The Franciscan Charism Today
Clare and Francis
The Sisters of the Community of St. Francis are followers of Jesus in the way of Francis of Assisi. St. Francis (1182—1226) was born in the small central Italian town of Assisi, the son of a rich cloth merchant. He renounced his comfortable place in society as a young man and became a wandering beggar who ministered to the many lepers in his area and preached heartfelt homilies on town street corners. Others were drawn to his vision of a life of praise, prayer and compassionate service and he soon found himself the head of a band of men. He sought papal approval for his group and the Friars Minor (the Little Brothers) came into being. Other people were drawn to him as well, including a wealthy young noble woman named Clare. She ran away from her wealthy and powerful family to join Francis in his venture. At first she lived a lifestyle in imitation of Francis, living in purest poverty and ministering to the lepers. However, the church wasn’t ready for that sort of thing in the early 13th century and she and the sisters who joined her were made to quit their direct ministry with the poor and sick and move into a monastery to live their life enclosed within those walls.
While Francis and his brothers were experimenting with the non-monastic version of the Religious Life, Clare and her sisters were learning how to live a life of poverty and compassion within an enclosed contemplative context. Clare’s Sisters later came to be termed Poor Clares.
Although Clare is important to us as a faithful follower of Francis, The Community of St. Francis is a Franciscan community, rather than a Poor Clare community. The Community of St. Clare represents the tradition of St. Clare.
Living the Radical Gospel Life
The incarnational focus of our life leads us to a concern for the material needs of the most vulnerable and marginalized among us. Francis lived this out in his life through his care for the lepers and his generous hospitality for all. There are 800 years of Franciscan tradition of seeing Christ in the poor and doing compassionate service as well as seeking justice for the powerless. Francis was open to relationship with the poor, but also with the wealthy. This is lived out in our hospitality ministry which welcomes many diverse people into our lives. The Franciscan life means living the Gospel life, preaching the Good News of Jesus the Christ through our words and deeds. In all we do and all we are, we are working toward the coming of God’s Holy Reign. The three notes of humility, love and joy are meant to mark our lives. In striving to live a simple life of voluntary poverty, we focus not on grasping hold of things or people, but on trusting in God’s providence and generosity. We live our lives in community. This means we practice a spirituality which is as much about dealing with each other as it is about dealing with God. We have the daily practical experience of creating and maintaining intentional community. Our concern for the common good and our awareness of our interdependence with each other reaches out beyond our immediate community to embrace the neighborhood, the city, the nation, the whole earth community.
Francis and Creation
The incarnational focus of the Franciscan tradition mandates respect for creation, usually expressed in terms of Francis’ love for animals and the very popular pet blessings on St. Francis Day (October 4). However, in these times of climate crisis and environmental degradation, we know that our relationship with creation requires much more of us than loving our pets. In an era in which we are trying desperately to get beyond old models of exploitation of the earth, Francis’ vision of the kinship and harmony of all creation moves us even beyond responsible stewardship into relationship with nature. One of the very appealing things about Francis was the way he encountered God in nature and the incredible joy he took in each created being. Francis has been declared to be the patron saint of ecology. The 1982 Marvel Comic book that came out for the 800th anniversary of Francis’ birth refers to Francis as “Brother of the Universe.” The best known of Francis’ writings is his famous “Canticle of the Sun,” the earliest poem written in vernacular Italian.
My Lord be praised by brother sun
who through the skies his course doth run,
and shines in brilliant splendor:
with brightness he doth fill the day,
and signifies thy boundless sway.
My Lord be praised by sister moon,
and all the stars, that with her soon
will point the glittering heavens.
Let wind and air and cloud and calm
and weathers all, repeat the psalm.
HISTORY OF THE COMMUNITY OF ST. FRANCIS
The Community of St. Francis was founded in 1905 by Sr. Rosina Rice, a Sister of Bethany, who was working in a parish in a London slum. Sr. Rosina was inspired by the example of St. Francis in his life of service and solidarity with the poor. The CSF Sisters' first work was in Hull, in the midlands of England, where they ministered to dock workers, seamen and their families. They visited the sick and looked after children while their mothers worked.
In 1908 they moved to St. Philip's, Dalston, East London, a lower middle class and poor parish where they worked for 32 years. They lived a life of poverty, prayer and service. They sat with the sick at night, often leading the Office for the Departed. The Sisters earned their living by taking in laundry. Mother Rosina and five other sisters left the community in 1910 to join the Roman Catholic church, but under the leadership of Sr. Helen Elizabeth the community continued to grow.
The economic difficulties after World War I and the Great Depression in the 1930s found many men without jobs. The Sisters responded by turning part of their house into a guest house for "wayfarers." They collected food, clothing and money and they set up a candy-making business to support the ministry with the homeless men. This era of ministry ended with the increase of employment that accompanied World War II.
In 1920 the community inherited the house next door to the convent and opened a home for "incurable and bedridden" women. The years of parish ministry with the sick and dying made this an obvious choice of ministry. In 1962 urban renewal plans in London called for the demolition of the area of the convent so the community moved to the country. Their new home was the Old Manor House at the small Somerset village of Compton Durville. There they rebuilt the Home for Elderly Women, converted an old barn into a guest house and began a ministry of hospitality for retreats and conferences.
1974 Arrival in America - the Bishop’s Ranch, Diocese of California with SSF Brothers and Bishop Kilmer Myers and his wife.
In the late 1960s CSF began branching out. Sisters went to Zambia to work at a leprosarium, others opened a retreat house in central England (Newcastle-under-Lyme), others took over the management of a hostel for young girls living on the streets of Birmingham, and yet others returned to various works in London.
Ten years into the 21st millennium the Sisters moved away from Compton Durville to live in several smaller houses scattered around England.
CSF In America
In 1974 four Sisters came to San Francisco to found the American Province of CSF. From time to time the Sisters in the US have lived and worked elsewhere (notably running a ministry for migrant farmworkers in Brentwood, CA, and an urban house in Bethlehem, PA); however, the main work has been in San Francisco.
The initial ministries of the Sisters in San Francisco were Meals-on-Wheels, Southeast Asian refugee resettlement, Latin American immigrant ministry, an after-school tutoring program for disadvantaged children, hospital ministry, chaplaincy to the Port of San Francisco, and volunteer work with the local church.
At various times the original CSF ministry with the sick has been manifested in the form of hospital chaplaincy, home health care, and The Family Link, a hospitality ministry for the loved ones of people with AIDS and other life-threatening illnesses. The old ministry with "wayfarers" finds its new incarnation as work with the homeless in San Francisco, especially through involvement with a local soup kitchen and food pantries as well as the Care Through Touch ministry of chair massage with homeless and marginalized people. In addition to these caring ministries with the poor and needy, the Sisters offer retreats, spiritual direction and a small guest ministry.