THE MINIM NUNS OF SAINT FRANCIS OF PAOLA

The Minim Nuns

"I AM EXTREMELY PLEASED TO LEARN... HOW MUCH YOU CHERISH YOUR VOCATION. THAT WILL HELP YOU TO BECOME HOLY AND HELP MANY GIRLS TO SANCTIFY THEMSELVES BY IMITATING YOUR EXEMPLARY LIFE... I HOPE IN OUR SAVIOR THAT IN TIME YOU WILL BE LIGHT AND A WAY OF SALVATION FOR MANY OTHER GIRLS."

(LETTER OF ST. FRANCIS TO THE FIRST GROUP OF NUNS AT ANDUJAR)

The "Rule of life" of the Minim Nuns is to aspire to a form of more committed love through a more austere asceticism, specifically marked by a Lenten style, both by tending to a total conversion to God and the primacy conferred to the spiritual dimension as well as to discipline, and a humble and sober style of life. Their prayer life, service and communion is spelled out by the daily profession of the common religious vows corresponding to the evangelical counsels of perfect chastity, voluntary poverty, obedience and typical "Lenten life vow".

The evangelical plan which they live by extends from "pure and continuous oration" expressed in loving attention and interior dialogue and the public prayer of the Church, to evangelical silence, in order to favor meditation and the recovery of inner life.

The Order of the cloistered Minim Nuns is the female branch of the institution founded by St. Francis of Paola. The saint had been in France for some years when some pious young ladies of Andujar, Spain, (María and Frances Valenzuela among them) begged him to give them a "rule of life", for they desired to found a convent and live a life similar to that proposed by Francis to his Minim religious. On July 28, 1506, came the desired pontifical approval of the cloistered Minim Nuns, with the Bull of Julius II "Among others" (inter cœteros) including the text of the desired Rule.
Being separated from the world, it is easier for them to bear in mind the needs of life and the salvation of all. They reserve themselves to Christ, and to Him alone, to be his more fully. That, at the same time, makes them guides of souls in the Spirit, even without knowing it, as the Holy Father John Paul II told them. This way, to the three loves of their life - Jesus and Mary, the Holy Founder, the Church - the Minim Nuns add the whole humanity, in whom and with whom they are walking together with the pilgrim Church in the world.

Open to the breath of the Spirit and willing to contribute with their specific vocation to the building up and developing of God's Kingdom and the local Church, they place their particular experience of contemplative and ascetical life in the flow of the mission of the Church.

Their convents, while respecting their cloistered and contemplative nature, are... transformed into welcoming places where one can learn prayer and penance.

Rule | Informations | Convents

	The Minim Nuns
	"I AM EXTREMELY PLEASED TO LEARN... HOW MUCH YOU CHERISH YOUR VOCATION. THAT WILL HELP YOU TO BECOME HOLY AND HELP MANY GIRLS TO SANCTIFY THEMSELVES BY IMITATING YOUR EXEMPLARY LIFE... I HOPE IN OUR SAVIOR THAT IN TIME YOU WILL BE LIGHT AND A WAY OF SALVATION FOR MANY OTHER GIRLS." (LETTER OF ST. FRANCIS TO THE FIRST GROUP OF NUNS AT ANDUJAR)	The "Rule of life" of the Minim Nuns is to aspire to a form of more committed love through a more austere asceticism, specifically marked by a Lenten style, both by tending to a total conversion to God and the primacy conferred to the spiritual dimension as well as to discipline, and a humble and sober style of life. Their prayer life, service and communion is spelled out by the daily profession of the common religious vows corresponding to the evangelical counsels of perfect chastity, voluntary poverty, obedience and typical "Lenten life vow". The evangelical plan which they live by extends from "pure and continuous oration" expressed in loving attention and interior dialogue and the public prayer of the Church, to evangelical silence, in order to favor meditation and the recovery of inner life.
	The Order of the cloistered Minim Nuns is the female branch of the institution founded by St. Francis of Paola. The saint had been in France for some years when some pious young ladies of Andujar, Spain, (María and Frances Valenzuela among them) begged him to give them a "rule of life", for they desired to found a convent and live a life similar to that proposed by Francis to his Minim religious. On July 28, 1506, came the desired pontifical approval of the cloistered Minim Nuns, with the Bull of Julius II "Among others" (inter cœteros) including the text of the desired Rule.	Being separated from the world, it is easier for them to bear in mind the needs of life and the salvation of all. They reserve themselves to Christ, and to Him alone, to be his more fully. That, at the same time, makes them guides of souls in the Spirit, even without knowing it, as the Holy Father John Paul II told them. This way, to the three loves of their life - Jesus and Mary, the Holy Founder, the Church - the Minim Nuns add the whole humanity, in whom and with whom they are walking together with the pilgrim Church in the world.
		Open to the breath of the Spirit and willing to contribute with their specific vocation to the building up and developing of God's Kingdom and the local Church, they place their particular experience of contemplative and ascetical life in the flow of the mission of the Church. Their convents, while respecting their cloistered and contemplative nature, are... transformed into welcoming places where one can learn prayer and penance.

	Rule \| Informations \| Convents