Project MUSE®: Franciscan Studies - Latest Articles
https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/457
Project MUSE®: Latest articles in Franciscan Studies.daily12026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00text/htmlen-USVol. 3 (1943) through current issue (with gaps in several volumes)Latest Articles: Franciscan StudiesTWOProject MUSE®Franciscan Studies1945-97180080-5459Latest articles in Franciscan Studies. Feed provided by Project MUSE®Spiraling into God: Bonaventure on Grace, Hierarchy, and Holiness by Katherine Wrisley Shelby (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/983422
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Few terms are as immediately suspect in modern theology as 'hierarchy.' A word that brings to mind an organization bound up in subordination and oppression would seem to have no place in a work of theology, especially the theology of grace. Yet, these modern associations do not capture the term's original meaning, nor do they account for Bonaventure of Bagnoregio's use of the term in his theology of grace. In her book Spiraling into God: Bonaventure on Grace, Hierarchy, and Holiness, Katherine Wrisley Shelby investigates the meaning of sanctitas (holiness) through the themes of 'grace' and 'hierarchy' in order to show that, for Bonaventure, hierarchy had nothing to do with oppressive power structures and everything
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/457/image/coversmallSpiraling into God: Bonaventure on Grace, Hierarchy, and Holiness by Katherine Wrisley Shelby (review)2026-02-25text/htmlen-USSpiraling into God: Bonaventure on Grace, Hierarchy, and Holiness by Katherine Wrisley Shelby (review)2026-02-252026TWOProject MUSE®118942026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-02-25The Collected Essays of Peter Damian Fehlner ed. by J. Isaac Goff (review)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/983423
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J. Isaac Goff has done the theological guild a great service: he has collected, edited, and systematically organized the majority of the essays of Peter Damian Fehlner OFM Conv. (1931–2018). The content of Fehlner's essays span a wide variety of topics, which Goff has thematically arranged into eight volumes. Notwithstanding the breadth of topics covered, Fehlner's Mariological focus remains consistent throughout all of the volumes. Hopefully, these volumes will contribute to a greater appreciation of and further engagement with Fehlner—a theologian who imbibed the depth and witnesses to the richness of the Franciscan intellectual tradition. Fehlner is a highly systematic and constructive theologian. While drawing
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/457/image/coversmallThe Collected Essays of Peter Damian Fehlner ed. by J. Isaac Goff (review)2026-02-25text/htmlen-USThe Collected Essays of Peter Damian Fehlner ed. by J. Isaac Goff (review)2026-02-252026TWOProject MUSE®130302026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-02-25The Bosnian Vicariate in the Formative Phase of the Franciscan Observance: A Neglected Cradle?
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/983424
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This article assesses the role of the Franciscan Bosnian vicariate in the formation period of the Observance, the late medieval reform movement that promoted a return to pristine foundations in most religious communities.1 Its origin in the Franciscan order was traditionally associated with a group of hermits keeping the order's Rule ad litteram in Brugliano, Umbria. The enclave was first set up in 1334, suppressed in 1355 under suspicion of heresy, and then restored in 1368 by Paoluccio of Foligno (1309–1391).2 It attracted many followers and expanded to various places, to gain a spectacular momentum following the Council of Constance (1414–1418). The Observant Franciscans attracted a lot of popular support thanks
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/457/image/coversmallThe Bosnian Vicariate in the Formative Phase of the Franciscan Observance: A Neglected Cradle?2026-02-25text/htmlen-USThe Bosnian Vicariate in the Formative Phase of the Franciscan Observance: A Neglected Cradle?2026-02-252026TWOProject MUSE®1611142026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-02-25The Codex brevion: For the Total Study of a Total Object
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/983425
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The object of this article is the manuscript NAL 3245 of the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris.1 To present it, we will successively ask the questions ubi, quando, quomodo, quid, qui, and cur, then attempt a final hypothesis that will allow us to catch a glimpse of the micro-fraternity of Friars Minor who produced and used this tiny book of 122 leaves, measuring 4,7 × 3,1 inches. But first, by way of introduction, let us recall the conditions of its resurfacing and the stages of the investigation that allowed us to unveil part of its secrets.In September 2014, Sean Field alerted me that the gallery Les Enluminures had just put online a Franciscan Miscellany.2 Laura Light, author of the description,3 claimed
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/457/image/coversmallThe Codex brevion: For the Total Study of a Total Object2026-02-25text/htmlen-USThe Codex brevion: For the Total Study of a Total Object2026-02-252026TWOProject MUSE®1350102026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-02-25Making an Entrance: Queen Marie of Brabant, Patterns of Familial Patronage, and the Abbey of Longchamp
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/983426
