WHAT IS AN 
O:M.C. 

'1 
I • 

(;.3- 17 ; ~~ 
oi f!)~ F.y-L~ . 

CJ11~ ~al 

FATHER JOHN T. LOFTUS, O. M. c. 
, 



"0, M, C" ~ ~ 
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~-;I;A,oh" V-~ ye'-
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~~tt.t ;t;tk" "0 , f. M. C ONI/, '/ 



WHAT IS AN O. M. c. ? 

BY 

Father John T . Loftus , O .M.C. 

FRIA~S MINOR CONVENTUAL . '. 
Mt . St. Francis, Indiana 

1944 



The form of the Franciscan Habit as worn by 
the Friars Minor Conventual 



, •• y ••••••••••••••• ¥¥ 

WHAT IS AN O. M. c. ? 

P ERHAPS you holV e met a re li gious who s igned after hi s name t h e initials , O.M.C . 
Perhaps you have w o ndered jus t what tho se 

letters mean. What is an O.M.C.? 
Here is an answer to that question . 
An O .M .C . is a Franciscan, a member of the 

Order started by Saint Franci s of A ss isi in 1209 , 
and called by him the Friars Minor, " the Little 
Brothers ." 

The letters O .M .C . are initials for the longer 
term, Order of FriaLs Minor Cc.:mv,ental. Other 
abbreviations are O .F .M. Conv., and O.M. Conv. 

You see, nowadays , there are three kind s o f 
Franciscans or Friars Minor. 

One' is the O .M .C . kind, the Friars Minor Con-
ventual. They wear a black habit , or g arb, consist-
ing of a loose tunic shaped like a cross and ti ed 
a bout the wa ist with a whi t e co r d. Han g ing from 
the cord is the seven dec a de rosary , " The Fran-
cisca n Crown. " Over their shoulders they w ea r a 
cape-l i ke garment, called a cowl , curved across the 
ches t in front and comin g to a point in the back. 
Atta ched to t h e cap~ at the neck is a hood , called a 
capuche. C ommonly, howeve r , cowl and hood are 
referred to simply as the "capuche." Becaus e of 
t he color of t heir habit , the s e Friars Mino r are 
often called Black Franciscans . Some time a go 
Conve n t u al f ri ar s w o r e gray and were known as 
the 'Gray Friars. 



4 

Another kind of Friar Minor uses the initials 
O.F.M . They stand simply for Order of Friars 
Minor. A longer title for these friars is the Order 
of Friars Minor of the Leonine Union. But that is 
a rather heavy burden for a name, and it is usually 
shortened to the O.F.M. These friars wear a brown 
habit, white cord with rosary, shorter cowl and 
fuller capuche than the Conventual friars. They 
are also k n own as the Brown F 'ranciscans. 

A third kind is the O.F.M. Cap. These initials 
mean Order of Friars Minor Capuchin. Their name 
comes from the long capuche they wear. It is long 
and pointed, does not come over the shoulders , and 
opens into a large hood at the neckband. These 
friars al so wear a brown habit with a white cord 
and rosary. Most of these Franciscans wear beards. 
They are commonly called simply Capuchins. 

Color 01 the Habit 

N OW it is rather strange, but true, that none of the three modern branches of the Fran-
ciscan Order uses- the original Franciscan colm-
which was neither brown nor black, but gray. St. 
Francis did not specify any color for the garb of 
the friars. But the habit he himself wore , still in 
existence in the Conventual church in Assisi, is a 
sort of ashen gray. Ancient legislation, when it 
mentions ' the color of the habit, designates it as 
gray. Franciscan bishops still wear gray. Explana-
tions of how the change from gray to brown and 
black came about are , however , too long and too 
complicated to put forth here. 

It is enough that we point out that O.M.C., like 
O.F.M., or O.F.M. Cap., means that the man-
priest, brother, or student-who adds it to his 



5 

name ' is a Franciscan. He belongs to one of the 
three great branches into which the First Order of 
St. Francis gradually divided. 

In case that sounds a little complicated, let's go 
back a bit in Franciscan history to St. Francis 
himself. 

