What it means to be Franciscan
Our Franciscan tradition is based on the teachings of the 13th century saint, Francis of Assisi.
Francis gave up his family’s wealth and carefree lifestyle to live according to Scripture. He embraced poverty and humility to live a life in God’s service — care for people most in need, peace through social justice, and stewardship for all of nature. Through prayer and contemplation, Francis saw that all people and all creation were proof of God’s unconditional love for us. This brought him unending joy. He viewed all people as his brothers and sisters, caring for the poorest as an obligation, and stewardship of nature as man’s responsibility.
Our Values
For us, being Franciscan means:
Embracing with joy God’s unconditional, never-ending love for us
Serving those most in need — the poor, the marginalized, the trafficked, the immigrant
Treating all people as brothers and sisters
Living according
to the gospels
Care of the planet, our common home, in gratitude for these gifts from God.
Living simply
and prayerfully
OUR SYMBOLS
The Tau Cross
The last letter of the Hebrew alphabet, to Christians the tau represented the cross of the crucified Christ. Because of Francis’ devotion to the Crucifixion, he adopted the tau as his seal.
The Franciscan Coat of Arms
The sign of the secular Franciscan order in the United States, it shows the right arm of Jesus with the nail wound in the hand crossing the left arm of Francis, whose hand bears the stigmata. There is a crucifix, often a Tau, in the background.
The San Damiano Crucifix
It is said that Francis was kneeling before this cross in the church of San Damiano when he heard God telling him to “rebuild the church.” Francis took that to mean he was to repair the crumbling structure and he sold his father’s cloths to purchase stone for the building’s reconstruction. Franciscans see it as a message to renew the Church.
OUR SAINTS
St. Francis of Assisi
Born in Assisi, Italy, in 1182, Giovanni Francesco Bernadone was the son of a wealthy merchant. A carefree youth who wanted to be a soldier, Francis’ experience in the war against Perugia in 1202 changed him. Recuperating from an illness he contracted during a year as a prisoner of war, Francis had dreams and visions. But it was a vision he had while traveling to Apulia with the army of the Count of Brienne that led Francis to turn away from his wealth and to seek a life based on the teachings of Jesus — living in poverty and serving those most in need.
Through prayer and contemplation, often done in nature. Francis saw that God’s unconditional love of humankind is at the center of all people and everything in creation. God came to us as Jesus in the crib, showing his humility, and Jesus died on the cross not just for our sins, but because he loved us unconditionally. God’s unending love became a source of joy for Francis; the Gospels were his life model.
Today, Francis is among the Church’s most popular saints. His simple lifestyle, commitment to social equality, and concern for nature remain relevant 800 years after his death.
St. Clare of Assisi
Also born into wealth and privilege, Chiara Offreduccio was a devout Christian from childhood. As a teenager, she heard Francis preach and, just days later, she left her home to follow him.
Clare was a woman ahead of her time. She founded the religious order known as the Poor Clares and was the first woman to write a rule for an order. She disliked being considered the abbess of the order, instead choosing to have all the sisters participate in decision-making. Like Francis, she lived in austere poverty and cared for society’s neediest.
St. Marianne Cope
The daughter of German immigrants, Marianne Cope entered the Sisters of St. Francis in Syracuse, New York, in 1862. By 1870, she was a member of the congregation’s governing council. She helped establish two Catholic hospitals in New York State — St. Joseph’s in Syracuse (the city’s first public hospital) and St. Elizabeth’s in nearby Utica, the first to accept patients regardless of race, creed and ability to pay.
In 1883, Mother Marianne and six sisters traveled to Honolulu, Hawaii, in response to a request for help caring for patients with Hansen’s disease (leprosy). After managing a hospital in Oahu and setting up Maui’s first general hospital, Mother Marianne and the sisters relocated to the remote peninsula of Kalaupapa where Father Damien was ministering to the Hansen’s patients exiled there. Mother Marianne founded a home for the peninsula’s female patients, planted flowers and trees, and improved the care and quality of life of her charges. She was at Father Damien’s deathbed. Mother Marianne remained on Kalaupapa until her death in 1918. She was canonized as Saint Marianne in October 2012.
St. John Neumann
A Catholic priest in Bohemia, John Neumann came to the U.S. in 1836 and joined the Redemptorist order. As a diocesan priest in New York State, he rode horseback to minister to the 200,000 Catholics in the diocese. When he became the fourth Bishop of Philadelphia, Neumann founded the first Catholic diocesan school system for immigrants. He also assisted three German immigrant women in establishing the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia, a women’s religious order. That order later split into several Franciscan orders that, in 2004, reunited to form the Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities.