to include the Third Order Regular men and is now officially the Franciscan Federation of the Sisters and Brothers of the Third Order Regular of the United States.

Also, the Franciscan Orders, men and women, collaborate in support of Franciscans International, a nongovernmental organization at the United Nations. It serves its members, United Nations personnel and other non-governmental organizations "through collaboration, education, and action regarding care of creation, peacemaking, and concern for the poor." As we approach the twenty-first century, the Franciscan message is more pertinent than it has ever been.

Article taken in part from:

Francis of Assisi
Committed to All .....
Pages 35 - 41

Publisher
EDITIONS DU SIGNE
BP 94 - 1 rue Alfred Kastler
F-67038 Strasbourg CEDEX 2

Edited by: Justin Lang, O.F.M.
Grace McDonald, F.S.P.A.