Assisi's Three Orders Analysis

His rule included new ideologies and virtues regarding the Rule for monks and the Role of the Abbot. In 1209 a new religious order was approved by the Pope Innocent III. This order was founded and ruled by Francis of Assisi, 1182-1226, which was one of the three orders of Saint Francis. The First Order, regarded as Order of Friars Minor or simply “Franciscans” are mendicant men, people who practice and live in poverty. The Second Order, the Poor Clares, are the religious sisters of order or nuns. The Third, which is arguably the most important/influential and no doubt made up the largest composition of the order was called the Third Order of Saint Francis which included lay men and women who were referred to as tertiaries. Tertiaries do not …show more content…
Benedictine vows include stability, chastity and obedience and Franciscan vows include a life of poverty (mendicants), chastity, and obedience. It is very important to notice that both Orders share the same two vows, chastity and obedience. Chastity being giving up all sexual experiences and obedience being that desire and call to those desires are to be held back and that Gods will be the only desires they should listen to. Franciscans do not believe that their life should be spent confined in a monastery but rather out in the real world living a life of poverty. Their poverty is vital to their virtues because the world they lived in was ripe with uncontrollable materialism and consumerism, hence the cash nexus. Benedictines were also concerned with poverty but not to the extent of the Franciscans. They held obedience in a higher light than poverty and believed that pride was a root of evil and should be combated with a life of humility obtained through the full devotion of God through the abbot, who carried out Gods wishes. A life of humility also included daily prayer, work, study and it was through this way of cultivated discipline that Benedictines could please God and ultimately get into