“If God can work through me, he can work through anyone.”
-St. Francis of Assisi
We are a group of Catholic Christians, living in community, joining together to praise and honor God, trying to do good in God’s world, using our gifts to help others, being good stewards of all that God has so freely given to us; nothing more and nothing less. Though we come from various walks of life, we have a common devotion to follow St. Francis…together, we make the world a better place.
The Franciscan Friary at Saint Miriam
The Franciscan Friars at Saint Miriam recognize the pain of living in a broken world. We see these wounds within ourselves, in our relationships, in our shared Catholic Church, and even between different faith traditions. Inspired by St. Francis of Assisi, we walk as brothers alongside those who are lost and need God’s healing, and those who seek to deepen their spiritual awareness and adoration of our Creator God. We bring prayer, adoration, and peace within community.
Who are the Friars?
Saint Miriam Friary is part of a wonderfully warm, Franciscan, Old Catholic Parish who live within a convent, or Friary. In other words, we are led by priests who are Conventual Franciscans, or Friars. Within the Universal Catholic Church there is a rich variety of spiritualties. We speak, for instance, of “Benedictine spirituality,” “Dominican spirituality.” or “Franciscan spirituality,” as examples. Our intentional Franciscan spirituality finds itself drawn from Judeo-Christian, Catholic, and Biblical traditions worldwide inspired by St. Francis of Assisi. It is also rooted in the deep Trinitarian theology of our Holy Catholic Church. If you feel a call toward ordained life as a priest or brother, please Contact Us here. There is also a beautiful secular order, Our Third Order, that can be found by Clicking Here. We would welcome your inquiry.
St. Francis, Our Seraphic Father
As Franciscans, we walk in the footsteps of our Lord Jesus Christ. We do so by living and proclaiming the Gospel following the life and example of St. Francis of Assisi, using our God-given talents to serve the poor and marginalized. Would you like to join us on this journey?
The humility and poverty of the Incarnation of Jesus is the model for the Franciscan way of life as an imitation of our Christ, is rooted in theology, and finds its approach as an unconditional welcome to all of God’s creation. The fruit we bear is a greater perfection of love to all who we meet in our journey as Friars with a particular Franciscan emphasis on peace and joy!
What We Seek
The brothers at Saint Miriam Friary seek to encourage others to find the unity God has given them within themselves, in community, with God, and with one another. They seek a unified Catholic Church, global in scope, but welcoming of various interpretations. Through our devotion to St. Francis, our corporal acts of mercy and prayer, coupled with our parish ministries, serve this cause of unity in a variety of ways. The Friars work with individuals through healing and rehabilitation programs. We welcome AA, Recovery, Inc., and AA Sunrise to our parish. Along with our pastoral work through Saint Miriam Parish, we foster a spirit of ecumenism and authentic charity through the children of our preschool and daycare programs, where an inclusive, loving environment welcomes even the poorest among us. Additionally, the Friars are devoted to ecumenism on a global scale, seeking to promote dialogue within the whole of Christianity, and between all religions. Lastly, we care for a historic cemetery and the ‘smallest souls’ among us through our Angels of Assisi Pet Memorial Garden, as well as our dedicated, authentic, orthodox liturgy, but one that is ‘soft’ at its edges to welcome everyone to our God’s Table!
Our Friary Rectory
As Conventual Franciscans, after much prayer and discernment, we built a Friary in the fall 2017 that also serves as a home to our parish priests. Here, within these humble walls, we serve parish, school, cemetery, pet memorial garden, and mankind. While monastic practices and structures in the early Church were very different from what they are today, we have developed in practice an organization that focuses on the ministries of our 12+ acre campus. In the early Church, monasteries played a much more important role with abbots regarded as de facto leaders of the Church. However, within our walls, we govern by consensus, under the protection of our Episcopal oversight.
Our Order, The Order of Saint Francis, Old Catholic, along with our Third Order Franciscans, is a group of men, women and married couples living by vows of Simplicity, Purity, and Fidelity, in communion with our Bishops to further God’s kingdom on earth through Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. We are bound together by a common way of life patterned after St. Francis of Assisi and the Desert Fathers. Our life is founded on the Gospel and rests on the “three great pillars of ancient Christian Monasticism: Prayer, Work and Study.” Yet we are much more. The OSF is an independent Catholic jurisdiction in the tradition of the Old Catholic Church. Maintaining simplicity, we are neither institutionalized nor bureaucratic. Given our conventual orientation, we appreciate God through the eyes of the early Church rather than an institutional church.