The Franciscans in the Middle Ages
The Franciscans in the Middle Ages

Author: Michael J. P. Robson

Publisher: Boydell Press

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 270

ISBN-13: 9781843832218

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

St Francis of Assisi is one of the most admired figures of the Middle Ages - and one of the most important in the Christian church, modelling his life on the literal observance of the Gospel and recovering an emphasis on the poverty experienced by Jesus Christ. From 1217 Francis sent communities of friars throughout Christendom and launched missions to several countries, including India and China. The movement soon became established in most cities and several large towns, and, enjoying close relations with the popes, its followers were ideal instruments for the propagation of the reforms of the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215. They quickly became part of the landscape of medieval life and made their influence felt throughout society.BR>This book explores the first 250 years of the order's history and charts its rapid growth, development, pastoral ministry, educational organisation, missionary endeavour, internal tensions and divisions. Intended for both the general and more specialist reader, it offers a complete survey of the Franciscan Order. Dr MICHAEL ROBSON is a Fellow and Director of Studies in Theology at St Edmund's College, Cambridge

The Franciscans in Colonial Mexico
The Franciscans in Colonial Mexico

Author: Thomas Cohen

Publisher:

Published: 2021-07-22

Total Pages: 344

ISBN-13: 9780806169255

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Generations of scholars have studied the multifaceted experiences of the Franciscans in Mexico and how the Franciscan order shaped New Spain and the early Mexican republic. Recent scholarship has given long-overdue attention to the evangelized natives. Most of these works focus on a specific region or period, or on a particular aspect of Franciscan ministries in New Spain. A comprehensive account of the Franciscans in Mexico over the long term has been missing, until now. This book analyzes the Franciscans' engagement with native peoples, creole populations, the viceregal authorities, and the Spanish empire as a whole in order to offer a broad picture of Catholic evangelization in North America while keeping the Franciscans at the center of the story. Published in 2021, during commemoration of the quincentenary of the Spanish--and thus the Franciscan--presence in Mexico, the book brings together the research of junior and senior scholars from Mexico, Spain, and the United States on the long-enduring and far-reaching Franciscan presence in Mexico.

The Seraphic Order
The Seraphic Order

Author: Fr Marion A Habig

Publisher:

Published: 2020-08-17

Total Pages: 1026

ISBN-13: 9781735060170

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Among the followers of St. Francis there were saints and teachers who were endowed by God with a natural and supernatural kinship with their holy founder. They developed the Franciscan spirituality which had its origin in the simple practical life and the rules of St. Francis; and they gave further, clearer expression to it both by their lives and their writings. Thus they pointed out the characteristic traits of Franciscan spirituality, both in a practical and a theoretical way. Concerning the distinctive features of Franciscan spirituality, as contained in the Franciscan tradition, suffice it to say that its essence is doctrinal Christocentrism and practical imitation of Christ, conformity with Christ, prompted by love. Distinctive aspects of Franciscan piety are childlike love of God, our Father, devotion to the Humanity of Christ, His Sacred Heart, the Holy Eucharist, the mysteries of the Nativity and the Passion, His Virgin Mother Mary, and reverence for the Catholic priesthood. Franciscan love of God finds expression also in charity to our fellowmen, understanding them as our brothers, especially in aid to the poor and sick and in apostolic zeal for souls, Christian and pagan. Total poverty detaches the Franciscan soul from creatures, but at the same time it recognizes God in created things and uses the latter to mount to God. Emphasis is placed on the will, and hence on love and action above speculation. The atmosphere in which the Franciscan spirit develops is one of individual freedom of the spirit, absence of coercive and confining methods, love of enterprise, and a sense of realism. On the path of this traditional Franciscan way of life many have attained sainthood. Thus, The Seraphic Order, which recounts their lives and virtues, can well serve as a practical textbook of Franciscan spirituality.

My Journal of the Council
My Journal of the Council

Author: Yves Congar

Publisher: ATF Press

Published: 2012-12-31

Total Pages: 1048

ISBN-13: 1921817453

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Yves Congar was a theological advisor to the preparatory commission for Vatican II, and attended all sessions of the Council (1962-1965) as a theological expert. His daily journal provides a window into the Council's workings and into the development of what would become a series of historical documents and declarations. Theologian Yves Congar op, silenced and exiled in 1955, was in 1960 made a theological advisor to the preparatory commission for Vatican II. From then on, and all through the Council (1962-1965), he was an influential day-to-day participant in its work. His diary provides a window into the Council's workings and the development of what would become a series of historical documents and declarations. It also offers Congar's own down-to-earth and candid perspective on many of the remarkable people and events that shaped the Council.

