Are There Still Those In The Order of Friars Minor Who Still Follow Rule of St. Francis?

[IrishDude45]

I know there are many holy Friars Minor who are teachers and parish priests and I admire them for that but are there any Brothers that still live the life that St. Francis of Assisi led? Of all the Franciscan orders, it seems to me that the ones that live the Rule the way I always imagined it would be the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal.
I am very confused about this, I thought St. Francis founded a mendicant order who worked among the poor and who lived in friaries and went about preaching not teaching in schools or being parish priests. After all the dissensions within the order and the numerous branches that have broken off, does the Ordo Fratrum Minorum still exist as the order St. Francis founded?

Thank you

 

[Allen537]

Well its important to understand the evolution of religious life in the church. Almost every ancient order of the church has in some way, be it large or small, has drifted away from its original mission exclusively.

Some have done so as a matter of indifference or desire to change to suite there needs. Though many have drifted away from that original mission as a result of the needs of the church.

Many religious have staffed parishes. As the education system become regular, many staffed those universities as professors.

We have to be careful not to come to judgements on orders because they are not participating exclusively in the Founders original mission.

 

[Friar_David_O.Carm]

We have to be careful not to come to judgements on orders because they are not participating exclusively in the Founders original mission.

I would also add that we should not pass judgments on orders based on how we think they should be living.

 

[IrishDude45]

We have to be careful not to come to judgements on orders because they are not participating exclusively in the Founders original mission.

I would also add that we should not pass judgments on orders based on how we think they should be living.

I try not to, I am simply a little confused about the order’s role in the modern world as opposed to the time of St. Francis.

Thanks for the reponses

Pax

 

[Friar_David_O.Carm]

I try not to, I am simply a little confused about the order’s role in the modern world as opposed to the time of St. Francis.

Thanks for the reponses

Pax

Thanks for this reply, sorry about the misunderstanding.

I too wonder about this sort of thing, as Allen said, it goes to history and how the orders modified to fit what the world needed at the time.

After all, while we Carmelites are mendicant friars today, our order started out as hermits.

 

[puzzleannie]

Even during the lifetime of Francis the Vatican modified his original rule, which was evidently too austere, and it was modified further as the order grew.

 

[Elizabeth502]

I am very close to many men in the Franciscan Order: priests, brothers, seminarians. I have attended many of their ordinations, etc., and have gone to school with them. They are still very much in the tradition of Francis in their orientation toward the primacy of poverty as a witness, the specific commitment to the poor in their ministries – and as an adjunct to that, a life of material simplicity (witnessing to poverty). In addition, they live out being Instruments of Peace as elucidated in the Prayer of St. Francis. Their ministries reflect a commitment to nonviolence. Thirdly, they honor the sacredness of God’s earth (Brother Sun/Sister Moon) in their ministries as well – being, along with monks of other orders, protector’s of earth’s resources.

They just do all these things in a modern context, that’s all.

 

[1234]

I know there are many holy Friars Minor who are teachers and parish priests and I admire them for that but are there any Brothers that still live the life that St. Francis of Assisi led? Of all the Franciscan orders, it seems to me that the ones that live the Rule the way I always imagined it would be the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal.
I am very confused about this, I thought St. Francis founded a mendicant order who worked among the poor and who lived in friaries and went about preaching not teaching in schools or being parish priests. After all the dissensions within the order and the numerous branches that have broken off, does the Ordo Fratrum Minorum still exist as the order St. Francis founded?

Thank you

It appears that two orders, one arising from the other, seem to practice a primitive form of the Franciscan rule, with poverty, sleeping on the floor, kneeling during some meals and begging among its observances.

Franciscan Friars of the Renewal

and

Franciscan Friars of the Primitive Observance.