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In recent decades, a flourishing field of interdisciplinary scholarship has revolutionized our knowledge of royal women's artistic, monastic, and architectural patronage in late Capetian France.2 Until recently Queen Marie of Brabant (c. 1260–1322), second wife of King Philip III (r. 1270–85), remained little studied in this context, but scholarship has now revealed the extent to which Marie's role as patron for artists, authors, and ecclesiastic, monastic, and civic institutions paved the way for other French royal women of her own generation and the next, particularly during her long widowhood.3 At the same time, scholars have devoted fresh attention to French royal women's patronage of the abbey of Longchamp
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/457/image/coversmallMaking an Entrance: Queen Marie of Brabant, Patterns of Familial Patronage, and the Abbey of Longchamp2026-02-25text/htmlen-USMaking an Entrance: Queen Marie of Brabant, Patterns of Familial Patronage, and the Abbey of Longchamp2026-02-252026TWOProject MUSE®2974472026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-02-25The Nest of the Silver-Winged Dove: The Transmutation of Sacred Space at San Damiano in Assisi and the Eucharistic Culture of the Poor Clares
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/983427
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Situated upon the slope of Monte Subasio and approximately one mile from the Porta Nuova of Assisi lies the cloister that once housed Clare and her female companions—the monastery of San Damiano (Fig. 1). The complicated history of San Damiano dates back at least to the early eleventh century when the sanctuary served for a period as a small Benedictine priory and parish church, catering to the neighboring rural community before falling into disrepair.1 Thomas of Celano characterizes the former life of the monastery by recounting the miracle of the cross of San Damiano, describing an episode in which the painted crucifix came to life and spoke to Francis, exhorting the Poverello to "go and repair my house which, as
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/457/image/coversmallThe Nest of the Silver-Winged Dove: The Transmutation of Sacred Space at San Damiano in Assisi and the Eucharistic Culture of the Poor Clares2026-02-25text/htmlen-USThe Nest of the Silver-Winged Dove: The Transmutation of Sacred Space at San Damiano in Assisi and the Eucharistic Culture of the Poor Clares2026-02-252026TWOProject MUSE®929512026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-02-25How Metaphors Make a Martyr: The Franciscan Narrations on the Death of Fr. Silvester Padberg OFM (1906-1938)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/983428
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On his way to newly baptized Christians, on the morning of June 14, 1938, Franciscan missionary Fr. Silvester Padberg was attacked near the village of Dschu Dja Chuang, Sintai, today's Chaikiachuang Daliuzhuzhuang, Sindaixian in the Chinese province of Shantung, the Franciscan apostolic vicariate of Tsinanfu (Jinan), by unknown armed men—some reports speak of robbers2—and shot. His body was secretly disposed of by the murderers, perhaps in a nearby dry riverbed, but a large pool of blood was visible at the presumed scene of the crime.3 Fr. Silvester Padberg, born Heinrich Padberg on March 30, 1906, in Hildfeld, Sauerland, was ordained by the Archbishop of Paderborn in 1932. He had been in China since the end of
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/457/image/coversmallHow Metaphors Make a Martyr: The Franciscan Narrations on the Death of Fr. Silvester Padberg OFM (1906-1938)2026-02-25text/htmlen-USHow Metaphors Make a Martyr: The Franciscan Narrations on the Death of Fr. Silvester Padberg OFM (1906-1938)2026-02-252026TWOProject MUSE®749142026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-02-25The Conciliatory Strategy of Jean de Roquetaillade's Apocalyptic Alchemy, 1349–1350
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/983429
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The Franciscan friar Jean de Roquetaillade1 (c. 1310–1366) appears in modern scholarship as a disjointed assemblage of distinct personalities. Some scholars such as Jeanne Bignami-Odier and Marjorie Reeves, on the one hand, emphasize Roquetaillade's status as a prophet of the end times, paying particular attention to his apocalyptic treatises such as the Commentum super prophetiam Cyrilli (c. 1347), Liber secretorum eventuum (1349), and Vade mecum in tribulacione (1356).2 Roquetaillade penned these and more than forty other texts, most of them apocalyptic treatises, in a series of prisons between 1344 and the mid-1360s, having incurred the punitive wrath of his own Franciscan Order by accusing its leaders
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/457/image/coversmallThe Conciliatory Strategy of Jean de Roquetaillade's Apocalyptic Alchemy, 1349–13502026-02-25text/htmlen-USThe Conciliatory Strategy of Jean de Roquetaillade's Apocalyptic Alchemy, 1349–13502026-02-252026TWOProject MUSE®1190872026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-02-25Matthew of Agrigento: A Sicilian Bishop Between Royal Power, Urban Consortia, and Ecclesiastical Hierarchies (1442–1445)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/983430
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The figure and activity of Matthew of Agrigento (ca. 1376–1450), member of the Observant branch of the Friars Minor, who lived in northern Italy, Sicily, and the Iberian kingdoms under Alfonso V the Magnanimous (1396–1458), have aroused a certain amount of interest in scholars of franciscanism. Studies on his life and work, appearing from the first quarter of the twentieth century, had above all the aim of clarifying the role he played in the process of rooting the reform movement in Sicily. These studies, however, were often based on unreliable sources, such as works compiled during the seventeenth century by ecclesiastical scholars and often those belonging to the Observants.1 It was above all thanks to the
