The word friar comes from the Latin word frater, meaning brother. When St. Francis of Assisi founded the Franciscan order, he used the word friar because he intended its members to live as brothers without distinction of rank, title, or education. Friars are first and foremost brothers to each other. Friars live in communities called fraternities, and the building which they live is known as a friary. The male religious of the mendicant orders (e.g., Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinians, Carmelites) are all called friars.

No. Monks live a cloistered life in a monastery and vow to live in that monastery for all of their lives. Franciscan friars, on the other hand, may live in many different friaries during their lives. A monk’s life is one of stability. Friars are itinerants, that is, they move from place to place.A mythical story from the early days of the Franciscan order says that Lady Poverty came to visit St. Francis. Francis, being poor, can only offer her bread and water; later, when she wants to rest, the friars can give her only a stone and not a cushion on which to lay her head. And, when she asks them to show her their cloister, they take her to a hill and show her the whole world: “This, Lady, is our cloister.”

 When St. Francis of Assisi devised a habit for his brothers, he chose the clothing typically worn by the poor of the time: a plain unbleached tunic with a hood for protection, a cord fastened around one’s waist, and sandals for one’s feet. Franciscans wear their habits for special occasions and gatherings. Some wear it every day, while some wear regular clothes instead. Others wear whatever is needed for their particular work.

When we make vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, we are publicly proclaiming, before God and the church, that we will live no longer for ourselves alone — that we will also live for God and for others. The vows of poverty, chastity and obedience allow us to be faithful disciples and to witness to the Gospel life within the particular form of life we have chosen.  The vows can easily seem to restrict what we can and can’t do, but they actually do away with whatever keeps us from being the person God wants us to be — in other words, they set us free. Because we are not bound by personal financial concerns, by exclusive relationships, or by own will, we can be available to all people and we can offer our lives for others.

A rule is the most basic description of a religious way of life. The rule was written by St. Francis of Assisi and was approved by Pope Honorius in 1223. It is the rule lived today by the friars and begins this way: “The rule and life of the lesser brothers is this: To observe the holy gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, living in obedience, without anything of our own, and in chastity.“ The rule we live today is the third version of that rule. The first was approved by Pope Innocent III in 1209, so we mark our founding as being in that year.

Our founder, St. Francis of Assisi, called his little group the “Order of Lesser Brothers” (“Ordo Fratrum Minorum” in Latin), and that is the official name of our order. In order to keep the initials OFM, we many times explain the letters OFM as the “Order of Friars Minor”.

In a society where there were kings and lords on one hand, not much of a middle class, and the serfs and the poor on the other hand, Francis strove to anchor his brotherhood firmly among the poor and did so by including that in our very name.

A province is the basic unit of the life and mission of the order. It made of the friars together in friaries and is headed by a provincial minister. The Franciscan order is divided into various regions, called provinces. Sometimes a province encompasses an entire nation, in other countries, there may be several provinces.

At the current time, there are seven different provinces in the US. In May 2018, friars from six of those provinces in the US voted to come together to form one new province for the US, which will come into being in the Fall of 2023. You can read more about this effort on our page, "A Coast-to-Coast Franciscan Province."

The order has as its head the successor to St. Francis of Assisi called the minister general; each province is headed by a provincial minister, and each friary is headed by a guardian. St. Francis did not use the word superior. In our rule, Francis says that “the ministers are the servants of all the friars.”

A guardian animates the friars to live the Gospel in the manner that St. Francis lived it as described in our rule, offer them support in time of need, be an attentive ear when they need to talk, correct them when necessary, and ensure that the entire fraternity functions as one brotherhood. The role of leadership, then, for Franciscans, is one of service.

Provincial ministers are elected by the friars in each province to serve for a term of six years. He can be re-elected for an additional three years. The minister general is elected by the provincial ministers to serve for six years. He can be re-elected to serve an additional six years. Guardians are appointed by the provincial minister and his council to serve for a term of three years. At the end of their term, the ministers and guardians return to being simple friars, and new friars are elected to serve in their stead.

A Franciscan’s day is composed of prayer, time with the community, and work. The friars – some are priests and some are not – can do any kind of honest work: pastoral work, social work, community work, education, missionary work, and so on. Among Franciscans, you will find social animators, doctors and nurses, cooks, preachers, parish priests, catechists, teachers and professors, journalist, laborers and more.

Franciscans aim to follow in the footprints of Jesus Christ, to live a lively and true fraternity, rooted in a spirit of prayer, to which all work comes second. In our choice of how we live, where we live and what we do, we emphasize service to those who are most in need. Once each friar has understood and lived this missionary aim, he is encouraged to do honest work according to his abilities and interests… and the needs of his milieu.

We consider mission, whether foreign or domestic, as a constituent element of Franciscan life. In fact, St. Francis of Assisi was the first founder of a religious order to write in his rule a chapter about missions and non-Christians.

Close to the beginning of the order, St. Francis sent friars to France, Germany, Hungary, Spain and into the provinces of Italy where they had not been before. St. Francis himself went on a mission to Egypt and the Holy Land. As Francis sent his brothers out, he urged them to “live spiritually” among peoples of faiths or peoples of no faith at all, “to be subject to all creatures for the sake of God.” In the mind of Francis, this attitude is fundamental to Franciscan presence. The task of the friar minor is to make the divine quality of the gospel visible and credible by living an authentic Christian life. In doing so, the life of the Friar Minor makes people wonder: “Why are you like this?”

Who does not wonder at the man or woman who “goes about the world without quarreling or disputing or judging others” — “who is meek, peaceful, modest, gentle, humble and speaks courteously to everyone”? To those who inquire, the friar should answer as did Francis: “Because I am a Christian!” In this way, the prophetic presence of the Franciscan missionary nurtures the soil to receive the word. When the friar perceives that the word will be welcomed, then he opens his mouth and heart to share his faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Out of missionary activity arises the life with the poor, the engagement for peace, the summons to conversion and so on — all essential to the Franciscan way of life.

It’s said that only God knows how many Franciscans there are! St. Francis of Assisi’s vision was so powerful, that there are literally hundreds of groups who call themselves Franciscan.

There are three groups which belong to what is called the first order of St. Francis: the Order of Friars Minor (often called just “Franciscans” and whose initials are OFM), the Conventual Franciscan Friars (whose initials are OFM Conv.) and the Capuchin Franciscan Friars (whose initials are OFM Cap.).

We are members of the OFM in the US. There about 11,000 OFM friars in the world, and of whom about 1,200 live and work in the US.

The Second Order of St. Francis are the Poor Clares — contemplative nuns who live a life of prayer, community, and joy.

The Third Order of St. Francis has two parts. Hundreds of Franciscan congregations of both men and women make up the Third Order Regular, also known as the Franciscan Federation.

The Secular Franciscan Order is the Franciscan order for secular lay men and women. Members of this order live their everyday lives in the world and gather together on a regular basis. They make profession to live out the Gospel according to the example of Francis. There are nearly 13,000 Secular Franciscans in the United States today. For information on a local SFO fraternity in your area, call 1-800-FRANCIS (1-800-372-6247) and follow telephone message directions.

And there are more! Anglican Franciscans are members of the Society of St. Francis and Lutheran Franciscans are members of the Order of Lutheran Franciscans. Finally, members of other Christian denominations have come together to form the Order of Ecumenical Franciscans.