THIRD REGULAR ORDER OF SAINT FRANCIS. - It derives from the Third Order of Penance, established by s. Francesco d'Assisi in 1221 for laypeople.
As time passed, many of these tertiaries, attracted by the desire for greater perfection, left their homes to live in hermitages, also taking religious vows. These communities of hermit tertiaries were often accused of heresy and associated with the Fraticelli, but unjustly; indeed, at the request of some of them living in Umbrian hermitages, Pope Giovanni XXII in 1323 approved their way of life as «utpote laudabile et valde utile». In 1447 Pope Niccolò V, by the apostolic letter Pastoralis Officii, recommended that all the tertiaries of Italy gather in a General Chapter and elect a “Visitor and principal Father.” Thus the various autonomous congregations were united in the Congregation of Italy, while the others gradually died out. At present the Order, which has given the Church men eminent in holiness and learning, is widespread in Europe, the Americas, and the Indies; it is engaged in the sacred ministry, teaching, and missions among unbelievers; it has 700 professed members. The general house is in Rome, near the basilica of SS. Cosma e Damiano.
END OF THE ELEVENTH VOLUME.