(OSV News) -- In 1573, the familiar brown robes of Franciscan friars appeared on the eastern shores of what would become the United States of America.
They were accompanying the Spanish colonizers of Florida, explorers historians have frequently characterized as motivated by "gold, God and glory." The Franciscans, however, were only concerned with God -- and more than 450 years later, that's still true.
"There were a lot of unknowns," said Franciscan Father Roger Lopez, a provincial councilor of the Franciscan Friars of the Province of Our Lady of Guadalupe, based in Atlanta. "Meeting a new culture, navigating that new culture, that 'New World,' both physically and metaphorically. I imagine it would have been really easy to say, 'You know what? Let's just pack up and go back home.'"
They didn't. Yet, contemporary U.S. friars still must approach changes with navigation and discernment, just as their predecessors nearly five centuries ago.
All Franciscans trace their origins to St. Francis of Assisi, who founded the Franciscans in 1209. The Jubilee Year of St. Francis underway marks the 800th year of his death in 1226, a welcome commemoration for his U.S. followers.
St. Francis wrote the rule of life for two of the three Franciscan orders. The "First Order" -- who live by St. Francis' first rule, written in 1209 and finalized in 1223 -- are Franciscan friars. Friars are men who are religious brothers or priests who take vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Unlike monks, who live in community, friars live in the places they minister and often rely on charity for sustenance.
The Franciscans' "Second Order" is the Order of St. Clare, better known as Poor Clares. Its members are mostly contemplative nuns who were established by St. Francis' friend and disciple St. Clare of Assisi, who wrote their rule in 1212.
The "Third Order," which follows St. Francis' third rule written in 1221, was once primarily for diocesan clergy and lay people -- those who had not taken religious vows -- who were attracted to the Franciscan charism but could not live it in the First Order or Second Order due to other obligations.
Over the centuries, the Third Order evolved to include communities of Franciscan priests, religious brothers and religious sisters. Today it has two branches: "Regular" professed religious and "Secular" lay people, who do not make religious vows but commit to living St. Francis' rule in their daily lives. Both branches of the Third Order include men and women.
Most active women religious Franciscans are members of the Third Order, although now some women's religious communities now follow the rule for the First Order.
All three of the Franciscan orders share a long history of service to the poor, forgotten and marginalized, and all are represented by communities in the U.S. Within those orders are several variations, owing to reforms or changes in emphasis on how the rule is lived in certain communities in the centuries after St. Francis' death. The First Order, for instance, includes the Order of Friars Minor, as well as Conventual Franciscans and Capuchin Franciscans.
Within the three orders are communities of various names, often associated with the location of their motherhouse. Well known in the U.S. are the New York-based Franciscan Friars of the Renewal and the Franciscans of the Eucharist of Chicago, both of whom are in the Capuchin tradition; the Felician Sisters, part of the Third Order Regular; and the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia, also Third Order religious who serve in around 15 U.S. states as well as in Ireland and countries in Africa.
The diversity of Franciscan communities owes to different interpretations of the tradition St. Francis originally established, Father Lopez said.
"God doesn't even know how many Franciscan groups there are," he joked.
"People ask, 'What's the difference with Franciscans?' Well, it all depends," he said, offering a helpful analogy. "Do you like Coke? Do you like Diet Coke? Do you like Coke Zero? You like Coke -- but the flavor will be different, right? And that's very much how the Franciscans are."
Further expanding the Franciscan family are communities beyond the three traditional orders, including those who are ecumenical, meaning their membership includes Catholics and non-Catholic Christians. There are even Franciscans of all three orders in the Anglican Communion.
"Franciscan life has never been centralized around a single authority or uniform model of living," Julianne Wallace, executive director of the Franciscan Federation, an organization promoting the exploration and study of Franciscan life, told OSV News in an email.
"Each community expresses the Gospel in its own distinctive way, inspired by St. Francis' final invitation to his followers to let Christ teach them 'what was theirs to do,'" she said.
"This freedom allows every Franciscan, sister, friar or layperson to discern how best to live the Gospel in the world today," Wallace added. "Despite their many expressions, Franciscans are united by a shared love for God and creation, and by a deep desire to live in relationship, reconciliation and peace."
The largest group of Franciscans in the U.S. are the Order of Friars Minor, whose members can still be found at rural and urban parishes; grade schools, colleges and universities; missions and retreat centers; and serving the homeless, hungry and mentally ill.
Their numbers today are much less than their peak of over 3,000 in the 1960s and 1970s. In October 2023, the coast-to-coast Province of Our Lady of Guadalupe was formed by unifying the OFM's six legacy provinces, or geographically based governance regions.
"We're 630 friars right now. We will be about half that size in eight years," Father Lopez said. "And it's easy to say, 'Oh my gosh, then, who are we?' But we can go back to (that) it's our mission to live the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ."
"That's the beauty of our life -- we're not identified by our schools. We're not identified by our hospitals. We're not identified by our kitchens," he said. "The apostolate will always change, and can. It's the radicality of our fraternal life -- and living that in a contemplative way -- that brings us out into mission."
Historically, the U.S. Franciscans grew their presence by establishing mission churches to evangelize Indigenous populations. In 1598, friars came from Mexico to New Mexico; by 1640, 50 of them served 25 missions. By 1650, 70 friars were working in 40 missions in Florida and Georgia.
In the early 1700s, friars from Mexico began serving in Texas, and by 1787, 28 missions, including the Alamo, dotted the future U.S. state. In 1768, Franciscan friars took over the Jesuit missions in Arizona.
St. Junipero Serra traveled from Mexico to California in 1769, founding the first of 21 missions there, most of which still exist: San Diego, San Luis Rey, San Juan Capistrano, San Gabriel, San Fernando, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, San Jose, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
That diversity and lack of centralization can sometimes make Franciscans seem like "amiable anarchists," said Jeffrey Burns, director of the American Academy of Franciscan History at the University of San Diego.
While that description might not sound like a recipe for effectiveness, Burns said the large waves of Franciscan friars that accompanied 19th-century European immigrants quickly redefined their mission in the U.S.
"The immigrant community was so large, and that was a large part of their ministry, just providing for immigrants," he explained. "So it evolved from evangelization of natives to the service of immigrant populations."
Franciscan sisters also served those immigrants -- and still serve them, said Holly Fiedler, president of the Franciscan Central Archive, which preserves and provides access to the records of its Franciscan entities, both for research and collaboration.
Franciscan sisters have served in countless apostolates, including nursing and medicine, teaching and advocacy for social justice issues. "They were always on the front curve of answering to those in need," Fiedler told OSV News.
Like the OFM friars, the sisters' numbers are now smaller, but "they're finding ways to assist how they can, where they are," Fiedler said.
And the U.S. Franciscans remain missionaries.
"Many Franciscan communities in the United States have also extended their ministries far beyond U.S. borders," noted Wallace. "The Franciscan vocation is ultimately one of listening and responding to where God calls -- sometimes across the street, and sometimes across continents."
Father Lopez said his community of OFM friars are teaming with Conventual Franciscans to staff a mission in Jamaica. Such collaborations make practical sense, but they are also an answer to a question Father Lopez posed: "What does it mean to be a Franciscan in the 21st century? What does it mean to be an American and a Franciscan?"
Right now, Franciscans are still working on the answer -- together.
