Franciscan Order Research Articles

Cannibal, Scorpion, Horse, Owl: Institutional Hypocrites and the Early Fourteenth-Century Church

The status of hypocrisy as a vice has varied historically, but analysis has tended to stress the issue in relation to individuals, rather than institutions. Taking Judith Shklar and Boccaccio as points of departure, this article explores how and why hypocrisy mattered in the context of the early fourteenth-century church. Analysing charges of hypocrisy made by and against Pope Boniface VIII at the papal Curia; Angelo Clareno within the Franciscan Order; and the later Capetian court in relation to the Roman de Fauvel allows us to see how anxiety about hypocrisy became especially acute across a range of early fourteenth institutions. Contemporaries questioned what their institutions meant and increasingly put their claims to the test, often in heightened apocalyptic terms. In and around the early fourteenth-century church, worry about institutional hypocrisy shows how responsibility was increasingly on trial.

The Revelations of Blessed Angela — the problem of authorship of visions

The book "Revelations of Blessed Angela" ("The Phenomenon of the gifts of the Almighty sent down in the Spirit of Blessed Mother Angela of Foligno", hereinafter — "Revelations...") as a historical source attracts very little attention in Russian literature, and in Western literature all research is focused around the religious component of revelations, the cult of the personality of God. Angela and the questions of finding the unknown and mystical in her visions. For some, bl. Angela is a real saint, for others she is a woman who suffered from hysteria, and all her visions are the fruit of a sick fantasy.The work analyzed the first two parts of the book "Revelations..." by bl. Angela, which are key to understanding the teaching. The experience described in the chapters on visions is closely related to the problem of authorship. Solving the issue of authorship may provide an opportunity to take a fresh look at historical time and similar works. It is proposed to consider the book as evidence of an attempt to create a cult of the holy new formation, which turned out to be very successful: under the developed doctrine of salvation, the life of the saint was compiled, who directly accepted divine revelations, fully confirming the views of certain groups of spirituals in the Franciscan order.

Beyond text to God: Bonaventure's transformation of exegetical method from his Breviloquium to Itinerarium mentis in Deum (1257–1259)

Abstract In 1257, the election of Bonaventure of Bagnoregio (c. 1217–1274) as leader of the Franciscan Order thrust him from the regulated world of academia into the polarised world of the Order. In his Breviloquium, completed just after his transition from a scholastic to an administrative and pastoral role, exegesis was mainly a form of intellectual contemplation mediated by Scripture. In his Itinerarium mentis in Deum, completed in 1259, exegesis became a form of contemplative encounter with the textual origin, Christ. This transformation of exegetical method in response to changing contexts and audiences manifests a different way of relating to Scripture.

Zakon Braci Mniejszych w chwili śmierci św. Franciszka

This article presents the evolution of the Franciscan order which took place in the years 1223–1228, i.e., in the period from the final approval of the Franciscan Rule to the canonization of Francis. This period is poorly described in the oldest Franciscan sources, but we believe that it is wrong to conclude that the generation of Friars Minor, contemporaries of Francis, wanted to hide something in the history of the Order, in particular the process of departing from the original Franciscan ideals and moving towards the clericalization of Friars Minor. Neither Francis nor his early companions cared about any documentation. The article is divided into four parts: 1) From community to order; 2) Territorial expansion; 3) Rule; 4) Voltages. Francis did not think about the order, but about the community, and he gave this form to the first generation of friars. As long as Francis lived, he mitigated them by his own example. After his death, the Holy See had to intervene, making an authentic interpretation of the rule.

“Leah’s Forbidden Bedchamber”. Sacred Scripture in the Bull of Canonization “Mira circa nos”

An important document for the history and spirituality of the Franciscan Order is the Canonization Bull of St. Francis of Assisi, issued by Pope Gregory IX in 1228. It depicts the figure of Saint Poverello against the background of numerous biblical figures and images. This paper is a commentary on the text of the Bull, in particular on its biblical feature. Linguistic remarks on the translation are followed by an evaluation of available sources of the text and a statistic of biblical references present in the papal document. The central part of the paper is the presentation of biblical characters, both of the New and Old Testaments, which, according to the intention of the author of the bull, are types referring to the figure of St. Francis: Apostle Paul, Abraham, Jacob, Jephthah, Samson and Shamgar, Noah, Gideon, Moses, David, Job and Simon the High Priest. In this way, St. Francis of Assisi appears as one of the special figures in the history of salvation.

Between Spanish Franciscans and Chinese Literati in Late Ming and Early Qing: Modes of Interactions and Cultural Exchanges

The Franciscan Order was one of the most important missionary orders in China during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. While rooted in the local communities, they also engaged in various forms of interactions with Chinese literati. This article will begin by briefly discussing the issue of the Franciscans changing from religious habit into Chinese dress as well as their evolving attitude towards Confucianism and Chinese rituals, aiming to illustrate the process of shaping their “Western Confucian” image and their adaptation to Chinese culture. Subsequently, the focus of this paper will be shifted to exploring the modes of interactions between the Spanish Franciscans and the Chinese literati. The author argues that the interactions between the two sides were primarily power-based. These power-based interactions entailed establishing connections with officials and leveraging their influence to safeguard missionary activities. It can be further categorized into three types. The first type involved socializing with officials, while the second type included interaction with Jesuit officials in court, and the third type was direct involvement in official positions. In their engagement with literati, the Franciscans demonstrated a thorough understanding of and adaptation to Chinese societal and cultural norms, thereby facilitating the development of their mission.

Functions of Miraculous Healing in the Two Lives of St. Colette of Corbie (1381–1447)

ABSTRACT Accounts of medieval medical miracles are most often found in canonization records, collections compiled at a saint’s shrine, and hagiographic accounts of both dead and living saints. The medical miracles performed by living saints are often more detailed and more varied than those in posthumous accounts. This article is a case study of a selection of the medical miracles performed by St. Colette of Corbie (1381–1447), a major reformer of the Franciscan Order and founder of many convents, as they are recounted in her two biographies. They offer a fascinating perspective into her healing activities whose major purpose was to keep the networks of her supporters and her communities alive and functioning.

P. Csiszér Elek OFM tartományfőnök levele a marosvásárhelyi házfőnöknek

The reform initiative of the Transylvanian Franciscan Order dates back to 1879, the year of the ordination of our fellow monk Elek Csiszér. While experiencing the inner, loose monastic life, he asked for permission to go to a more austere community. He did not receive permission, but he did gain permission to live a more austere life. Along with some of his fellow friars, he began a reform. The reform was not implemented in one year – it is recorded that it took almost two decades to put the reform that involved the ministry of four provincials into practice. Prayer, the wearing of the habitus, fasting, money management and community life were common themes in the circulars.

FRANCIS-CANS ORDER: BETWEEN HOLDING CITS ORIGIN AND REJECTING THE CHURCH ORGANIZATION

I have studied in the previous article an interesting Subject entiteled “The personality of St.Francis of Assisi”. The Spiritual the Oricain of the Francis-cans order”. I have discussed in it aboutthis Italian young man who belonged to the region of Ombria -in the Middle Italy- . He is a son of an important trader in this city. Francis lived the first years of this life beneficted of the money which was offered to him by his family. He brought all things which he desiredand did not stop to participate to the festivals celibrated by his rich friends. After all this events, one day arrived when Francis decided suddenly to leave this beautiful life towards a meditation with a kind of modesty and imitating the Christ who encouraged humans to leave all their wealth and follow him. In this article, I have discussed about the religious life of Francis of Assisi. In the first step, Francis requested to the pope Innocent III (1198- 1216) to accept his rule which was accepted by this first Christian leader between the years 1209 or 1210. After this important event,I have elaborates the different steps in the construction of which was known “Franciscans order”. It is so important to say that despite this order,they went far from the spirit of the Christian principles which Francis insisted on it along his life, the Francis-can order remained one of the great religious order in the middle age. In other way, the Christian church considered it as an efficient weapon to distroy the heretics who threatened the existence of this religious institution. In addition to this, the Dominicans contributed to spread the Christians principle, and their role is also great in the effort of missionary

