New Stamp from Portugal.....

Eight hundred years of Franciscan Order

Date of Issue - 11 March 2009

Hi ! In today's post here is the recent stamp issued by Portugal on 11 March 2009 "Eight hundred years of the Franciscan Order". What attracted me to make this stamp for today's Post is the lovely innocent dog shown on this stamp. Though the stamp is on religion theme and related with the history of Portugal. But this nice stamp can also be included in pet's theme. As I have my own pet dog I am always fascinated to see this innocent creature on stamps though I have not yet prepared a collection on this Man's best friend. To show my love for dogs I am giving here this nice stamp. The stamp shown above has its own history that I am giving below along with the beautiful miniature sheet and FDC issued with this stamp. In the second part of this post some lovely roses which have bloomed these days in my garden. They look so beautiful with the onset of summer season in Kullu. These images are not related with philately, but I just want to share the beauty of these roses which appear on nice images of Roses taken today with all of you as Rose is a flower which attracts every one. But its unfair to put here these images without a philatelic item. So I am showing here a Rose aerogramme of Australia from my collection with the images of Roses from my garden. This is all for today !.....Till next Post ....Have a Nice Time !....

Eight Hundred Years of the Franciscan Order
When turning 25, Francis Bernardon, who had been born in the wealthiest family in Assisi, came to the conclusion that happiness and freedom could only be authentic when inspired in evangelical poverty. And he acted accordingly. With such conversion, the young of Assisi attracted his former companions to his new way of life, and gather twelve followers around the same ideal. In 1209, they all travelled to Rome to beg of Pope Innocent III the approval of their way of life, confirmed in 1223 by Honorius III Bull. The religious institute was henceforth called the Order of the Friars Minor (OFM).

A few years later, in 1212, Clare of Assisi, a noblewoman, tempted by the achievement of her fellow citizen Francis, founded the Order of Poor Ladies. She too succeeded in requesting and gaining the “Privilege of Poverty” from the Pope, through a Rule approved in 1253, although the approval was only achieved on the eve of her death. Thus the Order of Saint Clare (OSC) was created.

In the year 1214, and in view of the growing devotion among the Christian people towards the innovative modality of this evangelic way of living, Francis wrote a letter to all the faithful, inspiring the creation of the Secular Franciscan Order (SOF), which first Rule was approved by the Holy See in 1289. In the 15th century, a movement of life in community, with both male and female branches, grew out of the Third Order. From this movement emerged, in 1521, the Rule of the Third Order Regular (TOR).

The Friars Minor came to Portugal around 1216. One of their first and most notable conquests was Saint Anthony of Lisbon (a. 1190-1231), who found enormous richness in the poverty of the Friar Minors. In 1258, the Nuns of the Order of Saint Clare also settled here, initially in the city of Lamego, but transferred shortly afterwards to Santarém. Also the Third Order of Penitence, founded to congregate all the laypeople who wished to follow the example of Saint Francisco, was exceptionally well accepted by all social classes since the 13th century.

When the Liberal Government decided, in 1834, to extinguish all the Regular Orders, the Order of the Friars Minor held more Religious Houses than all the other Orders together, on the Portuguese Mainland, on Madeira and on the Azores alone.

From 1834 to 1940 the Franciscans remained clandestine, although they continued to work in Portugal as much as they could. In 1891 they restored the Province of Portugal, from the Varatojo Convent. The branch of the Capuchin Friars Minor returned to Portugal in 1939 and the branch of the Friars Minor Conventual a few years later, in 1978. Also the Clarisse Sisters were able to re-emerge, in particular in the 1950’s. The Secular Franciscan Order, precisely because it was secular, was not extinguished in 1834 whereby it could act as an important support to the “egress” friars. The male TOR was not restored, but the female TOR multiplied after 1871, when several Franciscan Sisters’ Congregations of Consecrated Life were created.

Throughout its eight centuries of history, the Franciscan family has always been the one with the greatest number of members and of apostolate work, in Portugal as well as in the rest of the World.

Courtesy - Portugal Post

Thinking of you !

Roses in my Garden

Rose of all Roses, Rose of all the World!You, too, have come where the dim tides are hurledUpon the wharves of sorrow, and heard ringThe bell that calls us on; the sweet far thing. - William Butler Yeats

The red rose whispers of passion, And the white rose breathes of love;O, the red rose is a falcon,And the white rose is a dove. - John Boyle O’Reilly

Which is loveliest in a rose? Its coy beauty when it's budding, or its splendour when it blows? - George Barlow

“Take time to smell the roses"

The world is a rose, smell it and pass it to your friends. -Persian Proverb