MINIMI

MINIMI. – A mendicant religious order with solemn vows, of mixed life, both contemplative and apostolic, founded by St. Francis of Paola in 1435.

I. ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT

The first followers of the Saint were called Hermits of St. Francis of Assisi; only in 1492 did the Institute receive from Pope Alexander VI the name of Order of the Minimi (bull *Meritis religiosae vitae*, 24 Feb. 1492). It spread rapidly in southern and central Italy and in Sicily. The earliest written approval known is that of the Archbishop of Cosenza (*Decet nos*, 30 Nov. 1471), followed by that of Sixtus IV (*Sedes Apostolica*, 27 May 1474). The Order spread to France, where the Saint had gone in 1483, and then to Spain and Germany. At the death of St. Francis (1507), it counted 6 monastic provinces in Italy, France, Spain, and Germany, with 32 convents. By the end of the 16th century, the number of provinces had risen to 20, with 200 convents, and in the two following centuries, with the introduction of the religious into Belgium, Holland, England, Mexico, Peru, and the Azores, the provinces grew to 32 (besides a vicariate in Portugal and the Indies) and the convents to 500, with about 14,000 religious.

In the second half of the 18th century, decline began, due to the well-known political persecutions: almost everywhere convents were suppressed, many destroyed, and the religious dispersed. In Italy, despite the severe damage of the French Revolution, the Order remained efficient, especially in the Papal States and the Mezzogiorno, until the suppressions of 1866 and 1873. Yet everywhere, and in almost all places, the Minimi persevered in the faith, and a not inconsiderable number bore witness to it with their blood. At present, in Spain a general delegation has been established; in Italy the Order continues on the path of reconstruction, preserving intact the Rule of the holy founder in its 30 convents, with various novitiates, houses of probation, and colleges of study for philosophers and theologians, including one general college in Rome.

II. THE RULE

St. Francis of Paola was to have adopted one of the four ancient Rules according to the Fourth Lateran Council (a. 1215, ch. IV); but overcoming no small difficulties, he obtained approval of a new, original Rule, which would be an effective means of reviving in that age of paganism and depravity the spirit of the Gospel. The Rule which Sixtus IV and Innocent VIII had refused to approve was approved by Alexander VI on 24 Feb. 1492. The Saint revised it three times, and the Holy See approved it as many times (Alexander VI, *Vestris supplicationibus*, 1 Oct. 1495, and *Ad ea quae*, 1 May 1501), and definitively by Julius II (*Inter caeteros*, 28 July 1506). It consists of four parts: of the Religious, with an appended Corrected Code, or code of penalties; of the Nuns (Second Order); of the Third Order secular of both sexes. All together they form a single code of religious life, similar to that of the Mendicants; but contemplative life has in it the pre-eminence over the active. The superiors are called correctors. The General Chapter holds legislative power, while executive power is entrusted to the corrector general for the whole Order, to the provincial corrector for each monastic province, and to the local corrector for each convent formed. All correctors are temporary; the general serves for six years, the others for three; and they are assisted in government by three colleagues, i.e., assistants, one of whom is charged with handling the affairs of the Order before the Holy See, and is called the Zealous (procurator general). The religious are divided into three classes: clerics, to whom alone are reserved Holy Orders and jurisdiction; lay brothers, to whom are entrusted matters of special importance (St. Francis of Paola belonged to this class); oblates, for minor and humble offices. Poverty is so strict for clerics and lay brothers that they may not “handle money,” a task reserved to oblates (mitigated in the recent Constitutions). The penance proper to all mendicant orders is made more rigorous by the practice of a Lenten life to be observed daily.

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(Adrian VI, *Universis*, 14 Apr. 1524; Pius VII, rescript 22 Feb. 1804). The vow is held to be essential, so that if it were to cease, the Order of the Minimi would cease. To daily abstinence the Rule adds numerous fasts: two Lents, every Wednesday and Friday, in all nearly two-thirds of the year; strict silence, the use of rough garments which may not be laid aside even at night, bare feet, etc. A liturgical Ceremonial, composed by the Saint himself, which though lacking solemn approval by the Church like the Rules has always been held in great veneration, prescribes, besides the choral Divine Office with Matins at midnight, the daily recitation of the penitential psalms. Taken as a whole, the Rule of the Minimi is considered the severest in the Church.

III. SPIRITUAL LIFE OF THE MINIMI

It results from the fusion of the spirit of penance and humility with charity. The emblem which the founder gave to his sons is the word *charitas*, radiant, which admirably embodies the spirituality that may be called the spirituality of love. The spirit of penance, in fact, which characterizes the Order, is but a consequence of charity, and mortification has no purpose save as an act of love.

The Rule of St. Francis of Paola was a program that anticipated the grand work of the Church for reform culminating in the decrees of the Council of Trent.