St. Francis the Founder 

Y OU have certainly heard of St. Francis of Assisi. Although he lived over seven hundred 
years ago, he is still one of the best loved saints 
of all times. People know him by several affection-
ate names: "II Poverello," for instance, which 
means the "Little Poor. Man," and recalls the story 
0f his giving up his wealth to be very poor like 
Christ: Or they call him "Brother Joy," because ' 
he had such great fun in making himself a saint. 
StilI another title he earned is "Everybody's Saint 
Fra,n9is," because from his day to ours he has been 
loved by Christian and pagan, Catholic and non-
Catholic alike. . 

Even when he was alive he was very much 
"Everybody's St. Francis." He had a knack of 
making holiness attractive. Almost everyone who 
saw or heard how this little man of Assisi served 
God so well and enjoyed it so hugely wanted to 
follow him. They wanted to be Franciscans. 

Becoming like a saint isn't, of course, accom-
plished just by the simple process of wanting to 
do so. After all, there could be only one Saint 
Francis. Reaching sainthood requires a lot of grace 
from God. And not everyone is able to do the 
same kind of thing even in religious life. But 
Saint Francis d Id what he ,could for everybody. 



6 
Three Franciscan Orders 

H E founded three Franciscan Orders. The First Order, called Friars Minor, is for men-
priests and brothers . The Second Order, called 

St. Francis of Assisi 



7 

Poor Clares, is for women. The Third Order is for 
lay people , men and women who stay in their 
homes and with their families. For each of the se 
Orders Saint Francis wrote a special rule of lif e. 
Down to the present day these rules of Saint 
Francis have been guides for a way of life that 
leads to sanctity. 

Division of the Order 

N OW it is important to remember that these · rules of Saint Francis were written for 
human beings. And when you get even a few 
human beings together, you are likely to have dif-
ferences of opinion . When you get thousands of 
human beings together, y ou are almost certain to 
have a great number of diffe,rences of opinion. 
That such a condition should arise in the Fran-
ciscan Order, spreading rapidly over the world 
and being accepted by thousands, is not at all 
surprising. . 

Disagreements about the meaning of the Rule 
and di visions amon-~t:he.=friars exrsted even -while 
'Sa int Francls still lived. After the Founder died, 
these differ enc es - gre w . T herewere many reaso ns 
for this. On chfe1 - reaso n wa;tbat tlieongin al 
Rule was conce·rned largely with principles, not 
with specific details of management. A second was 

a the 6rder grew swiftly to enormous numbers 
'whose management became an increasingly diffi-

u r problem. It takes a- lot of o rganization to hold 
toget er a g roup having members all over the 
world. Naturally when superiors in the new Order 
began making regulations for situations not cov-
ered in the basic Rule, not everyone agreed with 
the wisdom of the decisions . 



8 

For instance, conflicts arose early about such ' 
things 2 S j~st how the friars could observe t he 
strict poverty that St. Fran cis him self had pra c-
ticed and stilI find places wh ere the fr i Cl.r s co ul d 
live . Remember that there we·re now not just a fe w 
friars but thou : a nd s upon thousands of t hem. 
Superiors in the O r der-and Church authoritie s 
ou tsi d e it-insiste d that the friars dwell in pI e ces 
w here their prayer and wo r k a n d, s tudy could be 
regul at e d and p rovided for by law. Some of t h e 

c::fr iars thouO'ht the Rul~ dema~ded_tha{they live in 
-lonel ,?, solita r y places ~led m ona ') teria ( h e rmit · 
r g es) ; others nerat n at !be g rowth and work of th e 
- Orderm ade it ne c es sary for the friars to be gath -
ered together i n lar g e·r hou ses. Such a place whe re 
a number of men lived together was called a CO iJ-
v entus (convent). Thus aro s e in t h e Francisca n ' 
Order t he terms, " Conventua l " referrin g to t h e 
latter, and "non-conv entual " for the former. 
,...--- -

Ro om for both ' v iewpoints ' was found in the 
Orde r, although not without some brotherly qua r -
reli n g. Friars who wanted to spend their time i n 
solita r y prayer and penance and meditation, who . 
wished to take little active part in affairs of the 
Church, who wanted nothing of stud y and found 
in bible and breviary library enough for thei r 
needs , who wanted to 'be free to go and come as 
they pleased and rely s olely on begging for the ir 
support-all these lived in the non-conventual 
places or hermitages . Among them were number s 
of very holy men. 

