Province History

The Conventual Franciscan Friars are part of the world-wide Franciscan family founded by St. Francis of Assisi in 13th century Italy. The first Conventual Friars arrived in the United States in 1852 to help serve the increasing immigrant population. They ministered first in Texas and later in the northeastern United States. The Province of St. Anthony of Padua was founded in 1906, in order to more effectively provide pastoral care for the large number of Polish immigrants who had begun to arrive to the United States during the previous decades.

For the next four decades, the primary ministry of the Province was the pastoral care and education of Polish communities in the Buffalo-Boston-Baltimore triangle. In the late 1940's, ministry expanded in the area of evangelization, overseas in the Amami Oshima islands of Japan, and domestically in Alabama among the African-American community. The 1950's and '60's saw great expansion of the Province's commitment to secondary high school education.

The changes in American society in the 1960s and '70s saw changes in ministry focus for St. Anthony Province. As the assimilation of Polish immigrants had been virtually accomplished, there was less need for Polish ethnic ministry; the once expanding field of Catholic high school ministry also began to contract. Accordingly, the Province's ministry focus changed, with an evangelization effort in Ghana, West Africa, and increased attention to the growing needs of the southeastern United States. Commitments to specialized domestic evangelization and service efforts were initiated with the establishment of campus ministries, a shelter for run-away youth, a lay ministry formation program, and the founding of the Companions of St. Anthony, an outreach of accompaniment and spiritual support to thousands of American Catholics - creating, in effect, a "church without walls."

Currently the Conventual Franciscan Friars of St. Anthony of Padua Province minister in twenty-one American (arch)dioceses, as well as in Ghana and Kenya (East Africa), Japan, the Philippines, Latin America, in the Order's central administration in Rome, and at the Order's Sacred Convent, the friary and Basilica in Assisi where St. Francis is buried. We continue in the footsteps of Francis of Assisi by living a simple lifestyle in community, and by sharing our Gospel life of joy and peace in our various ministries.

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St. Anthony of Padua Province Provincial House 12300 Folly Quarter Road Ellicott City, MD 21042-1419

410-531-1400 (voice) • 410-531-4881 (fax)