The Little Church of San Rocco, Montefalco
The "Portiuncula" of the Third Order Regular
of Saint Francis of Penance

This Province is the heir of all the history of the Third Order Regular in Italy since it is the direct descendant of the Provinces of Umbria-Piceno, The Marches and of all the fraternities of central an northern Italy. The province also has houses in Rome and Milan. ( p. 23 resource manual.)

Beginnings:

St. Francis and his first companions lived the first years, after their conversion in the penitential habit with the status of Penitents: "We are Penitents .... they said.... and we come from Assisi.

We also find among the followers of Francis those Penitents living, with his approval, as solitaries or living with companions in hermitages. Already by 1221 Pope Honorius III and later Gregory IX in 1227 defended those "who had retired to solitary places to do penance."

This was the situation of Bartolomeo Barono of Gubbio to whom St. Francis himself had sent some companions and had authorized to receive others, and of Praxides, a Roman recluse, of Verdiana of Castel Fiorentino, of Gerard of Villamagna and many others.

The communities of Franciscan Penitents, living in obedience, poverty and chastity, were approved by Pope John XXII with the document Altissimo in divinis of November 18, 1323. Among these are found the names of Antonio Collamazio of Gubbio, Bartolomeo Giovino of Spoleto, Andrea Bonamico of Perugia.

In 1447, Pope Nicholas V authorized the Penitents of the Third Order (of Italy) to elect a Visitator General, to draw up Statutes, and to adopt a habit which would distinguish them from simple hermits. Gathered in a General Chapter at Montefalco in Umbria in July of 1448 they elected Fra Bartolomeo Bonamati of Perugia as the Visitator General. Fra Francisco di Antonio of Genoa, Fra Antonio "de Urcis Novis," Fra Onofrio of Pesaro, Fra Pietro of Pisa were elected Definitors. Fra Andrea Franceschini of Milan was elected as Procurator.

The Province of the Marches (Ancona)
and of the Duchy of Umbria.

In the following years, the previously mentioned Fra Bartolomeo Benamati appears as Minister Provincial of most of Umbria. The center of the Order seems afterward to have shifted to the north of Italy so much so that the entire Order by 1476 was known as the "Third Order of St. Francis called of Penance of Regular Observance in the Eremitical Habit" of the Lombardy Congregation.

At the General Chapter of 1546 we find listed: the Province of Lombardy, of Venice, of Romagna and the Roman Province to which was united the Provinces of the Marches of Ancona, the Duchy of Umbria, and that of Abruzzo. It is not known when these latter provinces were united and when they were again separated. We do know that at the General Chapter held in Rome in 1619 in the list of the twelve Provinces participating, the Province of St. Francis of Umbria is listed in second place and that of the Marches in eighth place.

In 1652 Pope Innocent X ordered the close of all convents with less than 5 religious. This severely affected the Province of the Marches whose convents were almost entirely small hermitages. So it came about that of the 17 convents of that Province, 15 were suppressed with only the convents of San Ginesio and of Monte Giorgio remaining open. Of the 8 Convents of the Umbrian Province, only 4 were spared: Assisi, Massa Martana, Collescipoli and San Gemini.

  The Union of the Two Provinces.

In the General Chapter of 1653, held in Assisi, (at which the famous Fr. Francesco Bordoni was elected General), the Provinces of Umbria and the Marches were united in a single Province which was called "The Umbrian Province of St. Francis," and later the Province of Umbria and the Marches, or also "The Province of Umbro-Picena. " In the act of establishment it was stated that the Provincial for two terms of three years would be from Umbria and then the next triennium from the Marches while the Custos would be from the Province different from the Provincial. This arrangement began in June of 1656. In 1760, since the number of convents and Friars in the region of the Marches had increased, at the request of both Provinces it was decreed that the Provincials would alternate between the two regions. With the passage of time, such distinctions between the two ancient provinces were no longer made since a complete unification had taken place. From the time of the union, the Province was reinvigorated and then began to flourish in coincidence with the collapse of others!

The Various Suppressions,
the Rebirth and Expansion.

The various civil suppressions of the 19th century destroyed different Provinces of the Order in Italy and were strongly felt also by our Province. Convents were closed and the friars were dispersed. Only in 1884, through the efforts of the newly elected Provincial, Fr. Emidio Maricotti of Francavilla d'Ete was it possible to gather the more willing friars to reopen the Novitiate in the Convent of San Francesco in San Ginesio.

