Franciscan Sisters

The Franciscan Sisters, formally called the Sisters of the Third Order Regular, are religious women who ideally and spiritually follow the path led by Saint Francis of Assisi and Clare. Today, there are about 400 congregations of Franciscan Sisters, each having their own long and rich history. Therefore, it is actually difficult to talk about a unifying history of Franciscan Sisters.

There are, however, two common essential elements to the make-up of the Franciscan Sisters: penance and active charity. Here, penance does not carry the common definition of “external mortification, such as fasting, abstinence from… pleasurable things.”[i] Instead, Franciscan penance relates to an orientation towards God:"[It] indicates above all an interior psychological-spiritual attitude that turns the primary interests of the soul and the impulse of the heart incessantly toward God, subordinating all the rest to this fundamental option of the human being. Penance expresses, therefore, a type of relationship with the Lord, a way of seeing the world as a turning toward God-Love, a particular way of achieving evangelical perfection…. Penance is like a fulcrum on which rests the entire organism of the supernatural life, it is a concept that confers a characteristic tonality and a special dynamism to the development of the spirit."[ii]

Achieving this life of penance is what ultimately leads to a life of active charity. Following after the actions of Saint Francis, the Sisters “dedicated to works of charity and thus at all times the poor, the sick, the elderly, the orphans, the handicapped, the emarginated, the illiterate in missionary countries, the afflicted or those suffering in body or spirit have always been the ones beloved.”[iii]