THE SANTA CLARA PASSION PANEL AND THE POOR CLARES OF PALMA DE MALLORCA: A PRELIMINARY REPORT

The large panel painting of the Passion in Palma de Mallorca is an impressive but little-studied work. This essay introduces a long-term, collaborative project that will examine the panel’s religious, historical, and art historical significance. While earlier scholarship has largely focused on questions of dating and stylistic attribution, we also explore possible explanations for the panel’s anomalous style as well as its meanings to the Clarissan nuns of Palma de Mallorca, who, we believe, were the panel’s primary viewers. We argue for the importance of this female community in commissioning the altarpiece and determining its key subjects and themes. These Clares shared with their powerful allies, the Franciscan Order, the papacy, and the royal house of Mallorca, a desire to serve and strengthen Christianity throughout their known world. The nuns could not participate in missionary activity abroad, but close to home were the non-Christian residents of Mallorca. For the nuns of Santa Clara, the presence of Jewish neighbors was especially disturbing. The Mallorca panel of the Passion was primarily devotional; it does not overtly preach through its pictures a Christian supremacy over “infidels”. Nevertheless, the far-reaching goals of the Church and the Franciscans affect the panel in concrete ways, from its Byzantine-inflected style to its unusual attention to the Jews of the Passion story.

Airplane Hangars and Triple Hills: Renovation, Demolition, and the Architectural Politics of Local Belonging at the Our Lady of Csíksomlyó Hungarian National Shrine

In 2019, Pope Francis, leader of the global Catholic Church, celebrated an outdoor Mass at the Our Lady of Csíksomlyó Hungarian national shrine in Romania. When the Franciscan Order that runs the shrine published renovation plans for the altar where the pope would appear, the Facebook post received over 800 outraged comments, including one man who asked, “How can such a beautiful Hungarian symbol, so perfectly integrated into the landscape, be humiliated like this?” By situating these expressions of outrage in the history of Eastern European material politics, I argue that the aesthetic value the commentators were defending – a locally integrated built environment – is actually the product of a complex history of the appropriation and reappropriation of material forms that binds the Csíksomlyó shrine into the material politics of the right-wing Hungarian nation-state.

Constitutiones Synodales Ecclesiae Strigoniensis

In 1493, the Ostrihom Synod was held. It resulted in the document Constitutiones Synodales Ecclesiae Strigoniensis printed in 1494 in Vienna. However, this print was not available to historians for many centuries. In the middle of the 20th century, two specimens were identified. One defective copy of the print is located in Zagreb, and the other one, the only complete copy, is stored in SNK in Martin. The publisher is Theobald Feger and the printer is Johann Winterburger. The press contains several regulations concerning the area of church life. The printed text contains 37 canons of the synod and liturgical calendar. The presented unique item is a part of the envelope and its bookbinding originates from the 19th century. The owner was the Franciscan order in Bratislava, which owned one of the largest libraries in Hungary. Further research of incunabula connected to the territory of Hungary may reveal more similarly rare documents.

The Franciscan Order of Things: Empire, Community, and Archival Practices in the Monasteries of Ottoman Bosnia

AbstractThis article revisits the history of the Franciscan archives under Ottoman rule by focusing on archival documents, practices, and spaces in the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Fojnica. Ottoman papers and archives preserved in the Franciscan spaces were often associated with Ottoman oppression. In this study, the author demonstrates that the documentary relationship between monasteries and Ottoman chanceries was not one-directional and cannot be characterized as oppressive. Franciscans actively engaged with the Ottoman documents and genres; they relied on the Ottoman vocabularies and legitimacy embedded in the documents, and subverted them at the same time, carving out their own physical and discursive spaces, which were tied to and yet different from the imaginaries of the Ottoman imperial order. The article emphasizes how examining archival narratives is located at the intersection of practices, texts, and spaces.

Un documento inédito sobre los herederos de Juan Guas y las cuentas para la construcción del monasterio de San Juan de los Reyes en Toledo

The document that is presented today contributes new knowledge regarding the history of the construction of the monastery of San Juan de los Reyes and the Franciscan Order in Toledo. It permits us to draw closer to a knowledgeable understanding of the main motivations and vicissitudes that occurred during the beginning of this Franciscan institution in the city, as well as the analysis of certain questions about its construction, and the men who promoted, designed, and built it.

