(Pictures added) On Wednesday 23, the Provincial Minister, Fr Sandro Overend OFM, was in New York at the invitation of the Immaculate Conception Province (I.C.) for the celebration of the centenary of its foundation. A special Mass was held at St. Anthony of Padua Church, presided by the Minister General Fr. Jose Rodriguez Carballo OFM, the Minister Provincial of the I.C. Province, Fr. Robert Campagna OFM, the Archbishop of New York,  His Eminence Oscar A. Rodriguez Maradiaga S.D.B. Archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Honduras who is also affiliate to the I.C. Province, together with our Franciscan Bishop Msgr. Robert Camilleri OFM, and many friars from the same I.C. Province co-celebrated.

First established as the Custody of the Immaculate Conception in 1861, it was rasied to the status of a Province on Christmas Day, 1910.

Our province has a special fraternal relationship with the I.C. Province due to the fact that we have missionaries from Malta working with the Foundation of the Immaculate Conception Province in Honduras.   These are also: Fr Jimmy Zammit OFM who works within the province in Toronto Canada, and Fr George Bugeja OFM who is presently residing in their Friary in Rome.  Hopefully next year, our students will be joining this same fraternity in Rome, while studying at the St. Anthony’s University.  We send our best wishes for the celebrations of this commemorative centenary while also thanking thank them for receiving our friars.

We promise them our continuous prayers.

A Brief History:

On June 20, 1855, Friar Panfilo da Magliano dei Marsi, the friar-priest who founded the Province of the Immaculate Conception, came to the United States of America and established his first mission in the area of Buffalo, New York. His ministry would produce a university, two Franciscan Provinces, and two groups of Franciscan religious women.

Friar Panfilo had come at the request of the Bishop of Buffalo, John Timon, and a local business man, Nicholas Devereaux, who desired to bring the Franciscans to their diocese and establish a college and seminary there.  They hoped to bring three priests and one lay brother.  For his part, Mr. Devereux would give 200 acres of land and $5,000 to build a monastery.  The bishop would provide the friars with a house near a church where the community would be established.  The first to arrive at this new missionary endeavor were the aforementioned Father Panfilo, along with Father Sixtus da Gagliano, Father Samuel da Prezza, and Brother Salvator da Manarola.  The college and seminary they founded, St. Bonaventure University, continues to prosper today.

On March 1, 1861, this band of brothers would be formed into an official entity of the Franciscan Order as the Custody of the Immaculate Conception was established.  For the next 40 years, St. Bonaventure University would also serve as the Motherhouse of this Custody.

Up until 1880, the members of this Custody were mostly Italian friars.  But around this time, there began a great influx of local vocations and by 1890, the friars of the Custody were mostly native born and of Irish, not Italian, stock.  This mix would eventually lead to a separation within the Custody with native English-speaking friars continuing to minister at St. Bonaventure and in various English-speaking parish settings; and the Italian members of the Custody finding increasing amounts of ministry among the burgeoning communities of Italian immigrants in New York City, Boston and Pittsburgh.

On September 16, 1901, this separation became permanent as a new entity was born, the Province of the Most Holy Name of Jesus.  Forty-six members of the original Custody were transferred to this new entity headquartered at St. Francis of Assisi Church on 31st Street in New York City, a parish originally founded by the Custody of the Immaculate Conception.  Twenty-six friars remained in the Custody.

This provided a new beginning for the Custody.  After the split, the Custody retained only six places of ministry: St. Anthony of Padua Church, Most Precious Blood Church, and Our Lady of Mount Carmel, all in New York; St. Leonard Church in Boston; and St. Peter Church and Our Lady Help of Christians Church, both in Pittsburgh.  St. Anthony of Padua became the new Motherhouse of the Custody.

On December 25, 1910 , after less than 10 years of continued growth in ministry and vocations, then General Minister of the Order, Friar Dionysius Schuler, elevated this group of friars to full status and the Province of the Immaculate Conception was created.  In these few years, the Province more than doubled in size to 57 friars. Father Ubaldus Pandolfi was chosen as the first Provincial Minister of the new Province of the Immaculate Conception.

With the separation also came the need to establish a new place for the formation of men wishing to join this Franciscan group.  The solution came in 1908 when a perfect location was found along the Hudson River in Catskill, NY.  The former Prospect Park Hotel was for sale and the friars quickly closed the deal.  On the Feast of the Stigmata of St. Francis, the new 25 acre Mount Saint Anthony on the Hudson was officially opened with 15 students. Over the years it has served as a novitiate, house of philosophy, and theologate. Today it serves our retired friars.  In the intervening years other houses of formation would be established in Andover, MA, Troy, NY, and Wappinger Falls, NY.  Today our central house of formation is the Convento San Francesco located on Via Nicolo V in the heart of Rome, a literal stone’s throw from Vatican City.

In 1934, the work of the Province expanded to the area of Toronto, Canada.  As the influx of Italian immigrants moved to that northern city, the friars of the Immaculate Conception Province were called upon to provide priests to serve the community there. The first parish the Province took on was that of St. Agnes, in Toronto’s downtown. Father Patrick Crowley was the first friar of our Province to enter Canada officially as associate pastor of St. Agnes.  The ministry in Toronto would grow to the point that the Province would eventually establish the Saint Francis Foundation there in 1980.  Today, we minister in six parishes in the Toronto area as well as a retreat center.