Capuchin Franciscans
Who We Are
What a Capuchin Franciscan actually is, and how the friars came to be in New Zealand.
The word “friar” comes from the Latin frater — brother. Before anything else, that is what a Capuchin is. Every man who joins is a brother. Some of those brothers go on to be ordained as priests, and are then called Fr rather than Br, but both are friars, both took the same vows, and neither rank makes one man more or less a brother to the others. A Br is not a priest, and should never be described as one.
Where it starts
The Franciscan family begins with Francis of Assisi. In 1209 Pope Innocent III gave oral approval to the way of life Francis proposed. A written Rule followed in 1223, confirmed in the bull Solet annuere. Francis called his brothers the Friars Minor — the lesser brothers.
The Capuchin reform
By the sixteenth century, some friars felt the Order had drifted from what Francis had intended. In 1525, in the Marches of Italy, a group of them set out to return to stricter prayer and stricter poverty. Pope Clement VII approved them in 1528, in the bull Religionis zelus.
They did not name themselves Capuchins. The people did. It came from cappuccio, the long pointed hood the friars wore, and the name stuck. From Italy the reform spread across Europe from 1574 onward.
The Martyrs of Charity
When the Black Death swept through Europe, many people fled the sick. Capuchin friars stayed and nursed the dying. Over 2,000 of them died doing it. The Order still remembers them as the Martyrs of Charity — brothers who kept the vow of charity when it cost them their lives.
Two foundations: prayer and fraternity
Everything in Capuchin life rests on two things held together. Prayer, because the friars exist for God first. Fraternity, because Francis never intended a life of solitary holiness — the brothers live, pray, and work together. Each friar also professes three vows: poverty, chastity, and obedience. These are not abstractions but the daily shape of the life — owning nothing individually, remaining unmarried and celibate, and placing his own plans under the discernment of the community.
Capuchins in New Zealand
Brothers have lived and served in this country since 1958, when Cardinal McKeefry invited the Capuchins to Wellington. Two friars took up residence that year: Br Matthias Murphy, appointed chaplain to Victoria University, and Br Agathangelus Herlihy, appointed Parish Priest of Northland-Kelburn Parish. Since then, friars from Ireland, the Philippines, Indonesia, and India have ministered here, and three Irish friars who died while serving in New Zealand are buried in this country. Today, oversight of the friars here rests with the St Fidelis Province of North India, following a decision at the Pacific-Asia Capuchin Conference in 2016.
Around 10,500 brothers worldwide
Today there are roughly 10,500 Capuchin friars around the world, all tracing their life back to the same reform of 1525 and the same Rule of Francis. In New Zealand that same life is lived out in three small communities, under the same motto and the same greeting every Capuchin fraternity shares.
The friars here
These are some of the brothers living and serving in New Zealand.
Pax et Bonum — Peace and all good.
My God and My All.