The Society of Saint Francis is a Franciscan religious order within the Anglican Communion.
During the English Reformation all Religious Orders, including Franciscans, were banished from Britain. Not until the mid 19th century were the first Sisterhoods founded in the Church of England, in response to the social needs of the time. Then came a revival of interest in Francis. The Community of St Francis (CSF) was founded in 1905 with sisters living...
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The Society of Saint Francis is a Franciscan religious order within the Anglican Communion.
During the English Reformation all Religious Orders, including Franciscans, were banished from Britain. Not until the mid 19th century were the first Sisterhoods founded in the Church of England, in response to the social needs of the time. Then came a revival of interest in Francis. The Community of St Francis (CSF) was founded in 1905 with sisters living in poverty and working in the East End of London.
Shortly after World War I, the Revd Douglas Downes, an economics don at Oxford University, and a few friends expressed their sympathy and concern for victims of the depression practically by going out onto the roads and sharing the life of the homeless men and boys, looking for work from town to town. In 1921, a Dorset landowner, Lord Sandwich, offered a small farm property (now Hilfield Friary), and here the group of friends was able to offer shelter to the exhausted wayfarers and others in...
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