Who We Are

The Province

The Franciscan Order today, as in Francis' time, is divided into provinces, which are normally defined by geographic boundaries such as country or parts of a country.

A province provides a variety of fraternal communities and apostolic ministries within an organizational structure that promotes order and well being. A province is the "home" for an individual Franciscan where he finds brothers who share his ideals and values, communities, which help him to seek God through prayer, meditation and interaction with others, and ministries through which he helps to build up both Church and world.

Holy Name Province (the largest group of friars in the U.S.), with its Provincialate in New York City, serves primarily the eastern coast of the U.S. in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. We also serve as missionaries in Africa, Asia and South America.

Our U.S. roots began with the arrival of Franciscan missionaries from Italy in 1855 and Germany in 1876 in the territory that was to become the Holy Name Province. In 1901, those early foundations were regrouped and our Province was formally established with 113 members.

With just over 400 members today, our Province is very much typical of the American melting pot. Our membership includes whites and blacks, and backgrounds such as Irish, German, Italian, Polish, other Slavic nationalities, French, Hispanics, Brazilian, Asian and Jewish.

Holy Name is very much characterized by innovative service. We introduced the first "Printers Mass" in the U.S. (a 2 a.m. Mass for newspaper printers in New York City), the concept of the "service church" (a downtown church for providing frequent sacraments, adult education and others services for workers, shoppers, commuters, et al.), and the oldest continuing breadline in the U.S. at St. Francis Church in New York City. We have also been responsible for The Catholic Almanac (the standard annual reference work about the Catholic Church), The Anthonian magazine, The Cord, Franciscan Studies and the St. Francis postage stamp issued by the U.S. Postal Service in 1982.

Our identity as a Province, however, comes not so much from what we have done, but from what we believe. Our Provincial Minister and his Council recently expressed our beliefs in these terms:

"As a local Church we believe that Holy Name Province can offer the wider Church a true gift through our internal and external life. Our internal life is marked by three characteristics. First, a sense of trust among members, whereby we presume good intentions, not self-seeking motives behind another's actions; we find understanding, not judgment, when weakness is found; we experience encouragement, not cynicism, when dreams are are shared. Second, a spirit of collaboration, whereby Provincial leadership works with local leadership, providing both support and challenge, while local leaders work with their communities in advancing Franciscan life. Third, our internal life is characterized by a shared spiritual life, so that our common life is shaped by a desire to become even more Christ-like and not merely similar in dress, recreation and friendships.

"A Church without a sense of mission is not a Church at all. Here, too, we believe that Holy Name Province can offer itself as an example to other local Churches and the universal Church. The three priorities of our external life call us to promote ministry of lay Catholic men and women in the Church and especially in the world, to intensify our commitment to the social teaching of the Catholic tradition in matters of justice and peace, and to reach out to the alienated in our society, particularly the religiously alienated.

"With this vision, we believe we can enter the future with the same confidence that we have had in the past about the distinctive role that Franciscans bring to both the American nation and the Roman Catholic Church."