 This formation article appeared in the Ciofs website (May, 2000).
OUR COMMON SERAPHIC FATHER The Secular Franciscan Rule considers the Franciscan Family to be composed of all those who "In various ways and forms but in life-giving union with each other, intend to make present the charism of their common Seraphic Father in the life and mission of the Church" (Rule, 1). Francis initiated different ways and forms of life in his effort to make his charism fruitful for the Church of his time. This idea was expressed poetically by Julian of Speyer, in the liturgical office of St. Francis composed between 1228-1232: "Three were the Orders he arrayed: the Friars Minor he called the first; and the Poor Ladies were next, Becoming the middle order; Then thirdly came the Penitents, Comprising men and women." (Francis of Assisi: The Saint: Early Documents: The Divine Office of St. Francis, Lauds 18, Antiphons III, p.338; New City Press, 1999). In the last few years we have realized how important it is to understand precisely how to live this life-giving union and how it affects the three branches of the Franciscan Family. A recent book by Fr. Andrea Boni OFM (Tres Ordines hic ordinat, Edizioni Portiuncula, 1999, 186 pp.) carefully examines this concept from a juridical viewpoint. This article is inspired by the book and uses it extensively. 2. New movements of the evangelical life. The Church in the time of St. Francis found itself compelled to incorporate new spiritual movements of the evangelical life within the juridical order of that age. The itinerant and apostolic life of those movements did not fit within the framework of the institutions of religious life of monks or canons. There was no juridical basis in the body of canon law for these innovative movements, by their very character extra-diocesan, which were shaking up Church life because of their newness and their spirit of initiative. They were movements which rapidly expanded beyond the limits of any one diocese and were tied rather to the universal Church. Pope Innocent III, from the beginning of his pontificate, was convinced of the necessity of a new evangelization of the people, with the help of new apostolic groups equal to the situation. He had tried in many ways to reanimate the traditional ecclesiastical institutions (dioceses, parishes) and he did not neglect to enlist the collaboration of the monastic world. He tried to give new life to the Gospel with lived witness and proclamation of the Word. He saw in the new catholic faith movements a possible answer to the need to find a new apostolic force. But for this, he needed to welcome these new catholic faith movements and not consider them associated with movements that were born in heresy or influenced by doctrinal deviation. He declared himself ready to dialogue and he proposed, within the limits of possibility, to cooperate with their legitimate aspirations. So, in 1208 he brought the "Poor Catholics" of Durando of Huesca back to the unity of the Church and in 1211 the "Poor Lombards." In 1210 he welcomed the request of St. Francis and his first companions and confirmed "as an experiment" their form of life. It was not easy to integrate these new movements with church legislation. A new way of thinking was needed, outside the traditional legal forms, which would safeguard orthodoxy of the faith, communion with the church, and sufficient autonomy in apostolic initiative. It seems that Innocent III, after his positive experience with Francis and his companions, saw the need to fully and officially recognize this new way of religious life in the Church, alongside traditional forms. He also saw the need to avoid future confusion of an excessive diversity of Rules or types of religious life. The Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 decided to give a solid juridical base to the new movements of religious life, modeled on the Franciscan experience, and at the same time to avoid an excessive variety of types of religious life. It determined, in its Constitution 13, that the new religious movements must pick a Rule or a type of religious life from among those already approved. With this decision the Council wanted to give stringent norms for the foundation of new houses or religious families and at the same time regularize the juridical position of the new movements of the apostolic life. Jacques de Vitry in 1221, six years after the Fourth Lateran Council, expressed it this way: "Up to now there have been three religious orders: hermits, monks, and canons. But in order that the state of those living according to a rule might rest firmly on a solid foundation, the Lord in these days has added a fourth form of religious life, the embellishment of a new order, and the holiness of a new rule." (quoted in Francis of Assisi: The Saint: Early Documents, p. 582: Historia Occidentalis, 1.II, c.32,. New City Press, 1999). The Legend of Perugia says that Francis took his Rule "to Innocent III, and the Pope granted approval; and then the Pope announced his decision to the whole Council." (Legenda Perugina, 47). It seems that the Fourth Lateran Council had considered the type of religious life of the Friars Minor a valid model even for other new movements of religious life and consequently its Rule or Form of Life would serve as an example to anyone who wanted to start a new house or new religious family of that kind, of "the true poor of the Crucified One and of the order of preachers whom we call Lesser Brothers." (op.cit. Historia Occidentalis, p. 582, 2.) It