ASAL MUASAL DAN PERKEMBANGAN ORDO KETIGA REGULAR FRANSISKUS ASSISI

This historical research has focused on the religious movement of the Third Order Regular Francis of Asisi. The followers of the Poor man of Assisi consist of four Franciscan Orders, known today as the Order of Friars Minor, the Order of St. Clare, the Third Order Regular of St. Francis, and the Secular Franciscan Order (formerly known as the Third Order Secular). More than that, the religious vision and Francis’ inspiration are being put into practice by a certain Lutheran denomination and an Anglican church. The research which applied the method of spiritual-historical theology has narrated the emancipatory movements that were realized by the Third Order (penitence) of St. Francis. In fact, there were lay people who would imitate Francis’s way of life within their state of life, in their works, and within their family. This is the origin of Tersiaris (the Secular Franciscan Order). Then, there were some people who would be religious in the spirit of St. Francis by living the holy gospel. In reality, some interventions by the Holy See took part in determining the development of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis, besides the active roles of the members of the First Order (as spiritual fathers) and local bishops. Throughout its long history, the Third Order Regular has served as a kind of sanctity school for its own members as well as those who completely immerse themselves in their service to the world. So, the primary characteristic of the Third Order remains penance, that is the spiritual ideals of Francis of Assisi.

Francis of Assisi and goiter. Considerations from some paintings that represent the saint

Francis of Assisi (c. 1181–1226) is one of the most venerated religious figures in Roman Catholicism and one of the most depicted saints in art. The aim of this research is to highlight the presence of goiter in some depictions of the saint and to argue for the possible presence of this condition in Francis himself. Four paintings that represent Francis of Assisi belonging to the period between the fifteenth and the seventeenth century were analyzed. Early biographies of the saint were examined. In the analyzed paintings, the saint was represented with a throat swelling. Actually, early biographies do not support the hypothesis that Francis of Assisi suffered from goiter. The choice to represent Francis of Assisi with a goiter could be a desire to emphasize the inadequacy of his diet and thus to highlight his pauperism. Even though thyroid-related symptoms were often described, the presence of thyroid goiter in Francis is not confirmed by biographies. However, it should be considered that the directives of the Franciscan Order pushed authors to show a figure of the idealized saint for purposes of religious education and have increasingly detached from his physical characteristics.

Программа фрескового цикла Беноццо Гоццоли в хоре церкви Сан Франческо в Монтефалько

The frescoes on the subjects of the life of St. Francis in the choir of the main Franciscan church in Montefalco were painted by Benozzo Gozzoli in 1452. For a long time they remained poorly studied, and the program of the cycle was unclear. Studies of the end of the XX century indicate a steadily increasing interest in the artist's work, including his monumental paintings in Montefalco. The subject of this article is to clarify the program design of the chapel, which probably belonged to Fra Jacopo of Montefalco, a Franciscan theologian and rector of the church. The appearance of rare plots, atypical for earlier and later Franciscan cycles in Italy, and a careful analysis of each composition in connection with the literary tradition of the Franciscan order, allowed us to more fully substantiate that the idea of "Francis as another Christ" (Franciscus alter Christus) was consistently carried out in the chapel program. The cycle executed by Gozzoli includes twelve fresco compositions and a stained glass window. All of them represent twenty episodes from the life of St. Francis from his birth to his ascension to heaven, which are accompanied by explanatory comments in Latin. Many of the scenes are multi-episode, reflecting the passion for storytelling in the middle of the XV century and the desire to bring all the details and details necessary to explain the plot. The analysis of the compositions in comparison with hagiographic literature allows us to conclude that the compilers of the program mainly relied on three main texts about the life of the saint: the first and second lives of Thomas by Chelan, as well as the Great Legend by St. Bonaventure. The choice of subjects and the overall design of the chapel emphasize the living ministry of the saint, and also reflect another, more important by this time, Franciscan idea – the glorification of Francis as another Christ. The depictions of scenes telling about the birth, childhood and about the early years of Francis' life, appearing in the pictorial tradition for the first and last time, make this painting cycle truly unique.

A Vocabulary of the Language Spoken in the Region Formerly Known as Leán y Mulia in Honduras

