This Month in Provincial History

Maria Hayes Features

Notable events for the month of August include:

One Year Ago
Aug. 21 to 25, 2017 – The provincial ministers of the Franciscan provinces of Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Holy Name, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Sacred Heart, St. Barbara and St. John the Baptist voted unanimously to place before simultaneous chapters of their six provinces in May 2018 a resolution requesting that the General Minister and his Definitorium restructure their fraternal governance so as to create one new province. (This May, each of the six provinces voted in favor of the creation of one new province, a restructuring and revitalization process that will take years to complete.)

Five Years Ago
Aug. 24, 2013 – Friars and laypeople joined the tens of thousands of people who gathered on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. The rally called attention to the racial inequality still faced by many Americans.

10 Years Ago
Aug. 23, 2008 – The historic Church of St. Francis of Assisi in Manhattan completed its restoration work, including the repairing of cracked walls and broken plaster, and the repair of the cracks in its Great Mosaic. The sanctuary also received a new tabernacle – one that was once housed in St. Joseph Seraphic Seminary in Callicoon, N.Y.

15 Years Ago
Aug. 1, 2003 – Care of St. Joseph’s Parish in West Milford, N.J., was returned to the Diocese of Paterson, N.J., after 123 years of Franciscan ministry.

Aug. 18, 2003 – The Provincial Offices were relocated from West 32nd Street to temporary facilities on West 27th Street in Manhattan. (Today they are located at 129 West 31st Street, in a building that opened in 2007.

25 Years Ago
Aug. 11, 1993 – Franciscan religious and laypeople gathered at St. Bonaventure Church in Paterson, N.J., to mark the opening celebration of the 800th anniversary of the birth of St. Clare of Assisi.

— Maria Hayes is communications coordinator for Holy Name Province.

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