R. J. Grigaitis, S.F.O.
What is the Secular Franciscan Order?
There are a couple of questions that I get asked rather frequently. The first one goes something like this: "What's that medal you're wearing?" Once I tell them that it's the habit of the Secular Franciscan Order and possibly explain the symbolism in it, they ask the second question: "What's the Secular Franciscan Order?" These are good questions, and they deserve a good answer.
First, let's take a look the Secular Franciscan habit, which is shown to the left. Secular Franciscans are supposed to wear it in some form or another; as a medal, a pin, a ring, or some other form. When I was first discerning a call to the Franciscans, I was a little worried about the habit. I thought it was a habit like what the monks and nuns wear, and I really didn't want to wear one around town, especially to work.
The Secular Franciscans habit is made up of the tau cross with the arm and hand of Christ crisscrossing over the arm and hand of St. Francis. Christ's arm is bare and has the wound from the crucifixion in the hand. Francis' arm is covered by the sleeve of his habit and his hand bears the mark of the stigmata. The stigmata is the physical marks of Christ's crucifixion imprinted into someone flesh. St. Francis was the first person to receive this.
The symbolism of the hands of Christ and Francis is obvious; however, the tau cross needs a little more explanation. The Lord says in Ezekiel 9:4, "Go through the city, through Jerusalem, and put the mark upon the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it." In the Greek Septuagint, this "mark" is translated as the nineteenth letter of the Greek alphabet, tau (τ). Many English translations retain the Greek letter tau, although some translations, like the one above, translate it as some other mark, such as "X," "t," or "cross". This is the deeper meaning. The tau looks like a cross. Six hundred years before the crucifixion of Christ, it was the sign of the Cross by which the elect were signed.
The Septuagint dates back only to the second century B.C, what sign did Ezekiel originally use four centuries earlier? The Hebrew equivalent to the Greek tau is the tav (ת), which looks nothing like a cross; however, while the modern Hebrew tav looks more like its Aramaic counterpart, the ancient Hebrew taw (t) again looks like a cross. In fact, some archaeologists have mistook Jewish graves for Christian ones because the graves were marked with the sign of the cross. This includes graves that predate the birth of Jesus.
Pope Innocent III used this tau imagery from Ezekiel in his opening homily of the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, and the tau became the symbol for that council and for the spiritual renewal in the Church. Innocent III had just commissioned Francis' new community only five years earlier, and it is thought that Francis was present at this council. Francis was very fond of this passage in Ezekiel, and adopted the tau as his own signature, and often signed his letters with it.
Now that we know why the Franciscans use the tau, we can look at what Secular Franciscans are and how they differ from other Franciscans. These other Franciscans are called religious Franciscans, and so first we will look at the difference between seculars and religious.
Seculars are people that live and work in secular society. Priests can be seculars, and are often referred to as diocesan priests. They usually live alone, and are subject to the bishop of their diocese. On the other hand, there are religious priest that live in a religious community with usually two or more other religious; all of which are not necessarily priests. Likewise, there are similar religious communities for women.
Like diocesan priests, secular laymen do not live in a religious community but in secular society. These seculars, including diocesan priests, however, can belong to what is called a third order. A first order is for celibate religious men, a second order is for celibate religious women, and a third order is for men and women that are not religious, who may or may not be celibate. The Secular Franciscan Order is one of these.
The Secular Franciscan Order, also known as the Third Order of St. Francis, was the first third order. There are now other third orders, such as the Carmelites and Dominicans, but it all started with St. Francis in 1221. There are a number of stories as to how this third order came about. My favourite is that the pope was worried that everyone would become a religious Franciscan and there would be no one to populate the Church, so he approached St. Francis to start an order for seculars. A more likely story is that married couples were coming to St. Francis and St. Clare asking how they too could live out Franciscan spirituality. St. Francis then approached the pope with the idea of an order for seculars.
It is this Franciscan spirituality that attracts seculars to the Secular Franciscan Order, as it does religious to the Order of Friars Minor (the first order) and the Poor Clares (the second order). All Christians are called to live out the same basic life; however, the different orders put different emphases on different Christian qualities. All Christian have the same charisms, but different forms of spirituality stress the charisms particular to that forms of spirituality. For example, Carmelites emphasis intercessory prayer; they convert sinners not by preaching, but by praying. On the other hand the Order of Friars Preachers (the Dominicans) emphasis preaching, as the name implies. This does not mean that Carmelites don't preach or that Dominicans don't pray for the conversion of sinners, they just emphasise different aspects of Christian life.
Like all religious and secular orders, one of the Franciscan charism is poverty. Poverty was another thing that worried me when I was first discerning a call to the Franciscans. The example of Francis was one of total financial poverty, which I could not follow with a family to support. I later learned from the examples of Thomas More and King Louis IX of France, both of whom were Secular Franciscans, that one could live in spiritual poverty while being financially wealthy.
Another charism of Franciscan spirituality is minority, which is exemplified in the name of the first and second orders: the Order of Friars Minor and the Poor Clares. Minority is linked with poverty, as it is with chastity, humility, and obedience. Obedience was one thing that really attracted me to the Franciscans. It was a chance renew my allegiance to Christ's Church, and therefore, to the office of Peter as Christ's Vicar, and to the office of my bishop as a Successor of the Apostles.
The Secular Franciscan Order was originally called the Brothers and Sisters of Penance, thereby strongly emphasising the charism of penance. Penance is something that is greatly misunderstood in our modern world, which seems to give it a negative connotation. A true life of penance is a life of prayer in search of God's will and a conscious choice to conform to that will. It results is a deep love for God and His creation.
A love of God's creation is also a major emphasis in Franciscan spirituality; particularly in Franciscan prayer. Francis' love for ecology is evident in his "Canticle of Brother Sun," in which he praises God for Brother Sun, Sister Moon, and all creation, including Sister Bodily Death.
This love of God's creation is also evident in the charism of fraternity. In addition to fraternity with all creatures is fraternity with all men, fraternity with all Christians, and especially fraternity with other Franciscans. Regular meets with other Franciscans gives the individual Franciscan spiritual strength, and a chance to socialise with others that have similar religious ideals.
This is the primarily what the Secular Franciscan Order is: a fraternity of individuals that want to grow towards God in the spirit of St. Francis, and to proclaim this intention publically.
More information can be found on the Secular Franciscan Order website.
