The Franciscan Tau Symbol

 

The Franciscan symbol of the "crossed arms" depicts the arms of Jesus and Francis crossed over the Tau, both bearing the imprint of the Crucifixion nails. Francis' arm is enclosed in the sleeve of his habit. It is a celebration of that remarkable gift of grace which St. Francis received on Mt. Alverna, September 17th - the Stigmata ... the bearing in his own body of the marks of his crucified Lord.

Just before he died on October 3rd, Francis stretched out his arms over his brothers in the form of a CROSS and blessed them in the power, and in the name of their crucified Lord. Then he told them, "I have done what was mine to do; may Christ teach you what is yours."

So we consider this symbol of our Franciscan life a true expression of the life of St. Francis, as well as a reminder to us of our own Christian call and sincerity of response.

THE TAU AS OUR FRANCISCAN SYMBOL

Where did the Tau come from and what does it mean? (Rhymes with "How") Simply and basically, the Tau represents the Cross. It is also the last letter of the Hebrew Alphabet. However, the two major influences on Francis concerning the TAU were the Antonians and the Fourth Lateran Council.

St. Francis borrowed the Tau and what it meant to him from the Antonians. They were a religious community of men founded in 1095 whose sole function was to care for lepers. They were disbanded as an Order by the Church in the 1500's because leprosy was no longer a problem and many of the religious orders had fallen into Theological problems. On their habit was painted a great Tau cross. Francis was very familiar with these men because they staffed the leper house in Assisi and the hospital of St. Blase in Rome where Francis went to stay. This is now the church of San Francisco A Ripa.

Every time you see St. Anthony, "the Abbot or Hermit" in art, he is portrayed with the Tau.

St. Francis was exposed to the Tau through the direct influence of the Antonians, but the greatest influence of all that made the Tau so dear to Francis, whereby it became his signature, was the Fourth Lateran Council.

Pope Innocent III opened the Council on November 11, 1215, with these words: "I have desired with great desire to eat this Pasover with you." (Luke 22-15.) Innocent announced that for him, for the Church, and for every Catholic at the time, the symbol they were to take as the sign of their Passover was the Tau Cross.

He incorporated into his homily the statement from Ezekiel (9:4) that the elect, the chosen, those who are concerned will be marked with the sign of the Tau. He explained that this Passover is a three-fold Passover.

Every Catholic must be involved in this triple Passover: A Corporal Passover, a Spiritual Passover and an Eternal Passover.

These became some of the most precious themes of Francis' preaching. He must have taken them so deeply to heart that when Pope Innocent III ended his homily with "Be champions of the Tau", Francis evidently took that as a personal statement and made the Tau his own symbol: a symbol for his order, his signature, painted it everywhere, and had great devotion to it for the rest of his life.

(National Secular Franciscan Newsletter)

 

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Click on this statement and explanation by the National Council of Catholic Bishops
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Franciscan Hierarchy
How the Secular Franciscan Order fits into the hierarchy of Franciscan Orders of the Church

Within 50 years of St. Francis's foundation, the order had a very strong wing of zealots : the Spirituals, who advocated absolute poverty, thus deploring the convents or any settled life. They allied themselves with the anarchical monks who were preaching the teachings of Joachim of Fiore. St. Bonaventure tried to reconcile the factions of the order, but the Spirituals grew stronger and saw one of their heroes made pope as St. Celestine V. His abdication made their agitation one of the major social and religious problems of Italy. So far as the order was concerned, John XXII settled (1322) the matter by putting the Franciscans on a level with every other order with respect to owning property corporately. He also put a stop (1323) to a Franciscan boast that their way was more nearly perfect than any other. However, within the order there still remained a desire for reform, and in the following years a movement developed toward restoring primitive practice. The friars of this tendency (Observants) gained recognition within the order and eventually were made independent (1517) by Leo X. Soon afterward a movement among the Observants established the Capuchins (1525) as a still stricter adherence to the rule. All the Franciscan orders have shared in home and foreign missions; the Franciscans were in many parts of America the dominant missionaries. They have had a continuous role in education and were leaders in medieval university life. They have had a major place in preaching among Catholics: from them come the Stations of the Cross and the Christmas Crib. Since the 15th cent. the Observants have been charged with the care of Roman Catholic interests in the Holy Places in Palestine.

Besides the friars, the Franciscans include the Poor Clares, the order of nuns founded by St. Clare, and more than one million members of the third order now known as the Secular Franciscan Order, an order consisting of both men and women, some of whom live in communities and many of whom live in the world. There are scores of religious communities of sisters of every sort of charitable mission who are regular Franciscan tertiaries. Of canonized and beatified saints, far more have been Franciscans than members of any other order. The best-known of them is perhaps St. Anthony of Padua. The Franciscans were called Gray Friars. Their habit is now typically brown.

So, Franciscans are members of several Roman Catholic religious orders and Lay Institutes. Incidentally, the OFM are the 2nd largest Order of the Church.

FIRST ORDER:        Friars Minor (OFM)
                                    Friars Minor Capuchin (OFM Cap.) (Site under construction)
                                    Friars Minor Conventual (OFM Conv.)
                                   

There are also some 20th Century friars such as:

    Franciscan Friars of the Renewal (CFR)

SECOND ORDER:    Order of Poor Clares (OSC)

The Second Order also includes numerous Franciscan sister orders. Some of these in the USA are:

THIRD ORDER:

The Third Order consists of the Third Order Regular, and the Third Order Secular, except that the Third Order Secular, has its own hierarchy because they number a million and growing. Members (friars) from the OFM, OFM Cap., OFM Conv., and TOR attempt to provided Althius Moderamen (Spiritual Assistence) to fraternities of the Secular Franciscan Order (formerly the Third Order Secular) but since the SFO in numbers far exceed the aforementioned friar orders, this is very difficult.

The Secular Franciscan Order's hierarchical structure begins, of course, in Rome, with the International Fraternity, led by the newly-elected General Minister, Encarnacio'n del Pozo, SFO.

Each nation in which the SFO has some activity then has a National Fraternity, and for us in the USA, we also have a National Fraternity (NAFRA)

Under the National Fraternity, because as a nation the United States is so large, there are a number of Regional Fraternities. For example, the region in which Divine Mercy Secular Franciscan Fraternity finds itself is the Five Franciscan Martyrs' Region which encompasses all of the State of Florida.

We hope this will give those who are discerning about entering the SFO, some oversight how to find a fraternity near your residence.

    Dear Lord:
       Every single evening
       As I'm lying here in bed
       This tiny little prayer
       Keeps running through my head.
       God bless all my family
       Wherever they may be,
       Keep them warm and safe from harm
       For they're so close to me.
       And God, there is one more thing
       I wish that you could do.
       Hope you don't mind me asking,
       Bless my computer too.
       Now I know that it's not normal
       To bless a mother board,
       But listen just a second
       While I explain to you 'My Lord.'
       You see, that little metal box
       Holds more than odds & ends
       Inside those small compartments
       Rest so many of my FRIENDS.
       I know so much about them
       By the kindness that they give
       And this little scrap of metal
       Takes me in to where they live.
       By faith is how I know them
       Much the same as you
       We share in what life brings us
       And from that our friendship grew.
       Please, take an extra minute
       From your duties up above
       To bless those in my address book
       That's filled with so much love!
       Wherever else this prayer may reach
       To each and every friend,
       bless each e-mail Inbox
       And the person who hits Send.
       When you update your heavenly list
       On your own CD-ROM
       Remember each who've said this prayer
       Sent up to God. Com. Amen.
 

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