The Secular Franciscan Order has its origins in the thirteenth century, when lay people expressed the desire to follow in the footsteps of St. Francis of Assisi, its founder and source of inspiration. At the beginning of its history it is recognized by the Church as brothers and sisters of penance. Pope Gregory IX on May 20, 1221 approves the first Rule "Memoriale Propositi" with the first denomination Order of Penance. On August 18, 1289, the Franciscan Pope Nicolas IV, with the Bull Supra Montem, recognized Saint Francis as the founder of the Order of Penance and called it the Third Order of Saint Francis.
In the eighteenth century the Third Order was hard hit with the suppression of the Order decreed by Joseph II, Napoleon and others. With the French Revolution, the third ones saw themselves weakened and paid with their own life their fidelity to the Church. In the second half of the nineteenth century the Third Order resurfaced with new force, making use of the printed and great personalities, and many saints. Pope Leo XIII with the Constitution Misericors Dei Filius promulgated a new Rule in 1884. He placed in the Order his hopes and preferences and warmly exhorted them to spread it everywhere, and again the Order flourished. In 1966 the Sacred Congregation of Religious granted the Third Order the "faculty of updating itself".
thanks to the untiring work of Br. Mateus Hoepers, OFM who worked for the unification of obedience and brother Paulo Machado da Costa e Silva, in the elaboration of the Rule until the reform of the General Constitutions on an experimental basis. The greatest event of the renewal of the SFO was the appearance of the renewed Rule confirmed by Paul VI on June 24, 1978. This Rule was elaborated by Secular Franciscans of all Countries in short, simple, profoundly evangelical and legitimately Franciscan texts, having the main characteristic of secularity. And since then the Third Order was renamed Secular Franciscan Order. "Love, study, and live, this new Rule," Pope John Paul II recommended.
Today the SFO is an organic union of all Catholic Fraternities spread throughout the world and open to all Catholic groups and faithful (young, single, married). In them, brothers and sisters, impelled by the Spirit to reach the perfection of charity in their own secular state, are engaged by the Profession to live the Gospel in the manner of St. Francis and by a Rule confirmed by the Church.
In Brazil, the SFO is historically linked to the Friars of the first Order and covers the entire national territory. It is organized in sixteen Regions, with about 582 Fraternities, and approximately 18,000 Secular Franciscans throughout the country. In the world the SFO is present in 72 countries with about 430,000 professed Secular Franciscans and more than 50,000 registered Franciscan Youth (Franciscan Youth) present in over one hundred countries on five continents.