The rising Protestant heresy found these religious well prepared, and they were among the first to confront it resolutely with the example of a holy life and apostolic zeal. Some earned the name of “thunderbolts and scourges of heretics, pillars and glory of the Church”: not a few perished by the hands of heretics. In Bohemia a locality near the convent of Bistritz took the name of *Munchschacht* (“Massacre of the monks”), because there more than a hundred Minim religious were killed about the year 1526. In France many were regarded as martyrs at the hands of heretics, among them Fr. Fr. Humblot, Simon and Roland Guichard, F. Bellemere, A. Finet, E. Apuril, J. Dehem, J. Ropitel, N. Fiquet, R. Breval, J. Masselin, J. Binans, E. Camart (remembered in the *Gallican Martyrology* as a triumpher over heretics “verbo, scriptis et opere”). Later the Minimi had valiant champions of the faith in France against Jansenist heresy.

By the will of the founder, Minim priests were to attain in sacred and profane sciences such proficiency as to be able to preach and hear confessions with edification (Reg., IX, 42). Yet to safeguard humility the Saint forbade them to obtain academic degrees and titles (ibid.). However, when the colleges of studies in the Order began to be frequented also by secular scholars (at Paris, Genoa, Marseilles, Barcelona, Messina, Florence, Naples, Rome, etc.) and not a few religious were called to teach in public universities, Clement XII granted the obtaining of degrees, “provided that this involved no prerogative, insignia, or precedence within the Order.” The schools of the Minimi constantly followed the doctrine of the Angelic Doctor, in accordance with the General Chapters; in 1728 the establishment of a special chair for the teaching of the *Summa* in its text was ordered (anticipating by two centuries the decree of Pius X, *Doctoris Angelici*, of 29 June 1914). In the course of almost five centuries, the Order has had distinguished and illustrious cultivators of studies not only sacred but profane: excellent theologians, philosophers, men of letters, jurists, polyglots, and

**MINIMI — MINISTRI DEGLI INFERMI**

The Order has also given to the Church more than forty archbishops and bishops, and a great number of religious who rendered devoted service to the Holy See.

Over five centuries of existence, the Order has never lacked fervor in faith and charity, a spirit of sacrifice, and the palm of martyrdom. Thus came the martyrs of Protestantism in Germany, France, and England, of the Moors in Spain, later of the French Revolution, and finally of the Spanish Revolution of 1936. Nor were there lacking martyrs of charity who perished while assisting the sick during plagues, e.g., in 1628 at Lyon and in 1720 at Marseille and throughout Provence. Two confessors, Gaspare Bono and Nicola Saggio, were beatified by Pius VI in 1786. Two martyrs, Carlo Hurtrel in Paris and Tommaso Felton under Elizabeth of England, were both beatified by Pius XI in 1926 and 1929. The cause of beatification for other servants of God is currently underway at the Sacred Congregation of Rites.

IV. THE SECOND ORDER. — The Rule of the nuns is almost entirely similar to that of the friars, with only a few differences required by the diversity of sex. They are bound by papal enclosure. The first monastery was founded at Andújar in Spain in 1495, and soon others arose in Italy and France, where the Order boasts a most noble history of faith and sacrifice. Particularly noteworthy in Spain are: Sister Maria of Montenegro (16th century), Agnes of Quesada (d. 1593), Sister Maria of the Holy Trinity (d. 1642), the Venerable Sister Filomena of St. Coloma (d. 1868); recently, a group of nine nuns in the persecution of 1936; in Italy: Sister Ninfa Solaro (d. 1540); Sister Dorotea Lagrutta (d. 1574); Sister Maria Maddalena of the Crucifix, foundress of the monastery of Todi (d. 1735); Sister Diomira of St. Joseph, foundress of the Roman monastery (d. 1791); Sister Agnes of the Incarnate Word and Sister Virginia of St. Louis, both of the Roman monastery, who died in 1810 and 1907 respectively; in France: Sister Gabriella of Jesus (d. 1639) and the Blessed Marina of St. George, foundresses of the monastery of Abbeville.

The Second Order shared the fortunes of the First, and though its numbers declined after the flourishing period at the beginning of the 18th century, regular observance has not diminished and remains effective today in the ten monasteries of Spain and the two of Italy, one of which is in Rome.

V. THE THIRD ORDER. — This is also a true Order, whose members of both sexes, though living in the world, undergo a novitiate and make profession, without vows, but with simple promises, under a specific Rule written entirely by the Saint and approved by the Holy See. The obligations consist in wearing a blessed cord, observing the Rule, which is summarized in the practice of the commandments of God and the Church in relation to the duties of one’s state. There is an obligation to certain acts of piety, to several fasts and abstinences, with the counsel to observe also a daily Lenten life. Its origins go back to the very earliest times of the apostolate of St. Francis of Paola, but its juridical approval dates to 1501, later confirmed by Julius II (1506). The Third Order forms a single family, which is under the authority of the General Corrector of the Order.

The Third Order also contributed to the reform of Christian morals among the people. In the long list of its members from its origins to the present day are figures illustrious for lineage, learning, and holiness.