First Order
The union of 1897 still furthur reduced the number of provinces, by amalgamation all the convents of the same district into one province.
The whole order is now divided into twelve circumscriptions, each of which embraces several provinces, districts, or countries.
1. The first circumscription includes Rome, Umbria, the March of Ancona, and Bologna, and contains 4 provinces of the order, 112 convents, and 1443 friars.
2. The second embraces Tuscany and Northern italy and contains 8 provinces, 138 convents, and 2038 religious.
3. The third comprises Southern Italy and Naples (except Calabria), with 4 provinces, 93 convents, and 1063 religious.
4. The fourth includes Sicily, Calabria, and Malta, and has 7 provinces, 85 convents, and 1045 religious.
5. The fifth embraces the Tyrol, Carinthia, Dalmatia, Bosnia, Albania, and the Holy Land, with 9 provinces, 282 convents and 1792 religious.
6. The sixth comprises Vienna, Hungary, Transylvania, Croatia, Galicia, and Bohemia, with 7 provinces, 160 convents, and 1458 friars.
7. The seventh, which in numerically the strongest, includes Germany, Holland, and Belgium, with 7 provinces, 129 convents and 2553 religious.
8. The eighth comprises France, Corsica, Great Britain, and Canada, with 7 provinces, 63 convents, and 975 religious.
9. The ninth comprises Portugal and Northern Spain with 5 provinces, 39 convents, and 1124 religious.
10. The tenth embraces Southern Spain and the Philippines, with 4 provinces, 48 houses, and 910 religious.
11. The eleventh includes Central and South America, with 12 provinces, 97 convents, and 1298 members.
12. The twelfth comprises Mexico and the United States, with 7 provinces (including the Polish commissariate at Pulaski, Wisconsin), 167 convents, and 1195 religious.
In 1905 the Franciscans numbered 16,842 and their convents 1373.
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- This is the picture of the Church of St. John of Dukla in Zhytomir, which belongs to Franciscans.
- The statistical information about the Orders, the number of the members, the territories where they are spread is maintained in the section about the Orders.
- About the founded of the Order of St. Francis and St. Clare read in the section «Personalities»
- All illustrations in the site (in the text, in design) are gathered in the section «Miscellanies > Illustrations»
The lines from the text on the picture were taken from the hymns or from the prayers of St. Francis. Read them. Francis wrote them, looking at the environment. He found the hand of the God in everything.