On the other hand the greater 'part of the Order, 
the Community as such, at the direction of t he 
major superiors, called Generals, and with the ap -
proval of the Popes, was gathered into large 



9 

houses called "convents." There they could follow ~( 
t e Rule which declared that "tnose friars fo 
whom God has givetitne grace to work shall work 
faithfully and devotedly." There, too, they coul 
Rr~ 0 preac t e gospel by studymg theo o g y \ 
and Sacred Scripture. From the convents they I \ 
could go forth well -equipped as missionar i es, I 
preachers, and teachers. , 

In the convents developed the power and splen-
dor of the Orner. There studied and taught- great 
s cholars and learned doctors ; from them wen 
forth the great mi ss ionaries to tne Tartars and the 
Moors ; from them we·re chosen friars to- carry out 
important assignment s for the Church; in them 
ro se such great ~aints as St. Anthony and St. 

Bonaventure. From the friars in the convents were 
chosen a host of men to be ' bishops,cardinals , 
Popes. 

But even with this arrangement there was on ly 
one government in the Order for almost two cen-
turies. Authority was in the hands of the men who 
hved m the convents. They ruled by authority \ 
granted them in the Rule of St. Francis and ac -
cording to it s precepts, following , where needed , 
interpretations given by the highest authority in 
the Church, the Popes. 

Friars Minor Observant 

SOME of the friars felt that such papal inter-pretations of the Rule were in reality a viola-
tion of the Rule. hey disliked the development 
2L-the Order ·and wante to return to tfie nays of I 
its early slmphcity. Tney- clamored for the right 
to obj5erve the Rul~ without any of the interpreta- I 
t ions given by the Popes. In 1415, at the Counc i l 1 



10 

\ 
f 

of Constance, their plea was heard. They were al-
lowed to form a semi-independent Branch of the 

' "Franciscan Order under the name of "Friars Minor 
-OBservant."~r superior wa s called a Vicar-

General , chosen from their own number, but sub-
J eGt still to fhe Minister Gene r al of tIie m a in part 
o the Order, the Conventual Franciscans. Thus 
arose two g·reat elements in the Order, the Con-
ventuals and t he Obse~nt . But there w as ye t no 
real division in the Order. 

Then under Pope Leo X , in 1517, a final and 
definite separafion took place. In that year the Ob-

\ 
\ servants and other groups u n ited to them were 
I given tli elrown Mini ster General and other su-

I 
periors. he Conv entual Francis cans continued to 
exist as before with their own General, but th ey 
no longer had any jurisdiction over those Francis-
cans called Observants . There we r e now two di s-
tinct branches in the one Franciscan Order. 

F'riars Minor Capuchin 

ODDLY enough, after this settlement of affairs, 

t 

t e Observant Franciscans, who had risen as 
\, an orgamza lOn out of complaints against l<:irge 

ho uses a n d arrangements to meet the needs of a 
grOwing Order, soon found themselve s in the same 
situatiOl1aSthe early community. They became t he 
object of the same kind of reaction or reform. On 
July 3, 1528, only eleven yea·rs after the Great 

) 
)

<:separation, Matteo de Bascio, a member of the 
Observants, got permission from Pope Clement 

II for himself and his companions to found a 
reform of the Observan ts . His new organi zation 

(
was placed at hi s own request under the protection 
of the Friars Minor Conventual. This new gro.-::p 



11 

of Franciscans became known as the Friars Minor 
Capucfiin from the long capuche they wore. For 
a most a nundred years these friars were su ject to 
the Friars Minor Conventual. Then in 1619, under 
Paul V, the Capuchins were allowed to elect their 
own General and become an itfdependent branch 'of 
t he Franciscan Family. ,hus since 1619 the First 
Oroer of Franciscans has had three independent 
branc - es : the Friars Minor Conventual , the Friars 
Minor Observa nt , and the Friars Minor Capuchin . 

