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From left to right are Deacon Sal Cancello, Charlie Comberrel, Nanette Perron, Sharral Jensen (candidate), and former spiritual assistant Franciscan Father Bob Menard
Why so many trash bags? They contain 258 pounds of all-new socks, stocking hats, scarves and other warm clothing items  collected by Mother Cabrini Secular Franciscan Fraternity. From left to right are Deacon Sal Cancello, Charlie Comberrel, Nanette Perron, Sharral Jensen (candidate), and former spiritual assistant Franciscan Father Bob Menard.
 | By Alice Baird, OSF

Order of Secular Franciscans celebrate the legacy of their patron

On Oct. 4, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, Franciscans throughout the world will celebrate the 800th anniversary of the stigmata received by the saint, and Third Order Franciscans will commemorate this event throughout South Carolina.

In Life of St. Francis, St. Bonaventure wrote that Francis was praying in solitary retreat on the mountain of La Verna in Tuscany, Italy, in 1224. Francis saw a seraph with six wings descend from heaven. Between the wings, the figure of Christ appeared with his hands and feet extended in the form of, and fastened to, a cross.

St. Bonaventure’s narrative stated that when Francis saw this, “he was overwhelmed, and his heart was flooded with a mixture of joy and sorrow. He rejoiced because of the gracious way Christ looked upon him under the form of a seraph, but the fact that he was fastened to a cross pierced his soul with a sword of compassionate sorrow.”

It was then that St. Francis was pierced with the five wounds of Christ’s passion.

Burning with love of God

Seraphs are the highest order of the nine choirs of angels. They burn with the love of God and praise him ceaselessly beside the throne in heaven. It was fitting then that St. Francis, who also burned with the consuming love of his Creator, received the stigmata through the vision of a seraph. And, Franciscans honor their patron saint with the title “Seraphic Father,” because his impassioned love for God exceeded all other of his virtues.

The painful stigmata, which bled throughout the remaining two years of his life, joined the saint’s sufferings to the redemptive sufferings of Jesus.

St. Francis is believed to be the first in a line of saints and persons living today to receive the stigmata. Perhaps most famous among them is the beloved St. “Padre” Pio of Pietrelcina, who endured his stigmata for 50 years.

Secular Franciscans

St. Francis created the Third Order for people who wished to follow his spirituality, not as friars or Poor Clares, but as ordinary people living in the world. In 1221, Pope Honorius III approved the establishment of the Secular Franciscans, making the Order of Secular Franciscans (OFS) the oldest of all Third Orders in the Catholic Church.

Today, 430,000 Secular Franciscans live in more than 100 countries. There are nearly 13,000 members and over 600 fraternities in the United States alone, and the Franciscan charism continues to attract new candidates every year. These numbers do not even include the many Protestant and ecumenical secular Franciscans!

In the Diocese of Charleston, there are seven OSF fraternities. The first was Our Lady of Good Counsel in Greenville, canonically established in 1958.

Secular Franciscans in community

Secular Franciscans meet in local fraternities to share praise of God in prayer, to study Scripture and the lives of the saints together and to assist each other in the spiritual life in the footsteps of St. Francis. In retreats and regional gatherings, professed tertiaries, as well as inquirers and candidates, also have opportunities to share fellowship and strengthen their Franciscan charism.

St. Francis saw Christ in the leper, and wherever Franciscans see the needy in their communities, they too see Christ and endeavor to serve them with dignity, respect, and generosity. Fraternities serve the poor and marginalized in society through various apostolates. Members of Mother Cabrini Fraternity in Anderson volunteer at Clean Start of Anderson, doing laundry for the homeless and assisting them with hygiene products and clothing. Crucified Christ Fraternity in North Charleston takes food to the Felician Sisters in Kingstree for their food pantry, and Our Lady of Good Counsel collects canned goods for the Saint Vincent DePaul Society at Our Lady of the Rosary Church in Greenville. Recently, the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary Fraternity in Bluffton cooked, froze and delivered 106 meals to the Sisters of St. Francis Center, who distribute them to the poor on St. Helena Island.

Fraternities also find ways to involve members of the community in their outreach. In December Mother Cabrini Fraternity collected 258 pounds of socks, gloves, and other warm clothing through their Socks for Saints program, and they enlisted several St. Joseph’s third and fourth graders to help deliver about a third of them to the local soup kitchen; the fraternity delivered the rest to Clean Start. Last December, when Franciscans celebrated the 800th anniversary of the first creche, which St. Francis staged in Greccio, Italy, Our Lady of Good Counsel involved the students at Our Lady of the Rosary School in commemorating the event, which resulted in the school’s first-ever Christmas play. Members of OLGC also care for the unborn by praying at the Greenville Abortion Center and distributing information about available alternatives to abortion. Through this apostolate they have referred several pregnant women to Saint Clare’s Home in Greer, saving babies’ lives and giving their mothers a new start in life.

Why follow St. Francis?

While few people desire to live the life of strict poverty that was the saint’s driving inspiration, Secular Franciscans follow a Rule of Life adapted to today’s world in imitation of his virtues. “The rule and life of the Secular Franciscans is this: to observe the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ by following the example of St. Francis of Assisi, who made Christ the inspiration and the center of his life with God and people” (Article 4).

Accordingly, Franciscan spirituality is oriented toward love — the love of God, the poor and marginalized and creation. While many associate St. Francis with the annual blessing of the animals held at churches and schools around his feast day, his love of animals was no mere sentimental affection. It was an aspect of his deep reverence for everything God made, and he is honored as the patron of animals and ecology.

His prayers — as exemplified in The Canticle of the Creatures — were always of praise, thanksgiving and joy. In the midst of great suffering in his life, St. Francis accessed a deep well of joy in creation, kept aflame by his burning love for the Creator.

If you have a heart for Christ, the poor, embracing simplicity of life rather than materialism, and caring for the gifts of God’s creation, explore the Secular Order of Franciscans! Visit secularfranciscansusa.org or contact one of the South Carolina fraternities listed here. People of all ages, including youth, are welcome!

Alice Baird is a member of Our Lady of the Rosary Church in Greenville, and part of Our Lady of Good Counsel Fraternity of the Secular Franciscan Order. Email her at atbaird.ofs@gmail.com.