Minister general is the term used for the head or

superior general A superior general or general superior is the leader or head of an 'order' of religious persons (nuns, priests, friars, etc) or, in other words, of a 'religious institute' in the Catholic Church, and in some other Christian denominations. The super ...

of the different branches of the

Order of Friars Minor The Order of Friars Minor (commonly called the Franciscans, the Franciscan Order, or the Seraphic Order; Post-nominal letters, postnominal abbreviation OFM) is a Mendicant orders, mendicant Catholic religious order, founded in 1209 by Francis ...

. It is a term exclusive to the order and comes directly from its founder, St.

Francis of Assisi Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone ( 1181 – 3 October 1226), known as Francis of Assisi, was an Italians, Italian Mysticism, mystic, poet and Friar, Catholic friar who founded the religious order of the Franciscans. Inspired to lead a Chris ...

Terminology

Francis chose the word "minister" over "superior" out of his vision that the brothers of the Order were all to be equal, and that the

friar A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders in the Catholic Church. There are also friars outside of the Catholic Church, such as within the Anglican Communion. The term, first used in the 12th or 13th century, distinguishes the mendi ...

supervising his brothers was to be a servant ("minister") who cared for ( ministered to) them, not one who lorded over them. The original term is ''minister generalis'' in Latin and is found in Chapter 8 of the

Rule of Saint Francis Francis of Assisi founded three orders and gave each of them a special rule. Here, only the rule of the first order is discussed, i.e., that of the Order of Friars Minor. Origin and contents of the rule Origin Whether St. Francis wrote several ...

. In his lifetime, Francis actively employed the term "minister" to refer to the heads of the various communities of friars who by then were already scattered around Europe. The term is sometimes written as "general minister", but "minister general" is the official form in the English language, in keeping with other official titles.

Third Order

In the 20th century, the term also came to be used as well by many

religious congregation A religious congregation is a type of Religious institute (Catholic), religious institute in the Catholic Church. They are legally distinguished from Religious order (Catholic), religious orders – the other major type of religious institute – i ...

s of the Third Order of St. Francis, in the effort to follow more closely the spirit of the founder of their Order.

References

{{Catholic-Church-stub

Terminology

Third Order

See also

References