Further Observant Reforms 

S TILL other reforms took place within the , O bServant ~ranch-:-Withm :> ixty years of r ope 
Leo 's famous decision, f our divisions of the Ob-
servants were in existence. In addition to the 
Observants proper tfiere weret he"' so-called Re-
formed Observants, the Recollects , and the Alcan-
arines or Discalced friars. All these, in 1897, Pope 

Leo XIII brought together m one body. The union 
of the various Observant branches, made by Leo 
XtII in 1897, was called simply " Order of Friars 
Minor." In justice to the other two families, Pope 
PlUS X on October 4, 1909, in a bull cornman ed 
die group which Leo XIII had unified to can itself 
Order of Friars Minor of the Leonine union. ) 
M"'embers of this Union are popularly known as t he 
Br own Franciscans and constitute the largest sec:.)1 £ 
tion of ne Franciscan Order. " -

The Order of Friars Minor Conv entual and the 
Order of Friars Minor Capuchin continued as be-
fore with the ir own constitutions, privileges, and 
traditions. That is the situation in the present 
day among the Friars Minor. Pope Pius X wrot e 



I I 

12 

in 1909: "All three families rightly claim Saint 
Francis as their common Father ; all three belon g 
equally to the same First Order; all three Generals 
may equally claim as their predecesso·rs , St. Fran-
cis and his successors who exercised supreme 
jurisdiction over the Order of Friars Minor-a 
title not distinctive of anyone family but common 
to all three and differentiated only by the addition 
of ' Obs ervants of the Leonine Union' or 'Conven-
tual' or 'C a puchin.' " 

Les t the term " reform" which is always m et fr e -
quently in any account of the Franciscan Order 
be misunderstood, it should be remembered that 
the word does not alway s i ndic £te that the friars 
who were not members of a reform group had 
gi ven up the ideals of Saint Francis. As a matter 
of fact, a reform in Franciscan history often is 
merely the introduction of a stricter form of lif e, 
sometimes stricter than that required by the Fran-
ciscan Rule. The numcer of reforms in the Order 
show that some friars were always striving to g et 
15ack to the kind of life practiced by St. Francis 
and his first companions-a way of life that cannot 

e reproduced on the large scale which every suc-
cessive reform attained. Changes always had t o 
come. They were always regretted. But, be it 
noted , when changes were made they were author -
ized by the Holy See. 

Growth of the Order 

'F AKEN together the Franciscan First Order with its three branches is the largest r eligious 
Order of men in the Church at the present time . 
~ t supplies more pries ts and brothers than an y 
other religious Order, not only to Christian coun -



13 

tries, but also to mission lands. And it should be 
emphasized that all these Fria; s consider th~-
Se~ves as rotfiers. With the passing of time dif-
ferences have largely been wiped out. Differences 
in organization, activities, shape and color of habit, 
family traditions, and so on, remain, of course. 
~ there i0~erly b?nd ari.sing from having 
a com on founder, roTIowmg- a smgle rule though 
wlth dl - ere constitutions , holding to tHe same 
principles of religious life, and in large part shar-
ing a common history. 

Saints 

A-LL three families rightly regard the men and 
.l""1. -ac:nievementso f the Order-before the divislOn 
as common property. Natural y tneyalso glo ry in 
th e record of- the holy men, great men, and great 

St. Anthony 
of Padua 

most two hundred 

deeds that, by the blessing of 
God, form a part of their own 
chronicles. For instance, along 
with the other branches, 

e Fnars inor Convent u al 
;Qun tas thei~ the Sa~ts 

-and Blessed of the Franciscan 
Order before 1517. Manyo f 
tliem in life were friars e 

"'convents, and t an rate all 
lived under the rule 0 th.e 
Con ventual elements of th e 
comrm:iillty. In their memories 
the Conventual friars take par-
ticular pride. Moreover . they 
rejoice at the long list of a l-
Conventual fr1ars re uted to 

\ II 
r 
I 



14 

Scholars 

(\ 

Popes 

) f 1 
" 



15 

1. Vicedominus de Vicedominis, elected Sept. 6, 
1276. Dying the day of his election, he was neve r 
crowned pope and is not counted among the list 
of Sovereign Pontiffs. 

2. Nicholas IV (Jerome Massi of Ascoli) elected 
Feb. 22, 1288. 

3. ~le~der V (Pietro Filargo) elected at the 
Council of Pisa, June 26, 1409. 

