The Grey Friars Walk London Streets Again

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 85, 7 October 1933, Page 23

The Grey Friars Walk London Streets Again

An odd revival of medieval English life is to bo found hi tho return oJE the Grey Friars. Men in grey habits with the knotted ropes round thoir waist 3 such as St. Francis adopted after ho came out of prison, before ho i'ound his life's vocation, are once more walking through the streets of London, gays tho "New York Times." " Eight years ago a new brotherhood was founded by a London vicar working in one of the poorest districts on the south-east side of the Thames. He called it the Brotherhood of the Holy Cross and based it on the ideals of St. Francis of Assisi. At first, when the Bishop of Southwark heard of it, he hesitated. Then, before he decided that the brotherhood should bo recognised officially, he determined that the ■brothers should work out an eight years'probation to determine whether! they could adopt their new profession | as a lifework. Tho vows that are required of them aro similar to those taken, by tho men who followed St. Francis in England before the Says of tho Reformation, when the religious houses were demolished. They have to sign a declaration that they will not possess money or property of any kind, that they will act in strict obedience to their vicar, that they will accept only food or clothing, and that they will never marry, or seek to marry. Eccently, when tho Bishop of Southwark went to tho Church of SI. Chrysostom, in Pockham, the vicar, the Rev. George Potts, and twelvo friars who have gathered themselves trader his leadership took their vows. Only one brother in addition to tho vicar took the fullest vows and became a'member of tho chapter. The others havo as yet to fulfill their years of probationships. Somo of them took simplo vows, others renewed their allegiance to the order. The one layman who took full vows, Brother John, is working in a hostel for youth, where ho devotes much tinio

to reclaiming boys, who, but for lis care and attention, would probably be in prison. In a peaceful garden, which seems far removed from London's slums although it is close to some o£ tho architectural eyesores of the' British Empire, Brother John takes tho one hour's recreation, which he is permitted to have in his seventeen-hour day of labour. He said that the brotherhood was spreading and that all kinds of men' were clamouring for admission. "Our great disadvantage is that we have no place to house them," he said. "We are building up our order on faith. We, ourselves, have nothing in the world and we have beon told that when wo grow old we may have to go to the workhouse. We do not fear that. '' Only our fool and clothing are given to us, but we arc not monks in tho truo sense of tho word. Our object is to mix with tko world; the world is our cloister. "Wo go among the poor and perform acts of mercy, nurso sick men, tcscuo poor boys who are sinking into depravity, undertake the last offices for tho dying, run errands, and, in fact, do everything necessary. "Every day we perform menial duties. Wo have to cook and scrub floors and keep our hostels in order. We have to do this kind of work before we are allowed to go on pastoral undertakings and preach." Tho Franciscan Friars who camo to England in the thirteenth century struggled for many years in the slums of growing cities, doing the most menial offices for the poor and preaching homely sermons. Less than fifty years after they had landed one of the band, Robert Kiwarby, had been appointed to bo Archbishop of Canterbury, and tho general of the order had refused tho Archbishopric of York. For 300 years they were the evangoliscrs of tho towns of England, but when tho spoliation of tho religious houses was decreed, they were among tho first to go.