The Order of the Lesser Conventional Brothers (OFM Conv) is one of the three branches of the Franciscan Order. Like the other branches of the Franciscans, the observants and the Capuchins , the Conventuals trace their history back to the community founded at the beginning of the 13th century by St. Francis of Assisi . The OFM Conv order branch itself was formed in 1517 after the division of the order into observants and conventuals.
Content
History
Disputes in the order between the observantist current (from "observantio" - "compliance", meaning strict adherence to the provisions of the Charter), which insisted on strict observance of the rule of St. Francis of perfect poverty and abandonment of property for members of the order, and the conventuals (from “conventum” - “monastery”), which stood for the organization of monastic communities and monasteries similar to those in other orders, began in the very first decades of the existence of the order. In 1388, the observers had their own abbot, who received the post of vicar of the General Order. In 1446, Pope Eugene IV bull “Ut sacra” granted autonomy to the observers, after which the Franciscans created a parallel hierarchy, official (conventuals) and autonomous (observers) [1] . A number of attempts to combine the two directions, the most famous was undertaken by Pope Calixtus III in 1456, were unsuccessful. Many influential Catholic hierarchs were opposed to the Conventuals, in 1464 Cardinal Nikolai Kuzansky ordered all Conventional communities in Germany to adopt observantist rules, the Spanish Cardinal F. Jimenez de Cisneros did the same.
The separation of the two branches was enshrined in 1517, when Pope Leo X legalized the division of the order into two branches. Two of the Conventional Franciscans were elected popes - Sixtus V and Clement XIV .
Current status
As of 2015, there were 4,233 conventuals in the world, of which 2,940 priests. The Order of OFM Conv has 644 communities [2] . The conventuals take care of the main Franciscan temple, the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi .
In Russia, the conventuals are much wider than the other two Franciscan branches; there are five communities — in Moscow , St. Petersburg , Astrakhan , Kaluga, and Chernyakhovsk [3] . In 2001, the Conventional Franciscan communities in Russia were merged into the Russian General Custodian. The first head of the Custodian was the priest Gregory Zeroh . Since 2005, priest Nikolai Dubinin has been leading the Custody. In Russia, the Franciscan Conventuals conduct extensive publishing, in particular, publish the Catholic Encyclopedia . In total, five Russian communities have about 40 brothers [3] .
Communities of Franciscan Conventuals are also in Ukraine (in Lviv and Bolshevtsy ) and in Belarus ( Grodno ).