4 . • Sixtus IV (Francesco della Rovere) elected 
. {\ug. 9 ... 1471 := 

5. Julius II (Giuliano della Rovere) elected 
Nov. 1, 1503. " 

6. Si~ V (Felice Peretti) elected April 24', 
~ ==-

7. lement V (Lorenzo Ganganelli) elected 
ay 19, 11.22.: 
Cardinal Lorenzo Brancati, O.M.C., (d. 1673) , 

c lled by Pope Alexander VII, "the right arm of 
the Apostolic See," was vetoed for the papacy by 
the King of Spain) 

Franciscan Sanctuaries 

OTHER ties binding present day Conventual friars to the traditions of their spiritual fore. 
bears are found in the ancient convents and relics 



))1 

16 

of the Order still in their possession. Since t he 
earliest da ys of the Order t~y: have been cu,-
to lans of the body of Samt Francis in the wor ld 
f-arrtous basilica in the holy Founder's native city. 

At Assi s i t e onventual friars have the basilica 
of St. ran cis , one of the mo st not e d churches in 
the worl d . Sheltering the body of St. Francis, the 
church w as given by Pope Gregory IX the title of, 
" Mother a nd Head of the Whole Order of Friars 
Minor." Thousands of visitors come annually in 
peace time to the shrine of St. Francis. Some come 
to pray at the tomb of the saint ; others visi t to 
view the works of a'rt found in the paintings of 
Giotto and other masters. Besides the body of t he 

The Basilica of St. Francis and the Sa cred Con ven t 
in A s sisi 

) 

I saint, other Franciscan relics preserved at the Sa-
I cred Convent are the original Rule of the Orde r, 
I the Last ~estament of St. Francis, the Blessing o f 



17 

St. Francis to Brother Leo, the habit worn by S t. 
F rancls , filS sand als, his ha i r shirt, t h e lvor ll'O'rn 
. iven im b tIie Sultan of Egypt and used by him 
to call the pe0r> e 0 lS en to his sermons. 

The friars have also wat ched over the remains of 
the Wonder Worker of Padua, St. Anthony, since 
the day of his death. They have been from tim e 
immemo·rial in Bagnorea, the birthplace of St. 
Bonaventure , and have there the custody of t e 
only relic of the saint 's body. - orne ot e famou s 
shrine~ in Conventual cus tody are: the stable, now O '.L I 1 
converted into a chapel, where St. Francis,t\s said ~ 
to have been born; ,Eivotort o, near A ss isi wher e 
St. Francis lived with his first comp anions, the 
Cradle of the Francis can Order ; the convent of 
Campos~piero near Padua, once the castle where-
i n St~Anthony was privileged to hold Christ in 
his arms ;~ the Church of the Holy Cross in Flor-
ence, called t he "Westminster Abbey of Italy" ; 
the basilica of the Twelve Apostle s in Rome, ad-
i2ining which is the convent wherein lives th e 
Min ister Genera 0 t e nars Minor Conventual. 
- Scattered over th e world are many Convent~al 

\ 
\ \ 

I 

\ 

houses where the friars have been s ince the days of 
Saint Franc is . They are in Wuerzburg, Germany , )( 
since 1221; in Vienna, Austria , s i nce 1224 ;tn Graz, . ~ 
Austria, since ' 1230; in P rague , Bohemia, since 
1226; in Bruenn in Moravia s ince 1231, i n Oppau 
in Silesia since 1234 ; in Cracow, Poland, 'since 
1237 ; in Fribourg, Switzerland, s ince 1256-:-

All these things serve to keep the present day 
Friars Minor Conventual aware of their connec-
tion with the g reat history of the Order and in-
spired to strive to make themselve s wort hy of th e 
tradit ion for holiness and learning and zea l that is 
a part of their Order. 



• •••••••••••••••• yy. 

THE FRANCISCAN WAY OF LIFE 

T HE religious life of the Friar Minor Conven-tual is regulated by the Rule of Saint Francis, 
by the Constitutions of the Order, and by Pro-
vincial Statutes. 

The Rule of Saint Francis is the foundation 
,stone of the religious life of the friars and out-
lines in twelve short chapters the purpose and 

St. Francis and 
Christ Crucified 

ideals of the Order as well as 
the obligations imposed upon 
its members. 

The Constitutions of the 
Order explain in detail the 
twelve chapters of the Rule. 
The latest revision of Con-
ventual Constitutions was 
made in 1932. 

Provincial Statutes provide 
for local customs, circum-
stances, and conditions. 

