Help Build a Traditional Franciscan Monastery!

 

 

 

 HOW YOU CAN HELP

 

By A Direct Donation¹

 

You can make a donation to the Roman Catholic Non-profit, S. O. S. M., Inc., at their address: 

 

S.O.S.M., Inc.

POB 123

Mansfield , MA, 02048

USA

 

 . . making your check payable to:  SOSM, Inc.: Monastery Fund.  Or by making a donation using Paypal. You can read more about the Corporation, founded by the benefactors of Br. Alexis Bugnolo, and how it is assisting in the Monastic Foundation, by clicking their link above, and/or by viewing this flyer, which gives a timely explanation:

 

Anno Domini:  February 24, 2008

 

800th Anniversary of

the Conversion of St. Francis of Assisi

Printable Version PDF 58 K, on 8 ½” by 11” paper

(for easy reading and distribution, by hand,
or by email attachment)

 

 

Benefits to Donors

 

As St. Francis taught, we take nothing with us from this world, when we die, but the merits of the good works we have done in our life.

 

Therefore, first of all, the charity you do in offering a donation for the establishment of a Franciscan Monastery will merit for you the graces and mercies of the Most Holy Trinity, who so loves St. Francis and His Order.

 

Second, St. Francis himself promised his special, and personal intercession for all who helped his sons.

 

Third, you will share in the prayers of the friars, brothers and priests, who will live in this monastery for as long as it endures.

 

Fourth, you will share in the merits of these friars in all the good they do to save souls and promote the Catholic Faith.

 

Fifth, you will provide Catholics with a place to attend Mass and receive the Sacraments, and thus share in their merits.

 

Sixth, by making a donation in memory of a poor soul, you can obtain mercies for them, to help them on their way to Heaven.

 

Seventh, donors who make especially large donations are offered in charity these additional benefits:

 

Special Benefits

 

For Donors of $10 or more:  A Free Copy of one of the publications of The Franciscan Archive, so that you may know something of the tenor and purpose of the religious life to be lived in the proposed monastery.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

¹ All Donations are tax deductible in the USA and its territories. SOSM., Inc. is an IRS recognized 501(c)(3) religious, non-profit corporation.

 

Donations to

The Monastery Fund

 

(It is estimated that

approx. $100 K will have

to be raised to acquire

a property in a rural place

and to build a small

hermitage, fit for

a dozen friars) ²

 

 

$100 K

 

 

 

$95 K

 

 

 

$90 K

 

 

 

$85 K

 

 

 

$80 K

 

 

 

$75 K

 

 

 

$70 K

 

 

 

$65 K

 

 

 

$60 K

 

 

 

$55 K

 

 

 

$50 K

 

 

 

$45 K

 

 

 

$40 K

 

 

 

$35 K

 

 

 

$30K 

 

 

 

$25 K

 

 

 

$20 K

 

 

 

 

$15 K

 

 

 

$10 K

 

 

 

$5 K

 

 

 

 WHY A TRADITIONAL

FRANCISCAN MONASTERY?

 

Download this as a PDF flyer (82 kb)

Printable Version on 8 ½” by 11” paper

(for easy reading and distribution, by hand,
or by email attachment)

 

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

 

Brother Alexis BugnoloI humbly ask for your help.  I am a traditional, Franciscan brother, who observes the Rule of St. Francis in the ancient manner, that is, without mitigations, according to the doctrine of the Roman Pontiffs, especially the great, St. Innocent XI (c. 1670 A.D.), who declared the ancient observance, « forever valid ».

 

Some of these observances were the non-use of money, the non-ownership of property or of means of transportation, the exclusive use of the Ancient Roman Rite, an apostolate among the people, devotion to the Immaculate Virgin Mary, etc..

 

Today, as you may know, the Franciscan communities no longer observe the Rule in this way. If a friar wants to do this, there is no place for him to go:  indeed, after the Second Vatican Council more than 10,000 friars left the Order.

 

I did not want to leave the Order. Instead, I asked my superiors for permission to observe the Rule of St. Francis in the ancient manner; but my superiors made me leave the Order, saying that those friars who wanted to observe the Rule in the ancient manner, “Had a problem with their vocation!”

 

Thanks be to God, who gave me relatives who understood the value of a vocation: who gave me a place to live these last 12 years.

 

During this time, I have come to know of many men who want to observe this traditional form of Franciscan life and to live according to the Rule of St. Francis without mitigations.  

 

For this reason, I have begun to search for benefactors can help me founding a Monastery of the traditional Observance, where the Rule of St. Francis can be observed according to the Pontifical Decrees, and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the Divine Office can be celebrated according to the Traditional Roman Rite.

 

By means of this monastery you can help save a great number of vocations to the priesthood and brotherhood, who are not joining the Order, because they know how much modernism and immorality have destroyed it from within, and who thus rightfully fear for the salvation of their souls, if they should join.  But rather than give these vocations no option, in which nearly all of them loose their holy intention, I propose to found a new monastery, where they can live the Rule of St. Francis in a holy and catholic manner.

 

Since most of you reading this page cannot afford much, with the help of some benefactors I have established a non-profit which can receive any donations of money or property, to assist the establishment of the monastery. This non-profit, is known as S.O.S.M., Inc, and you can read more about it through the link to its homepage on the left, above.

 

Benefactors who would like to contact me directly are invited, respectively to email me, through this website or write me by surface mail.  I ask vocations to write me by surface mail first.

 

Below is the address of the apartment, where I am temporary staying.  Here vocations can begin to gather and start formation, before the monastery is being built.

 

As I observe the Rule strictly, I ask that you do not send me checks or money, nor consign the ownership of anything to me:

 

Br. Alexis Bugnolo

c/o POB 123

Mansfield, MA 02048

USA

 

² A more specific estimate at this time is not available, until the dimension of the willingness of benefactors to support this project is assessed by a year or two of fundraising; this estimate is based on the purchase of some rural property of no value, and the construction by volunteers of the monastery buildings.

The purpose of this graphic

is to show benefactors the general level

of current support;

and it should not be understood

as an actual day-by-day

accounting of funds received.

P.S. Alas, frequently in response to this appeal I get emails from individuals who want to rent me or sell me property.  I would like them to know, that if I had benefactors who could afford either, I would not be soliciting help.