is a constant in the Franciscan sources that Francis started three Orders. Thomas of Celano said in 1229: "He is without question an outstanding craftsman, for through his spreading message, the Church of Christ is being renewed for both sexes according to his form, rule and teaching, and there is victory for the triple army of those being saved." (op.cit. 1 Celano 37, p. 216). Julian of Speyer, a little later, in 1234 or 1235, already saw the three churches restored by Francis as a sign of his work in restoring the Church by his three Orders. The question remains how Francis began these three Franciscan Orders. Thomas of Celano affirms that Francis "himself originally planted the Order of the Lesser Brothers" (op.cit.,1 Cel. 38, p.217), and "wrote for himself and his brothers…a rule." (op.cit., 1. Cel. 32, p.210). Speaking of the church of San Damiano, he notes: "This is the blessed and holy place where the glorious religion and most excellent Order of Poor Ladies and holy virgins had its happy beginning, about six years after the conversion of the blessed Francis and through that same blessed man." (op.cit. 1 Cel, 18, p.197). He notes also that they had received their Rule from Pope Gregory IX, then bishop of Ostia (op.cit. 1 Cel, 20, p. 199). For the Third Order he speaks in a more general way: "Furthermore, to all he gave a norm of life and to those of every rank he sincerely pointed out the way of salvation." (op.cit., 1 Cel, 37, p.217). Julian of Speyer, in the text cited above, affirms that Francis organized and coordinated the three Orders. In coordinating the three Orders, Francis followed the guidance of the Lord's Spirit. He understood that the three Orders, each in its own way, were each entrusted by the Lord with the restoration of the Church. The Franciscan sources nowhere indicate that Francis had wanted to give the First Order the task of guiding or of superiority over the Second or the Third Order. It is apparent that he wanted to give all three Orders, each one faithful to its own vocation, the responsibility to help each other and to walk the Lord's path together. Therefore, whoever enters the First, Second, or Third Order becomes part of one living reality in reciprocal communion, willed by God for the restoration of his Church. From Franciscan sources it can be concluded that the manner in which Francis is the originator of all three Orders is not the same for all. For the First Order Francis was the founder who named it, wrote the Rule, and guided it as its Minister General. The Earlier Rule (Regola non bollata) makes this clear: "This is the life of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that Brother Francis petitioned the Lord Pope to grant and confirm for him; and he did grant and confirm it for him and his brothers present and to come. Brother Francis—and whoever is head of this religion—promises obedience and reverence to the Lord Pope Innocent and his successors. Let all the brothers be bound to obey Brother Francis and his successors." (op.cit. Earlier Rule, 2-4, p.63). It is an Order with centralized authority, not limited to any specific territory but open to the whole world. The government is in the hands of the Minister General, who is at the service of the whole Order. The General Chapter has the power to decide the fundamental direction of the evangelical life and, if necessary, even to remove the Minister General. For the Second Order, Francis had to find a different solution. Clare herself makes it clear that she wanted to do penance after the example and teaching of Francis, and of having promised obedience to Francis, along with her little group of Sisters (cfr. The Testament of Clare, 24-26, Clare of Assisi: Early Documents, p.58; Regis Armstrong OFMCap., Franciscan Institute Publications, St. Bonaventure, NY, 1993). In other words, Francis accepted Clare and her Sisters within the sphere of his Order. They could not live the kind of apostolic itinerancy practiced by the Brothers nor enter an existing monastery. The solution reached was to found a new kind of religious monastic house, with assurance of continued special care by the First Order (Form of Life of Clare of Assisi, 6.4, p.72, op.cit.). As it was in other monasteries, so too the monastery of San Damiano was fully autonomous with its own form of life written by Gregory IX (Francis…: 1 Cel 20, p.199). The Third Order, or the Order of Brothers and Sisters of Penance (Legenda Major, St. Bonaventure, IV.6. Bonaventure, p. 210, Paulist Press, 1978), was born from Francis' commitment to open new ways for men and women who wanted to "do penance" following his preaching and the example of his life. It certainly can not be said that Francis instituted or founded the Order of Penitents, because it was already present in the Church from apostolic times. But he tried to show people, when they were touched by his message, how to "do penance" (Francis…: Letter to the Faithful, pp.41-44). The Order of Penitents gave rise to groups of brothers and sisters of penance inspired by his experience of the evangelical life. Francis continued to feel close to them and felt in some way responsible to strengthen them in their commitment and to associate them with his own vocation to restore the Church. Already in 1221 the Memoriale Propositi formed a precise Rule of life for organizing groups of penitents, the majority of whom were within the Franciscan sphere of influence. Francis thus constituted the three Orders, institutionally autonomous and independent, for whom their own autonomous existence was not conditional on living together as one community. But their spiritual vitality needed to be closely related and supported "in life-giving union with each other." (S.F.O. Rule, 1). 