The opening chapte·rs of the 
Rule of Saint Francis, in a few 
simple words, summarize the 
nature of the religious life 

'! I) lived by a Friar Min<;>r: "This is the Rule and Life 
f the Friars Minor, namer-:v.., to observe teo y 

Gospe 0 Ou r Lord Jesus ' Christ,....EL,livin in 
o edience, wlthout ro ert ! and in chastity." 
--Yhus the basis of the Franciscan life is close 
imitation of Jesus Christ by the observance of the 
three religious vows of overty, chastity, and 
obedien~ nars rs pronounc e siro Ie , emporary . ) ( -



19 

VOWS , binding for a period of three years; then ) \ I-
t e _ renew their profess ion in solemn perpetual I 
vows obliging for life. 

The Vows 

T HE vow of obedience requires the Friar Minor Conventual to follow the direction of his 
superiors in all matters which concern the good of 
the Order and the good of the Church. A double 
contract re s ults from this vow: the superiors are 
obliged to regulate the life of the convents, or 
friaries, according to the laws of the Order; the 
subjects are obliged to cooperate in observing that 
religious life. Furthermore, the Friars Minor Con-
ventual not only 2.re bound to observe the usual 
vow of obedience, but through their Founder they 
are specifically held to obey and reverence the 
Holy Father. In his Rule, St . Francis wrote : ) \ ~ 
"Brother Francis promises obedience and rever-
ence to tne ora Pope, Honori us UJ,_and his suc,-
cessors canomcaTly elected." Faithfulness to that 
pointo f d i e rule has always been a matter of pride 
with the Friars Minor Conventual. 
~erty, the bride of St. Francis, dem C!lliis, of 

the Franciscan friar a great simplicity in his mo e \ 
of life. When a friar pronounces his solemn vow l' 
of poverty~1'omahcalIy renounces t h e right of \ 
~nership and the right of inheritance; he loses 

a llpersonal ri g t to acquire and dis ose of pr0P-
erty, no matter 0 what nature it may be, and lie 
depen s entirely u ROn the Order for his mainJ;.e-
na~ :The Order, however, assumes the obligstion 
of proviaing for all its members until their death . 

The vow of chastity brings the f.r iar closer to 
God. By giving up his right to marry, he is always 



( 
/ 

J( 

20 

free to serve the Divine Master; without attach-
ment to any person, the friar is ready to work for 
God's cause in any place or land. 

Spirituality 

T o keep the vows of religion demands a strong 'spiritual nature. Spiritual stren th is -F-awn 
£rmn-pray~r and penance. ence the Rule of St. 
FrancIs a s 1 utions of the Order pro-
vi?e a 'pr~gram of prayer and penance to keep the 
friars st'i'<JlI g. 

T Remain prayer of the f·riars is the Divine 
Office. Every solemnly professed friar who is a 
cleric, i.e., a priest or a student for the priesthood, 
must say the Office daily. This Office is the same 
as that said by secular priests except for Fran-
ciscan feasts . In every friary whe·re there are four 
or more clerics, this' Office must be recited . or 
cnanted together. Friars who are not clerics have 
other prayers to say daily instead of the Divine 
Office. 

Other prayers prescribed daily for all friars are: 
the Conventual Mass, meditation, or mental 
prayer, exammahon of con~the rosary, and 
daily remembrance of the dead, especially members 

'aii:cr15enefactors of the Order. Moreover an an ual 
retreat is presc·ribed for all members of the Order. -t. Francis called his friars "Brothers of Pen-
nce, ence t e whole life of the Conventual friar 

IS a means of Renance, ot denying hi m seff and 
keeping himself in subjec ti on. B u t other specific 
"'--.: 
mo CIe'S'O: penance are fixed by the Rule. Amon g 
them are the regulations concerning fast and absti -
nence. The Friars Minor Conventual must fast 
from the feast of All Saints until Cfiristmas, on I 



21 

all Fridays of the year, on the vigil of all the feast 
days of the Blessed Virgin, vigils of feasts of S t. 
Francis, St. Bonaventure, and St. Anthony of 
Padua. In addition, according to the Rule every 
friar is bound to observe the general fasts and 
abstinences commanded by the Church. 