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/457/image/coversmallMatthew of Agrigento: A Sicilian Bishop Between Royal Power, Urban Consortia, and Ecclesiastical Hierarchies (1442–1445)2026-02-25text/htmlen-USMatthew of Agrigento: A Sicilian Bishop Between Royal Power, Urban Consortia, and Ecclesiastical Hierarchies (1442–1445)2026-02-252026TWOProject MUSE®945112026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-02-25The Drinking Bowl of St. Francis of Assisi in the Franciscan Museum DE MINDERE in Sint-Truiden (Belgium)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/983431
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The Franciscan museum DE MINDERE in Sint-Truiden, Belgium, has a remarkable object on display: a bowl from which St. Francis of Assisi (1181/82-1226) might have eaten during his lifetime (Fig. 1).1 In the Middle Ages, drinking bowls were frequently used and those cups attributed to saints sometimes preserved for the purpose of veneration.2 It was believed that these holy cups could heal and in certain cases the sick were allowed to use them. The bowl in Sint-Truiden belonged to the Franciscan monastery of Mechelen (Belgium), where in fact two (ceramic) bowls associated with St. Francis were kept and venerated. Only a few short notes on the Sint-Truiden object have been published in recent years.3 In order to learn
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/457/image/coversmallThe Drinking Bowl of St. Francis of Assisi in the Franciscan Museum DE MINDERE in Sint-Truiden (Belgium)2026-02-25text/htmlen-USThe Drinking Bowl of St. Francis of Assisi in the Franciscan Museum DE MINDERE in Sint-Truiden (Belgium)2026-02-252026TWOProject MUSE®1065462026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-02-25Framing the History of Witchcraft in the Mid-Eighteenth Century: A Peculiar Episode in the Life of the Bonaventure Scholar Benedetto Bonelli, OFM Ref (1704–1783)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/983432
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This article provides a contextualization and a partial English translation of a treatise issued in 1751 under the title Critical Comments on the Nocturnal Gathering of Witches (Animavversioni critiche sopra il notturno congresso delle lammie).1 This was the product of the Italian Franciscan friar Benedetto Bonelli da Cavalese, member of the Riformati branch of the order, who had a career as lector of philosophy and theology in Italian Franciscan study houses, worked as preacher, guardian and provincial definitor, and later became general definitor for the German nation in his order, visitator of the Milan Franciscan order province, and scriptor generalis for the Franciscan order as a whole.2 The contextualization
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/457/image/coversmallFraming the History of Witchcraft in the Mid-Eighteenth Century: A Peculiar Episode in the Life of the Bonaventure Scholar Benedetto Bonelli, OFM Ref (1704–1783)2026-02-25text/htmlen-USFraming the History of Witchcraft in the Mid-Eighteenth Century: A Peculiar Episode in the Life of the Bonaventure Scholar Benedetto Bonelli, OFM Ref (1704–1783)2026-02-252026TWOProject MUSE®2439322026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-02-25Bonaventure's Reception of Avicenna's Psychology
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/983433
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It is said that Thomas Aquinas once approached Bonaventure to ask him from which books he obtained his extraordinary knowledge. In reply, Bonaventure pointed to the crucifix above his desk, saying that Christ crucified was his library. Given that Bonaventure says that "Christ holds the center in all things," and that "all the riches of wisdom and knowledge of the hidden God are in Christ, and he is the middle of all sciences," this response is quite fitting.1 Still, it is obviously untrue that Christ was the only "book" in Bonaventures library. Having completed the full arts course at the University of Paris before completing his theological studies for the office of Magister theologiae, Bonaventure was well-read
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/457/image/coversmallBonaventure's Reception of Avicenna's Psychology2026-02-25text/htmlen-USBonaventure's Reception of Avicenna's Psychology2026-02-252026TWOProject MUSE®2210132026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-02-25About the Authors
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/984487
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Paweł Cholewicki (Ph.D., University of Leeds, 2023) is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellow at Palacký University in Olomouc, Czechia. His project's title is: "Franciscan Observants and the Union of Florence: Crafting Church Unity in Ruthenia and Lithuania in the Second Half of the Fifteenth Century." His doctoral thesis addresses the Franciscan Observance in the medieval Bosnian vicariate. He recently published the article "Travels by St James of the Marches in East Central Europe, 1432–1440" (2023).Jacques Dalarun (PhD., University of Paris, 1984) is a medieval historian. His entrance into Franciscan studies came during his tenure as Director of Medieval Studies of the École française du Rome. He has
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/457/image/coversmallAbout the Authors2026-02-25text/htmlen-USAbout the Authors2026-02-252026TWOProject MUSE®92782026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002026-02-25