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45 An Alternate Vision of Society: The Legacy And Challenge Of the Third Order Franciscan Way Of Life Patricia Keefe, O.S.F. Francis of Assisi’s vision about society attracted large numbers of followers during his lifetime and even today. There are more members of the varied ways of life belonging to the Franciscan Family than to any other Catholic Religious group. This chapter briefly traces the development of Third Order Franciscans as an urban phenomenon. Given a tradition of responding to the challenge of Gospel life within the city, Third Order Franciscans in the United States are faced with the question of living that heritage in the 21st Century is the question to be faced. The first section of the chapter will focus briefly on the life of Third Order Franciscans in Medieval Europe. The second section picks up how the tradition was exemplified in the experience of Third Order Franciscans in the United States up to the 1970’s. The third section is on the persistent pattern of poverty in United States’ cities and what might be the challenge for Third Order Franciscans in this cultural context. Early Third Order Franciscans in Medieval European Cities One challenge facing the study of the early Third Order Franciscans is that historically they were called a variety of different names. We who are accustomed to the way religious life is structured in the Roman Catholic Church today need to step outside our own experience to grasp what it was like at a time when the only understanding of women’s religious life was that they were to be enclosed in monasteries. The early followers of Francis were generally known as Penitents. “Tertiaries” and “Third Order” were appellations that came later. Another reality which was evident when the Franciscan movement was born was the desire of women to live a religious life, an option widely available to men but not to women unless they agreed to enclosure. When a community founded by a male leader was first formed, provision was often 46 Patricia Keefe made for women to be admitted to a women’s branch, but within a century after founding, this arrangement would be prohibited.1 Along with this pattern was the determination of the Church to consider as religious only those women who chose strict enclosure. The penitential movement was essentially a lay movement and therefore included women. It seems from the sources that Francis became an inspiration to the growth of this movement, which pre-dated his conversion. The first version of Francis’s Letter to the Faithful, also referred to as an Exhortation to the Brothers and Sisters of Penance, dates from around 1215.2 By 1221, this way of life became more structured with Cardinal Hugolino’s Memoriale Proposito and was approved as a Rule by the Church in 1289 when Pope Nicholas IV issued Supra Montem.3 This Rule applied both to penitents living under vows and in community or in hermitages and to those living in their own homes. It is in the Memoriale and specifically in the Rule of 1289 that guidelines for those seeking a life of penance emerged: 1) Following a simple life-style, as seen in the specifications about clothing : status and prestige through clothing were to be avoided. 2) Provisions made for prayer in common and in connection with the Universal Church: daily Mass and fasting. Penitents met in local churches. 3) Nonviolence: Penitents were not to bear arms or to take oaths. An exception to this principle was already evident by 1289 when bearing arms for the defense of the Church was made an exception. Oaths were to be avoided since allegiance was to the Church, not civil authority. 4) Goods, i.e. money, were to be shared with those who were poor. The significance of these early developments is that choosing the penitential life meant choosing a way of life which was in significant ways an alternative 1 Patricia Ranft, Women and the Religious Life in Pre-modern Europe (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1996), 46-59. 2 Francis of Assisi The Saint: Early Documents, vol. 1, eds. Regis J Armstrong, O.F.M. Cap., Wayne Hellmann, O.F.M. Conv., and William J. Short, O.F.M. (New York: New City Press, 1999), 41-44. Hereafter, FA:ED. See Roland J. Faley T.O.R.,” The Letter to All the FaithfulRecensio prior” from A Biblical-theological View of Penance and Its Present Day Expression (Greensburg...

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