' . Apostoiate 

F RANCISCAN friars do not, of course, con-sider their vocation as given them for the ir 
benefit alone. Like St. Francis the friars are eager 
f or the salvation of souls . Any type of activity 
promising attainment of that end they have ac-
cepted in the past and do today as their field of 11 
labor. It can hardly be - said of them, as it can 0 \ 
other Or ers , ti1;r liey h ave a special apostol ate. 
, or them the need of the hour is the will of God. 
As needed t 1ey ·hav.e been and are 1eacners, preach- \ 'b 
ers writers, missionaries at home and in £oreIg n \ 
lands, astors , any ing an d everytning to further 
t e Kin g dom of God. If they have any especially Ilj---
he1 0ved work it is, possibly, tIiat of preacIiing in 
simple as lOn e ora of Go . IT t e nave any 
class of peo Ie o r wnom t e:x loye partLcular.1~ to Ii' '/ 
worK, it is certamly that of the poor nd the I 
ne lected . 

It is impossible to summarize the Order' s 
achievements in the various apostolates . Let it be 
enou'gh to say, as history proves, tl!.e! all lands l! 
have kno \Yll the ministrations of the Order's mem-
bers, every heresy since its exis ence has heard i s 
voice raised in opposition, the great universitie s 
have listened to its teachings . Through its efforts 
have the sick been solaced, the poor aided , the 
pagans co ver e :-Smners rna e saints. 



22 

Organization 
THE Order is governed ' by a set of superiors, 
.I.- caned "ministers;" electea to terms of three or 

six years. At the head of t e Or er is t e Minister 
r 

The Most Reverend Bede Hess, the 112th Minister 
General of the Friars Minor Conventual 

General with his council. For purposes of govern-
ment the Order is divided into provinces. At the 
head of each province is the Minister Provincial 
and his council. The province is sub-divided into 



23 

Franciscan brothers serve a period as candidates, 
then as postulants, later as novices . The total time ) 
of these Reriods must be at least seven een mon thS, 

9£ten is more. After his novitiate the lay b'r(;'t'her 
is admitted to vows as is the cleric student. His 
work is to assist by prayer and manual labor in th~ 
efforts of the friars for the salvation of souls. 

According to the latest available census of the I) ~ 
Or er e - ri ars Minor Conventual total ~t t.he -
p resent time over two thousand memb dIstnb-
uted in twenty-three separate countries. These 17 J 

Jer~~v 
/7..f'" 



24 

Friars Minor Conventual of the Chinese Commissariate 

l)
..a on the schismatics of the Orient. Their fields 
of wor in NIoldavia( art of Roumania) and 
around Constantinople in . Tur k ey are among the 

} aIde" mi"iona,y ente'p",e, of the F""" Minn,. 
~ --



25- (' ( 
~,' 

Con-

United States 

A LTHOUGH the records of the Church in our /)YR ~ an are otted here and there with the names. 
of Conventual friars in the eighteenth century:, i t 

-was not until 1851 that a concerted effort was made 
to bring the Or er to America. In that year, the ~ 
Most Rev. J. M. Odin, then Bishop of Galveston, 

exas, requesteo the Most Rev. H;racintlLGualerni". 
inister General of the Order, to establish a com-

munity in Galveston to su~ ly the religious needs 
of German speaking Reo Ie of that district . In an-
swer to that invitati.on, the Most Reverend General 
gave permission to fi e friars to found the st 
conve n t of the Order in the United States . For this 
p urpos,e five fnars, rs. onaventure Keller, su-
perior, Leopold M. Moczygemba, Dominic Mesens, 
Anthony Miller, and a lay brother, Giles Augustin, 
sailed from Havre, France , on July 6, 1852. 

Upon a rrival in Texas, these friars immediately 
ook charge of several arishes and missions of-

fered them by BisnOR Odi n. For a number of years 
t hey labore d 10 Texas in 1:l enaf of the German 
spea ing population and met with such success 
- hat he sou ht from Rome the status of a com-
missariate of the Order-the better to make for 
permanence and to E.rovidet or expansion. 

To secure this permission Fr. Leopold Moczy-
gemba journeyed to Rome in 1858. His reg,uest 
granted by the Sacred Cong'regati~I!.. of Bis ops 
an Rehgious, Qe returned to Ame rica as the fir st 
Commissary Gen~f the Conventual Commi s-

\ ~ 



26 

sariate ~f the Immaculate Conce tion . .. With him 
'cam e ot h er wor k ers for t he new vineyard. 