Fr. Maricotti (1834-1897), elected the following year Minister General of the Order, may rightly be called the restorer of the modern Province, above all by his reconstruction and opening of the Seraphic Seminary of St. Anthony at Francavilla d'Ete (1897). The young friars formed at San Ginesio and Francavilla were the ones who would give life to the Order in Italy and a little later to the Province of the Immaculate Conception in the United States of America.

Renewed in ideas and energy, the Province left its territorial limits and directed itself towards the future.

In 1943, it returned to the historic sanctuary of the Madonna of Piratello on the outskirts of Imola.

In 1950, our first missionaries left for Paraguay and the beginning of the Commissariate which would form part of the future Vice-Province of St. Anthony of Padua in 1992.

Next, it extended into Rome and the Lazio, accepting the Parish of S. Achille, Monte Sacro Alto and, in 1973, the definitive acceptance of the Convent of Sts. Quirico and Guilitta in the historic center of Rome. In 1975, the Parish of San Gordiano in Civitavecchia was accepted. This parish was returned to the diocese as the result of the Provincial Chapter of 1979, when the Province accepted the care of the Parish of the Madonna della Salute in Primavalle, Rome.

There was a return in 1960 of the Order to Milan, the capital of Lombardy where the late Fr. Giovanni della Vecchia directed the building of the parish complex of the Holy Patrons of Italy.

In 1971 the Province took over the pastoral care of the Parish of St. Thomas in Newark, N.J. in the United States of America.

Against the background of this new historic context, by 1957 it seemed opportune to abandon a title which seemed somewhat restrictive (Umbria-Picena Province) to assume the present title of the "Province of St. Francis of Assisi".

The Spirituality and
Tradition of the Province.

In comparison with the other Provinces of the Order, down through the centuries the Province of Umbria and the Marches have had as the special note of the eremitical life: small convents without pastoral responsibility for the Faithful, oases of peace and serenity where the friars attended to prayer in poverty and ftanciscan humility in an apostolate among ordinary and simple people. Perhaps, just because of this, the Province managed to emerge from the various external difficulties such as the different civil suppressions which caused the extinction of other Provinces noted for more impressive works and activities.

This type of humble and poor environment has greatly favored a more family style of life in fraternities always made up of very few friars among whom everything necessarily was shared. Only the Convent of St. Anthony in Assisi stands out from the others by its importance and by its religious and literary activities. The Office of Vicar of the Holy Office was usually assigned to one of the friars of this house.

Outstanding Friars of the Province.

Among the more important authors we recall Gregory Alberti of Massa Matana (1637), Tomaso Capponi di Urbisaglia (1649), Giacinto Salibeni di Collescipoli (1669), Alessandro Pardini of Assisi (1751), Domici Venarucci of Assisi (1809), Emidio Maricotti of Francavilla d'Ete (1897), Rainero Luconi of Tolentino (1957) Pietro Chioccioni of Assisi (1970). Actually, the Province has a fine reputation for the work of some of its members in the study of the history and spirituality of the Order.

Minister Generals - Province of Assisi

Besides the first General of the Order, Friar Bartolomeo Bonamati, the Province has given the Order the following Minister Generals:

* Matteo Stuzi da Montefano 1616-1622
* Gregorio Alberti da Massa Martana 1634-1637
* Francesco Girolamo Fonzi da Massa Martana 1665-1668
* Bonaventura Guglieri da Assisi 1701-1707
* Ludovico Paoli da Lucca 1791-1797
* Guiseppe Galgani da Lucca 1804-1814
* Corrado Polimanti da Monte S. Pietro Morico 1849-1855
* Raffaele Rampichini da San Ginesio 1864-1868
* Emidio Maricotti da Francavilla d'Ete 1885-1897
* Felice Pio Cecca da Collescipoli 1897-1903
* Angelo de Mattia da Francavilla d'Ete 1903-1912

PRESENT

Several members have done valuable research on the history and spirituality of the Order.

Fathers Raffaele Pazzelli, Lino Temperini and Vittorio continue the tradition of Father Franceso Bordoni, the famous 17th century historian of the Order. The Province has also dedicated itself to the works of the apostolate. In 1950 it sent three friars to continue the evangelization of the people of Paraguay. In 1957 the province formally adopted as its title "The Province of St. Francis of Assisi." In the 60's it began to do pastoral ministry in parishes in Milan and Rome. In 1997 three friars assumed pastoral care of a parish on the island of Mindinao in the Philippines.

For further information:
Convento S. Antonio di Padova
Via S. Paolo 2, 06081
Assisi, Italy