VATICAN CITY (CNS): About 1800 Franciscan friars from all over the world were to have converged on the Umbrian hill town of Assisi, Italy, in the past few days to celebrate the 800th anniversary of papal approval of the Franciscan rule.
For the first time, representatives from the four main Franciscan branches were to meet in Assisi – the birthplace of their founder, St Francis – to take part in an International Chapter of Mats from April 15-18.
A Chapter of Mats gets its name from the time in 1221 when St Francis called more than 3000 friars to the Portiuncula chapel in Assisi for a general meeting or chapter.
Minister general of the Order of Friars Minor Fr Jose Rodriguez Carballo said that, because the small town could not accommodate the large number of visitors, the friars lived in huts made out of reeds and slept on mats.
The three other Franciscan groups participating are the Capuchins, the Conventual Franciscans and the Third Order Regular Franciscans.
The chapter falls on the 800th anniversary of the formal founding of the Franciscan order when St Francis presented his rule to Pope Innocent III for approval in 1209.
During a press conference on April 7 at Vatican Radio, Fr Rodriguez underlined the spiritual nature of the gathering and said organisers hoped it would be an occasion for “coming together as a family, offering the Church and the world our witness of brotherhood and celebrating our beginnings”.
Men and women religious would have an occasion to profess their continued fidelity to the pope when they met with Pope Benedict XVI on April 18 during a special audience at Castel Gandolfo, he said.
St Francis, who was born to a wealthy family in Assisi sometime around 1181, dedicated himself to the poor and preached living a way of peace. He founded three religious orders – the Friars Minor, the Poor Clares, and the Brothers and Sisters of Penance – giving each one a special rule.