The Spiritual Franciscans
The Spiritual Franciscans

Author: David Burr

Publisher: Penn State Press

Published: 2015-09-30

Total Pages: 441

ISBN-13: 0271023767

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Winner of the 2002 John Gilmary Shea Prize and the 2002 Howard R. Marraro Prize of the American Catholic Historical Association. When Saint Francis of Assisi died in 1226, he left behind an order already struggling to maintain its identity. As the Church called upon Franciscans to be bishops, professors, and inquisitors, their style of life began to change. Some in the order lamented this change and insisted on observing the strict poverty practiced by Francis himself. Others were more open to compromise. Over time, this division evolved into a genuine rift, as those who argued for strict poverty were marginalized within the order. In this book, David Burr offers the first comprehensive history of the so-called Spiritual Franciscans, a protest movement within the Franciscan order. Burr shows that the movement existed more or less as a loyal opposition in the late thirteenth century, but by 1318 Pope John XXII and leaders of the order had combined to force it beyond the boundaries of legitimacy. At that point the loyal opposition turned into a heretical movement and recalcitrant friars were sent to the stake. Although much has been written about individual Spiritual Franciscan leaders, there has been no general history of the movement since 1932. Few people are equipped to tackle the voluminous documentary record and digest the sheer mass of research generated by Franciscan scholars in the last century. Burr, one of the world's leading authorities on the Franciscans, has given us a book that will define the field for years to come.

The Martyrdom of the Franciscans
The Martyrdom of the Franciscans

Author: Christopher MacEvitt

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

Published: 2020-03-06

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 081229677X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A study of three hundred years of medieval Franciscan history that focuses on martyrdom While hagiographies tell of Christian martyrs who have died in an astonishing number of ways and places, slain by members of many different groups, martyrdom in a Franciscan context generally meant death at Muslim hands; indeed, in Franciscan discourse, "death by Saracen" came to rival or even surpass other definitions of what made a martyr. The centrality of Islam to Franciscan conceptions of martyrdom becomes even more apparent—and problematic—when we realize that many of the martyr narratives were largely invented. Franciscan authors were free to choose the antagonist they wanted, Christopher MacEvitt observes, and they almost always chose Muslims. However, martyrdom in Franciscan accounts rarely leads to conversion of the infidel, nor is it accompanied, as is so often the case in earlier hagiographical accounts, by any miraculous manifestation. If the importance of preaching to infidels was written into the official Franciscan Rule of Order, the Order did not demonstrate much interest in conversion, and the primary efforts of friars in Muslim lands were devoted to preaching not to the native populations but to the Latin Christians—mercenaries, merchants, and captives—living there. Franciscan attitudes toward conversion and martyrdom changed dramatically in the beginning of the fourteenth century, however, when accounts of the martyrdom of four Franciscans said to have died while preaching in India were written. The speed with which the accounts of their martyrdom spread had less to do with the world beyond Christendom than with ecclesiastical affairs within, MacEvitt contends. The Martyrdom of the Franciscans shows how, for Franciscans, martyrdom accounts could at once offer veiled critique of papal policies toward the Order, a substitute for the rigorous pursuit of poverty, and a symbolic way to overcome Islam by denying Muslims the solace of conversion.

Dante and the Franciscans
Dante and the Franciscans

Author: Santa Casciani

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2006-12-01

Total Pages: 371

ISBN-13: 9047411528

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The essays in this volume address the interrelationship between Dante and the Franciscan intellectual tradition and demonstrate how all disciplines can come together to shed light on how the Franciscan intellectual component informs so much of Dante’s writing and how in turn Franciscan writing is informed by Dante's work.

Dante and the Franciscans
Dante and the Franciscans

Author: N. R. Havely

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2004-08-12

Total Pages: 238

ISBN-13: 9780521833059

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Nicholas Havely examines the connections between Dante, the Franciscans and the Papacy as they appear in the Commedia, and presents the poem as one concerned with an often dramatic confrontation between authority and idealism in the church. Havely draws on a wide range of literary, historical and art historical sources relating to the controversy about Franciscan poverty during the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. He argues that the Spiritual Franciscans' strict interpretations of evangelical poverty provided the poet with a means of addressing the state of the contemporary Papacy and of imagining the renewal of the church. He also explores the origins and afterlife of the debate about this form of poverty and Dante's contribution to it. This study will appeal to scholars interested in medieval religious and intellectual history, as well as to readers of Dante's poem and other medieval visionary and political writing.

The Way of the Franciscans
The Way of the Franciscans

Author: Daniel P. Horan OFM

Publisher: SPCK

Published: 2021-11-18

Total Pages: 125

ISBN-13: 0281083185

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Whereas some religious traditions within Christianity offer a singular approach or spiritual focus, the Franciscan tradition is wonderfully diverse and manifold. The Way of the Franciscans is a lovely Lent book for 2022 that offers a practical introduction to Franciscan spirituality, and the many distinctive and dynamic approaches to prayer, contemplation and action found within it. Split into six chapters, with each focusing on a key Franciscan spiritual master and their way of prayer, The Way of the Franciscans is the perfect guide to help you prepare for Easter and deepen your spirituality throughout Lent. As well as exploring the history of the different Franciscan spiritual traditions and how they are united in their focus on living according to the Gospels, it offers practical, applicable guidance for making Franciscan spirituality part of your everyday prayer life. The Way of the Franciscans is an ideal Lent devotional for 2022 for anyone wanting to increase their understanding of Franciscan spirituality, or for anyone looking for new ways to revitalise their prayer life during Lent. Suitable for reading individually or using as a small group, this is a Lent book that will leave you with a new appreciation of the relevance of the Franciscan spiritual tradition and forms of prayer for Christians today, and equip you with practices for becoming part of this ever-growing tradition.