Within a year the Fathers decided to forsake 

~ 
theTrTexas foundations for places in the East. At 

(> i
p, hiIa qelpfiia, Pa., Utica, :Y., ana Syracus e , N.Y ., 

- t heV" estabTiShea COii:'Vents and took charge of 
parishes. From those foundations the Order 111 
America grew and rospered. -. -

r 
Toda y the Conventuals in Ame,rica are divid ed 

'J int ; t our prov111ces. The oldest of t h ese is the Im-
macul2te Concepti on Province with the m other-
10 'se at 812 . or Salina Street , Syracuse, N.Y . 

~ / ( Next is tfie St . A:nth ony Province with headqua r-
(' ters in St. Sta11lslaus Friary, 566 Front Street, 

Cfiicopee, Mass. Third is Our Lady of Consolatio n 
Province w itn P ,rovincial residence at 2222 West 

/

Market Street, Loui s,ville , Kentucky. Youngest of 
the pr ovi n ces is that of St. Bonaventure whose 
motnerh ouse is at 955 East Ringwood Road, Lake 
Forest, Illinois. 

The cause of religion has called the friars in 
America to a wide diversity of activities. They are 
eng a ged in teaching in high schools, minor and 
major seminanes, an d are represented onthe fac-
ulty of C athO lic University in Washington. They 
'nave t h e career-souls in parishes ran--uig from 
metro 0 1 an congregatIOriS to rural ocks. They 
publish magazines and papers 111 Engfish, Polish , 
an a - Cro atian, and contribute to other religious 

-periodicals. The y serve as chaplains in prisons and 
liospitals . They conduct missions and retreats for 
l~people andr eligious groups. They' have the 
'liSThdy of the Shrine of Our Lady of Consolat ion 
in arey, Ohio, and strive to spread devot io i'I to 

t ne Mother of God under that title. They al s o hav e 
~. -



27 

custody of the Shrine of Catherine Tekakwitha, at 1\ \ 
on a, . . n tIle home mission Rela they work 

toimprove the lot, spiritually and materially, of \~ \ 
the Mexican, Negro , and Indian. Friars of Ameri- I 
canorigin labor in England for the restoration of 
faith in that country. They carryon the tradition 
of sharing their Francis can way of serving God \ \\ 
with the laity by romoting and directin te l 
Third Order. They supp y e consolations of re-
ligIOn for Catholics of foreign extraction in the \ \ \ 
United State s and Cana a. At the time of this 
writing, they are meeting the latest cla im on the 
resources of the priesthood by serving as chaplains \\ \ 
in the Army, Navy, and Marines. 

- In all their manifold activities the Conventua l 
Fri ars, now as always, are striving to fill the oldest \ \ \ 
of Franciscan purposes, 0 do the work of G_o b:z 
~eeting the varied needs of the times. 

Their one desire is that in the future they may 
be granted the blessing of God to enable them to 
continue their work. 

May Almighty God, at whos,e pleasure they 
serve, heed their prayers, bless them and their 
friends, and inspire large numbers of ardent young 
men to join their ranks as Franciscans, O.M .C . 



Anyone desiring further information on the Friars Minor Con-
ventual may secure it by writing to any of the Very Reverend 
Fathers Provincial , O. M. C ., at the Provincial headquarters 
liste C>npage 26, or to "Father Guardian" at one of the fol-
'lowing addresses: 

St. Bonaventure Seminary 
625 Michigan Ave., N. E. 

Washington 17, D. C. 

St. Anthony-on-Hudson 
Rensselaer, N. Y . 

St. Joseph Friary 
2 Johnston Ave. 
Cohoes, N. Y. 

St. Francis Seminary 
Dongan Hills 

Staten Island 4, N. Y. 

IMPRIMI POTEST 
Anthony Hodapp , O.M . C . 

Minister Provincial 
Our Lady of Consolation Province 

IMPRIMATUR 
+Karl J. Alter 

Bishop of Toledo 
January 18, 1944 

Thi rd Pr inting 

Friars' Printing Shop ... Carey. Ohio 



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