The Mendicant Calling

Tom Whelan OSA, this summer during the first convocation of the four, English-speaking, North-American provinces pointed out in his homily that the spirituality of the Order is as diverse and eclectic as its origins. Fr. Tom explained that the three major sources of life that brought the Augustinian way of life and spirituality as we know it today are St. Augustine and his rule, the hermitages from which the order was brought about, and the mendicant friar tradition into which we were brought into by Popes Innocent IV and Alexander IV. You can read Tom Whelan OSA's homily here.

As a novice in a Mendicant order, and one that will probably experience changes in the future, I think it is important to think about the roots of the Mendicant tradition in order to envision the future. Here are some historical considerations:

I believe that in a way the Mendicant movement surprised the Church. Perhaps it was something unexpected -at least for the hierarchy. Medieval Europe was a culture in which the clergy and the rich had the upper hand in society, and when the Mendicant movement started it was a lay movement that embraced poverty. Since this movement had no formal recognition from the Church at first beyond a blessing, and its contact with Church hierarchy was not always smooth, it is not surprising that some of the first mendicants became heretical. The most well known of these heretical groups were the Waldensians and the Cathari, which could have existed already in the 12th and 11th centuries.

The first Mendicant Order, St. Francis' Friars Minor, did not come until 1210, and tradition says that Pope Innocent III would not have approved it without a dream in which God told him that Francis would be a support for the whole Church. Thanks be to God that the Church finally recognized the needs of the time, and the Mendicant orders served as a proper outlet or way of life for people who felt called to identify with the poor in a time when the rich and the nobility had a say in society.

The Mendicant movement was flexible enough to grow into accomodating the other emerging needs of the time, such as in matters of studies. Today Thomistic theology, which in many aspects rests on Aristotelian philosophy, was revolutionary in the 13th century. The church was at first quite hesitant of Aristotle's philosophy, and yet, thanks to the genius of St. Thomas, it came to in some ways compatible, and even helpful (with some variances of course).

The Augustinians around the first half of the 13th century were not yet part of the Mendicant movement. They were hermits who lived in communities in the countryside of Italy, and other parts of Europe. It was thanks to Popes Innocent IV and Alexander IV, that different erimitical and monastic communities were united into one group, and were given the new identity of a Mendicant Order. This procedural aspect of this transition started in 1243 and was finalized in 1256, but the new Order took some time in to develop into the Mendicant way of life to which it was called by the Holy See.

From these considerations, two things come to mind.

1) I think that Mendicants, and in a sense all religious by way of their vow of poverty, have a mission to stand as a witness against the culture of consumerism.

2) I think that Mendicants are called by our history to pay attention to our society, our culture, our Church. Are there elements, movements, desires, that we as a Church have disregarded? In the time of St. Francis, it was the desire for simplicity and poverty. In the time of St. Thomas it was Aristotle. Whatever they are in our time, perhaps we need to acknowledge them, own them, and present them to the Lord for redemption.

Carlos J. Medina