About the Capuchins
 St Francis and the Capuchin Beginnings
Francis embraced sister death on October 3rd, 1226 after saying to the friars
kneeling around him: "I have done my part; may Christ teach you yours".
The followers of Francis have struggled, almost from the beginning, with
the twofold need to accept required changes and to preserve the principles
on which
the Franciscan family was founded.
Often, during the eight centuries of Franciscan history, groups of friars,
usually with the blessing of the Church, have joined efforts in renewing
the Order by more closely striving to imitate the spirit and life of Francis.
In
fact, by 1897, such reform movements had split the friars into six separate
branches.
It was then that Pope Leo XIII reduced their number to three, by leaving
independent the two extremes, the Capuchins and the Conventuals and joining
the other four
into a branch known simply as the Franciscans.
 The CAPUCHIN REFORM had begun through the personal efforts at renewal
by Matthew Serafini from Bascio (Italy) in 1525. The split between
Conventuals and the
Observants had no sooner become permanent in 1517, than Matthew and
other Observant friars set out to take the reform a step further by simplifying
the structure
of the community and returning to the concept of small hermitages and
wandering
preachers. The resulting Capuchin reform obtained its charter from
the
Pope on 3rd July, 1528.
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