During the years 1787 and 1788, officials of the Spanish crown began to circulate an order from the king to recompile vocabularies of Spanish colonies in the Philippines and the Americas. In some cases, this meant the copying of old books from the early part of the eighteenth century. However, this royal order also included the translation and recording of vocabularies from as many new languages of the Spanish colonies as possible. In Central America, the translation of a predetermined list of a few hundred Spanish words into local languages of the colony was put into the hands of the University of San Carlos in Guatemala City and the provincial fathers of the Dominican and Franciscan orders. Language instructors were responsible for writing the words of the indigenous languages and their Spanish equivalents, while priests, who were well versed in the languages spoken natively throughout the colony, were to be consulted and responsible for the prompt and precise recording of the translated Spanish terms. Those who recorded the documents were instructed to place the Spanish terms in a column to the left. The respective terms in the indigenous languages were placed in columns to the right. Special instructions were given to the recorders and their consultants to explain the orthography that they used to express these words. It seems that the purpose of this exercise was to satisfy the curiosity of the “empress of Russia” on the matter.1Since the late seventeenth century, Spanish officials began to implement colonial policies aimed at subduing an unconquered region of Honduras they referred to as Leán y Mulia. Today this region comprises the modern departments of Yoro and Atlántida. The Spanish named the inhabitants of Leán y Mulia “Xicaque.” The origins of the term are unknown, but previous scholars have linked Xicaque to the Nahuatl word chicáctic, signifying “rude” or “strong.” Despite its questionable origins, previous scholars who have studied the indigenous peoples of Honduras have consistently remarked that the term Xicaque referred to any “uncivilized” indigenous person of Honduras. It is not certain what the people of Leán y Mulia called themselves; their language is barely documented in any other colonial source. The people of Leán y Mulia were called Xicaque in Spanish sources until 1821 and even after that (Rivera 2015: 5).When the people of Leán y Mulia became subjected to Spanish policies in the seventeenth century, they increasingly demonstrated an increased antagonism to the threat imposed by the Spanish. The foundation of a few settlements by the Spanish in the first half of the eighteenth century was the first attempt to bring together the people of Leán y Mulia under Spanish control. By the mid-part of the eighteenth century, Franciscan missionaries, aided by soldiers of the colony, founded mission settlements where the people of Leán y Mulia were sometimes forced to move. Flight from the missions was common, as were defenses meant to keep the Spanish out. The regular antagonism demonstrated by the people of Leán y Mulia slowly became an act of avoidance after a smallpox pandemic decimated the remaining mission populations (Rivera 2015:110–28).The next section presents an excerpt from the source, closely following the original material with the exception of the added column in English. The original document also included columns for languages called Cabecara and Viceyta; these are not included in the following translation.

Franciscan Minorite Monks in China from the “Great Religious Incident” to the Cultural Revolution

The article is an attempt to systematize the preaching of the Franciscan order in China, starting with the Papal embassies to the Great Khans who conquered the Middle Empire and founded the Yuan dynasty until the end of the 20th century. The author groups the information into several major periods, suggesting a five-stage periodization of the Franciscan presence in the Far East. A change in the preaching paradigm is noted during the 700 centuries of the fickle Minorites’ presence in China. While the first reconnaissance missions, achieving modest success in preaching to non-Chinese subjects of the Mongol emperors, were mainly diplomatic in nature, in modern times the mission, enjoying the support of the Spanish Padroado system, is purposefully concentrated on preaching work, especially among the poor segments of the population. The culmination of all European Catholic missionary enterprise in China, the famous ‘Rites Controversy’, which split the Christian orders in the Celestial Empire, is examined in connection with the role played by the representatives of the Franciscan Order in this dramatic conflict. The author concludes that the Controversy hit, as a result, all Chinese Catholic missions – the Franciscans no less than their main opponents, the Jesuits, eventually leading to persecution, repression and expulsion of missionaries. Attempts of new penetration of Catholic Christianity into the PRC are resumed only after the end of the Cultural Revolution in the second half of the 20th century. The article is a continuation of the piece by the same author, focusing on theoretical foundations of the Franciscan proselytization, published earlier.

Contradicción, aculturación y celebración en El negro del serafín de Vélez de Guevara

Abstract: This article draws new attention to El negro del serafín , by Luis Vélez de Guevara, a hagiographic drama focused on the struggle for freedom and the rise to fame as a Franciscan friar of a Black protagonist. Despite evidence of enthusiastic reception at its time of composition and staging (ca. 1642–43), the comedia has remained obscure in recent times. In considering the historical and cultural contexts of the notion of Black sainthood in early modern Spain and Sicily overall and the theatrical subgenre of plays celebrating Black saints ( comedia de santos negros ), the article finds the comedia serves as a window through which to examine how religious beliefs and cultural practices informed representations of Blackness. Through a close reading of the play, I explore how Vélez de Guevara builds a hagiographic drama that epitomizes the fundamental duality of Renaissance and Baroque comedies that is the interplay of contradiction and celebration. As well, I ponder how the representation of the comedia's protagonist, Rosambuco, illustrates elements of the Franciscan order's quest to bring about the acculturation of Blacks in the early modern Spanish world.