Franciscan Spirit

In an era when people form and reinforce their opinions entirely within a chosen bubble of like minds, any earnest quest for truth seems almost quaint. How did truth become so passé?

Saint Clare of Assisi offered a new approach to authority and sisterhood, to community prayer, to the enclosure, and to financial security.

I have an announcement to make: My kids are not perfect. They never have been; they never will be. They throw fits, argue with one another, cop attitudes, and don’t always listen very well. They’re kids. And I love them more ...

Pope John XXIII, as Pope Francis said, “was a country priest, the priest who loves all the faithful, who knows how to care for the faithful, and this he did as a bishop, and as a nuncio.”

Capuchin Friar, Mystic (1887–1968) Padre Pio, a Capuchin friar of peasant background, spent virtually his entire life in a monastery in southern Italy. In most respects he was indistinguishable from his fellow friars. But for some mysterious purpose, Padre Pio ...

Capuchin Friar (1870–1957) Solanus Casey, the son of Irish immigrants in Wisconsin, felt called to the priesthood after witnessing a drunken sailor stabbing a woman. Somehow, this scene of sin and suffering caused Casey to dedicate himself to God and ...