Blessed Severin Girault, TOR
Martyred at Paris, Sept. 2, 1792
Beatified at Rome, Oct. 17, 1926

The Delegation of
the Assumption of Our Lady

In the Marian Year of 1954, The French Congregation of the Third Order Regular was united to the Order as a Province under the Patronage of Our Lady of the Assumption.

The Ancient TOR Congregation in France

In the year 1287 at Tolouse, France, there already existed fraternities of brothers and sisters of the Third Order observing a community form of life. These Tertiaries were to be found throughout Aquitania and Normandy. The TOR Congregation was left in a weakened condition due to the Huguenot unrest. However, Fr. Vincent Mussart, after his election as Minister Provincial in the Chapter of 1604 began a reform among the houses and friars which remained. A Bull of Clement VIII in 1603 had placed this Congregation under the jurisdiction of the Friars Minor and they were considered almost as a province. Pope Paul V restored the office of Visitator General to the French Congregation in 1610 and Fr. Mussart was elected to this position. These Friars professed the Rule of Leo X. In 1731, there was an attempt to be united to the Italian Congregation but this was not successful.

In 1792 this Congregation of the Franciscan Third Order Regular disappeared during the fierce persecution of the French Revolution. It was privileged to give to the Church the witness of Blessed Severin Girault TOR, who was among the first to be killed during the Massacre at the Carmelite Monastery on September 2, 1792. He was formally beatified in Rome in 1926.

Thanks to the zeal of a diocesan priest, Fr. Francois Marie Clausade of Albi, the Congregation was re-born at the Monastery of Notre Dame, Ambialet. On April 15, 1864, Pope Pius IX authorized its re-establishment under the spiritual guidance of the Capuchin Friars. In 1873, it was approved as a TOR Congregation professing simple vows and having its own Superior General. Until 1894, Fr. Francois Marie directed the Congregation giving it an orientation towards mission work in France and in foreign lands. In 1903, the government of France began another persecution of the religious orders. Because of this, some friars went to Brasil and there founded a mission in the difficult region of Mato Grosso. The work of the Friars developed into the Dioceses of Caceres (1915) and the Prelacy of Guajara-mirim (1931). The Friars also established the beautiful Church of Our Lady of Fatima in the Sumare district of Sao Paulo.

The Union of the French Congregation with the Order

The French TOR Congregation had been a part of the Interobediential Congress from the start of this organization. The Congregation and the Order had also worked together in a mission project in Brazil. These cooperative efforts resulted in the union of the Congregation of the Third Order Regular of France to the Order on November 3, 1954 during the Generalates of Fr. Henri Maynadier of Albi and Fr. John H. Boccella, T.O.R. It formed a Province under the patronage of Our Lady of the Assumption.

With the creation of the Vice-Province of Nossa Senhora Aparecida in Brasil and the scarcity of vocations in France, in 1993 the status was changed to that of General Delegation with a special relationship to its former mission in Brasil.