Brief History of the Secular Franciscan Order

The SFO is a penitential Order that comes under the name of a Movement born in the Church as the result of the ecclesiastical penitential discipline. From the beginning of the Church a penitential doctrine and a practice – doctrinal and ritual – was outlined, which can be summarized in these terms: the baptised who commits sin can obtain pardon provided “he does penance” and “is converted”. The sinner who wanted to be converted, to change his life, to give up sinning, entered into the Order of Penance or of Penitents and remained there until he carried out the expiation determined by the church community together with the bishop. Alongside the “compulsory” penitents there arose, in time, the “voluntary” penitents, who desired a life of greater perfection

The SFO is a secular Order, and this value of secularity always appears with the passing of time in such a way that in the Middle Ages it was recognized as one of the three Orders existing in the Church: The Order of Clerics, the Order of Monks, and the Order of Penitents. This Order of Penitents does not refer to all the faithful of the Church but only to those Christians who have decided to belong to one of the existing different forms of voluntary penitents.

The SFO is a Franciscan Order. Our aim is to try to know how a part of these secular penitents seek the help of Francis and his friars and follow the norm of life given them by Francis of Assisi. So, this penitential secular Order is animated by and immersed in the charism of Francis and forms part of the great Franciscan Family.

Francis is the man of penance. He was a penitent in the gospel sense; the first friars were called “penitent friars of Assisi”; and the Franciscan Third Order was known as the Order of the Brothers and Sisters of penance