Tor de' Specchi Monastery

The Oblates of St. Frances of Rome are a monastic community in Rome of women oblates founded by St. Frances of Rome in 1425 to provide for a life of prayer and service among the wealthier women of the city. The group quickly developed a life in common, without monastic vows, committed to prayer and service to the poor of the city. They still continue today in this way of life here at their one and only monastery.

St. Frances (1378-1440) was a native and noblewoman of the city who had wanted to be a nun when she was a child. Nevertheless, her parents forced her into marriage with a wealthy and aristocratic member of the papal military forces. Despite their privileged position, the couple were not spared personal suffering, losing two young children to the various plagues which afflicted the city at that time. This was due, in large part, to the neglect it suffered during the period of the Great Schism within the Roman Catholic Church, as three separate cardinals established themselves as the legitimate pope, two of whom were based in France. This tied up most of Western Europe in years of military conflict among the competing parties.

Through their losses, Frances became aware of the suffering of the general populace in the city. Already a pious and devout wife, she recruited other noble wives to join in caring for the poor and the sick. She and her sister-in-law would frequent the various hospitals of Rome, nursing the sick and distributing food to the hungry. Gradually, her longheld desire for monastic life developed into a desire to unite this with the service of the poor. Finally in 1425 she decided that she would henceforth live in celibacy, receiving the consent she needed from her husband for this step.

On August 15th, she and nine companions made monastic oblation to the Olivetan Monastery attached to the Church of Santa Maria Nova. As Benedictine oblates, they continued to live their regular lives with their families, in addition to which they followed a regimen of prayer and service. Frances herself continued to live with her husband till his death in 1436.

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