FRANCISCANS is the common designation for a number of religious communities professing to live according to the ideals of Francis of Assisi (1181/1182–1226). In 1206 Francis withdrew to the margins of society to adopt the life of a penitent...

. One of the two major mendicant religious groups, the Franciscan order (officially the Fratres minores, “little,” or “lesser,” brothers) was founded in Italy in the early 13th century by Francis of Assisi and had spread by the...

Member of a Christian religious order dedicated to the apostolic life of poverty and preaching founded in 1209 by St. Francis of Assisi. The Franciscans actually consist of three orders. The First Order comprises priests and lay brothers who have sworn...

member of an extreme group within the Franciscans, a mendicant religious order founded by St. Francis of Assisi in 1209; the Spirituals firmly espoused the austerity and poverty prescribed in the original Rule of St. Francis. Called the Fraticelli,...

The term Franciscan is used to refer to those in Roman Catholic and Anglican religious orders which follow a body of regulations known as "The rule of St. Francis",[1] or a member of one of these orders. There are also small Old Catholic and Protestant...