Capuchins of Palermo, Italy

[Spiritu]

Hello everyone,

I confess, I had no idea where to put this thread initially - maybe the vocations area, although this is perhaps a bit obscure to go there.

For one of my Creative Writing subjects at university, I’ve been told to write a short character piece. I thought it would be fascinating to write a short story from the perspective of one of the Capuchins of Palermo, an Order devoted to the care of 8000 mummies down in the catacombs. So far, I’ve found lots of information on the mummies of Palermo, but next to nothing on the monks themselves. (They belong to the Order of Friars Minor - and that’s all I know.)

I was wondering, does anyone have any information that they could share with me, please? Has anyone been to Palermo and met them? Or know of books or articles about the monks?

Even the most basic information - how large is the Order? Do they have many new vocations? Do they still wear the habit? - would be fantastic!

Many thanks for your time and attention!

 

[yinekka]

This sounds like an interesting idea but unless you have the references you would be better to choose another topic before the deadline looms.

Have you thought of contacting the monks and asking your questions?

 

[passus]

Order of Friars Minor = Franciscans

You might start here.

That should help.

Good luck!

 

[Spiritu]

Thanks for the Wiki, passus - that’s a good start!

Yinekka, my deadline’s still months away, so I’ll probably have time to contact them if/when I can track down their contact details. (I suspect that they won’t have a vocations website, although that would make things really easy.) I may have to change topic… hopefully not!

Thank you both for your suggestions!