The Traditional Form of Life of a Friar Minor

To observe the Rule of St. Francis without mitigations

in Consecration to the Immaculate Virgin Mary

HEEDING the counsel of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, "Do whatever He tells you," (Jn 2:5) a franciscan friar undertakes the Apostolic Life which Our Lord Jesus Christ taught to the Apostles (Lk 9:3 ff.; 10:4 ff.), in the manner in which They inspired St. Francis of Assisi to hand it down to his sons in the Regula Bullata, as explained by the decrees of the Roman Pontiffs, (e.g. Pope Nicholas III, Clement V, and St. Innocent XI). The vows of evangelical obedience, poverty, and chastity constitute the religious life of each member.

THIS form of life is primarily and essentially contemplative, and includes the obligation of a life of prayer and fasting, and the recitation of the divine office. Following the example the Redeemer, who became poor for our sake, and who taught and counseled the highest poverty, the life is constituted by personal and communal poverty, and the observance of that which Pope St. Innocent XI called "the chief precept" of the Rule of St. Francis:  the non-use of money.

THE apostolate of this form of life is to seek the conversion of sinners by means of good example, by calling to mind the four last things, the necessity of penance, the danger and punishment for vice, the honor and reward of virtue. In accord with the Rule of St. Francis, the liturgical norm of this form of life is the Ancient Roman Ordo, which St. Francis received from Pope Innocent III (c. 1215), and propagated through his Order throughout Christendom.

THE program of formation is based on a life of meditation on and practice of the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The study of Latin, the Rule and the writings of the Saints is required. Philosophy and theology are studied according to St. Bonaventure, Bl. John Duns Scotus and St. Thomas Aquinas. Moral theology is studied according to St. Alphonsus dei Liguori.

THE Apostolic Life which Christ taught to the Apostles, and which was undertaken in the most perfect form by St. Francis of Assisi, is a most wonderful and efficacious mean for the sanctification of the soul and the conversion of sinners. It is just as valid, and observable, and useful today at the beginning of the Third Millenium, as it ever was.

SINCE there are no Franciscan communities in the whole world which observe the Rule of St. Francis without mitigations today, that is no reason why there cannot be, or shouldn't be. Indeed, it is the very best form of Franciscan life that was lived by such great saints as St. Anthony of Padua, St. Bernardine of Siena, Bl. Padre Pio, St. Peter of Alcantara, Bl. Junipero Serra, etc..

FOR this reason Br. Alexis Bugnolo, the Editor of the Franciscan Archive, is currently seeking benefactors for the foundation of such a monastery, and cordially invites all Catholic men, who perceive the Lord may be calling them to such a holy life, to contact him at this address. For the Love of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, why not consider following St. Francis as a holy religious brother or priest?

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