Franziskaner OFM#

Franciscans (OFM = Ordo Fratrum Minorum), mendicant order following the rule of St. Francis of Assisi (1181/82-1226), since 1517 (split into Friars Minor Conventual, often called Minoriten in the German-speaking countries, and Franciscans) an independent order, from which the Friars Minor Capuchin separated in 1619. The Franciscans currently resident in Austria developed from what were called the Observants, who laid more stress on poverty than the Conventuals. The first monastery of Observants in Austria was founded by Johannes von Capistran in Vienna in 1451. A year later a Province of the order with monasteries in what were then Austria, Styria, Bohemia, Moravia and Poland was founded. This Province later gave rise to the Franciscan Provincialate of Eastern Austria (Vienna, Lower Austria, Styria and Burgenland), which persists to this day. The Franciscan Provincialate of Tirol, which also continues to this day, was established in 1580 (now comprises Tirol, Salzburg, Upper Austria and Carinthia) In 1930 the Tirolean Franciscans were put in charge of the Jesuit mission at Chiquitos in Bolivia, where they continue to operate a social development programme.