What is a Friar

Mendicant Friars (Latin mendicare,"to beg") are members of religious orders in the Roman Catholic church, who take a vow of poverty by which they renounce all personal and communal property. They live chiefly by charity. After overcoming the initial opposition of the established clergy, the chief societies were authorized in the 13th century. They include:

Friars Minor, or Franciscans (received papal approval in 1209);
Friars Preachers, or Dominicans (1216);
Carmelites (1245); and
Augustinians (1256).
A fifth order, the Servites, founded in 1233, was acknowledged as a mendicant order in 1424.

Friar (Latin frater,"brother") is a term applied to members of certain religious orders who practice the principles of monastic life and devote themselves to the service of humanity in the secular world. Originally, their regulations forbade the holding either of community or personal property, and the resulting dependence of friars on voluntary contributions in order to live caused them to be known as mendicant orders. The founders of the orders used the term friar to designate members; Saint Francis of Assisi called his followers Friars Minor, and Saint Dominic used the name Friars Preachers. The larger orders were given popular names, derived usually from the color or other distinguishing marks of their habits, such as Black Friars (Dominicans), Gray Friars (Franciscans), and White Friars (Carmelites). Friars differed from monks in that the monk was attached to a specific community within which he led a cloistered life, having no direct contact with the secular world. The friar, on the other hand, belonged to no particular monastic house but to a general order, and worked as an individual in the secular world. Thus, friar and monk are not synonymous terms, even though in popular usage monk is often used as a generic term for all members of religious orders.

Like Francis we are first and foremost called to deepen our union with God in Christ. Like the early TOR penitents we seek to make God the most important  reality of our lives. From our life of prayer all else flows.

In his first letter to the Penitents, Francis says " ... How happy and blessed are those men and women when they bring forth from within themselves fruits worthy of true penance." The penitents of Assisi followed this exhortation of Francis and practiced the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.

To do this some early friars formed communities that offered food and lodging to pilgrims. They also cared for them when they became sick.

Through our ministries the friars manifest an active and practical love of neighbor. They seek to serve the poor, the sick, the elderly and youth.  Our friars minister in schools, parishes and hospitals.

"Our Third Order Regular of St. Francis of Penance has its roots in the ORDER OF PENITENTS to which our Seraphic Father Francis joined himself and to which he gave impulse and direction by a style of life which was more evangelical ... " (Constitutions, Article 1)