Franciscan Institute

The Franciscan Institute, located within the Friedsam Library on the campus of St. Bonaventure University, engages in two principal areas of scholarly concern: research and publication. The Franciscan Institute was founded as an international center of research on the Franciscan intellectual tradition with the highest standards of scholarly production.

In 1940, the Very Reverend Thomas Plassmann, O.F.M., President of St. Bonaventure College, made these aspirations a reality with the appointment of the eminent German medievalist, Philotheus Boehner, O.F.M., as the first Director of the Franciscan Institute. Under his influence the campus of St. Bonaventure became internationally known as a center for the study of William of Ockham, a fourteenth-century Franciscan philosopher and theologian who vastly influenced European thought at the close of the Middle Ages.

In 1971, in response to the call of the Second Vatical Council for religious communities to return to the sources of their charism, a new degree program, leading to an M.A. in Franciscan Studies was established under the leadership of then Director, Conrad L. Harkins, O.F.M. Since that time, under successive directors, the Institute had conducted a year-round program leading to a Master of Arts degree or an Advanced Certificate in Franciscan Studies. The program also welcomes those who choose to enroll for a period of continuing education or for a study sabbatical. Graduates include sisters, friars and lay persons from every continent. Many graduates now hold positions of leadership in other Franciscan formation and spiritual centers, national and international conferences, and in the various branches of the Order.

In the 1990s, the teaching programs of the Institute were formalized within the academic realm of the University, creating the School of Franciscan Studies. The extraordinary library collection of the Institute -- housed in the Friedsam Memorial Library -- attracts many visiting scholars.

In addition to the critical editions produced by the research teams throughout the Institute's history, the Institute serves the English-speaking world with a series of publishing initiatives. Franciscan Studies and The Cord are journals published by the Institute along with several important scholarly series and a broad variety of other published works that are available because of the Institute's labors.

The Franciscan Institute is an international center of research on the Franciscan Intellectual Tradition.  While the library at St. Bonaventure holds a startling large collection of Medieval Franciscan sources in North America, it is not easily accessible to the rest of the world.  The Franciscan Institute would like to create a platform where Franciscan Scholars can share and discuss the current research in their field, as well as purchase, view and download current holdings, articles and books with greater ease. 

The idea is to create both a Networking platform, as well as become a content provider for scholars across the world, who do not have access to primary and secondary resources, needed to accurately research medieval history.

The Holy Name Library, held within the Friedsam Library at St. Bonaventure University, protects the university’s collection of rare books. It includes the most important collection of Franciscana in North America, more than 9,000 rare books and manuscripts dating from the 12th century up to and including the seminal journals of renowned monastic Thomas Merton, who taught English at St. Bonaventure in the early 1940s. It also holds collections from various provincial and college libraries that were entrusted to St. Bonaventure when those institutions closed.