4. The field cultivated by Francis. In Church history Francis was the first to found a religious trilogy. Because the form of itinerant life of the Brothers could not be used by a women's community or by a group of Penitents, he had to found the Second and Third Orders. These two Orders by their very nature needed to be autonomous, even though closely related to one another and to the First Order. Francis and Clare understood well that within the basic decision of the Fourth Lateran Council the Second Order had to enter into a type of monastic religious life. They had to integrate the values of Franciscan spirituality within the framework of monastic life. Clare, the little plant of the most blessed father Francis, always made every effort to remain within the Franciscan Family. In her Rule (Armstrong, op.cit.1,3, p.64) she "promises obedience and reverence to the Lord Pope Innocent and his canonically elected successors," which affirmed the autonomy of her Order and her direct link with the Holy See. Safeguarding her link with the Franciscan Family, she adds: "And as, at the beginning of her conversion she, together with her sisters, promised obedience to Blessed Francis, so now she promises his successors to observe the same obedience inviolably." (ibid. 1, 4, p.64). To assure for the Poor Ladies this vital link, Francis promised on his part and that of his Brothers, to always have for them "that same loving care and solicitude." (ibid., 6.4, p.72). This attentive care to the little plants which grow in the field cultivated by Francis always implies great respect for their own nature and autonomy. The same can be said of the Third Order, grown in the fields worked by Francis. It is rooted in the pre-existing Order of Penitents, but in close relationship with the Franciscan Family. It includes both the penitents who are married as well as those who promise to live in chastity, individually or as a community. Those living in community could enter into regular religious life by having their Rule of life approved by Church leadership. This possibility, already present in the canonical law of the time, had given birth to the Third Order Regular and to a great number of religious Congregations of Franciscan Tertiaries. It has not always been easy for the Third Order, secular and religious, to maintain the balance between their own autonomy and their bonds with the First Order and with the whole Franciscan Family. In the field cultivated by Francis grow many "little plants", rooted in the Franciscan charism and related the one to the other. In the First Order we spot the three full-grown branches of Observants, Conventuals and Capuchins, each of them fully autonomous and proud to have Francis as their one Seraphic Father. The Second Order flowers with various Federations and branches of Poor Clares, Urbanists Sisters, Capuchin Sisters and others, formed of many autonomous monasteries and related to the various branches of the First Order. The Third Order has been extraordinary fertile. We find the Third Order Regular, fully accepted as equal with the three big branches of the First Order. We see also a great number of various religious communities, with their own long or short history, each of them autonomous but in some way connected with the big Franciscan Family. They have now their own specific Rule and work together in the International TOR Federation. And last but not least, the Secular Franciscan Order, which is "an organic union of all Catholic Fraternities scattered throughout the world", "divided into Fraternities of various levels: local, regional, national and international" (SFO Rule, 2;20). The relationship of life-giving union among the Franciscan Orders must not be looked for at the juridical or institutional level, but at the level of sharing life and the charism and of mutual support in the vocation to restore the Church. The "Conference of the Franciscan Family" was specifically founded "to make present the charism of their common Seraphic Father in the life and mission of the Church" (SFO Rule, 1). Fr. Andrea Boni, OFM says: "The mission assigned to the three Franciscan Orders….requires joint action of the Brothers of the First Order, the Penitents of the Third Order, and of the contemplative dedication of the Sisters of the Second Order." "In the post-conciliar renewal of the triple army coordinated by St. Francis, Franciscans should enter the third millennium of Church history with clear understanding and a renewed enthusiasm for building their history. God assigned them the task of restoring his house. The Church is restored with the same means with which it is constructed: evangelization and living witness." "By their coordinated saving work Franciscans effect a corporate union, based on the fact that they are members of one Franciscan body. This operative corporate union must be expressed in terms of shared responsibility by all three Orders, the First, the Second, and the Third Order, every time each one in its own dynamic way involves the entire Franciscan Family." (Andrea Boni OFM, Tres Ordines hic ordinat, pp. 179-180)
(1) Fr. Ben (Benitius) Brevoort, OFM Cap., lived and studied in Rome for the last 8 years and will soon return to his native, Indonesia, to continue is pastoral mission there.
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