Franciscan Spirit

Bernardine was acknowledged as a great preacher of the era. He had entered the Franciscans at age twenty-two, after spending time nursing plague victims in his hometown of Siena, Italy.

Conventual Franciscan Maximilian Kolbe, imprisoned in Auschwitz in 1941, witnessed many fellow prisoners taken to the gas chambers or killed in other brutal ways.

In recent years the Holy Father has led the Way of the Cross during Holy Week at the Colosseum in Rome. This annual custom would have pleased the great Franciscan preacher Leonard of Port Maurice.

St. Margaret of Cortona was a thirteenth-century Italian orphaned at seven. She later lived with a man to whom she bore a son out of wedlock.

There the Lord promises a “new covenant” to the people. Once again, Jeremiah anticipates Jesus.

Teresa brought her prodigious gifts to her time. She grounded her public persona in a deep personal life.