Francis of Assisi had a dream – indeed more than one! Clare of Assisi shared this dream of rebuilding and revivifying the church of their day. Their radical life according to the gospel altered the patterns of religious life in the Roman Catholic tradition. Religious men and women would no longer live exclusively in the monastery cloister. The world became the Franciscan cloister! The dream of Francis and Clare did not die with them. Rather it pulsed down through the centuries to our present day, nurtured by people who caught the fire of their dream and re-enkindled it in dreams of their own. Capuchin-Franciscans have striven to be that type of people since our founding in 1528. As a community of brothers, we hope to be the stewards and agents of renewal of the ideals of Francis and Clare today. The early Capuchins blended a life of preaching, care of the poor, contemplation and simple living. Their dream took root, and soon there were Capuchin friars spread throughout the world!