New Challenges for Religious Orders and Particularly for the Franciscans at the Beginning of the 19th Century

The situation of the Church and within her in the religious orders at the beginning of the 19th century was still influenced by the social and political factors which had been fruit of the Church-state and inside Church ideas from the end of the 18th century and of the short French dominion. The Friars Minor came out of that period as the strongest religious community in Slovenia because they were successful in preserving the major number of convents and their original place in the Church. Along with the carrying on of their traditional pastoral activities they were successful in fighting the consequences of rigorism both in the practical religious life and in the field of theology. Some authors significantly marked the theology of the 19th century with their papers. Hence they had a growing importance in the parish pastoral work and in the field of the education giving at the same time a stamp to the practical religious life. They had to coordinate their activities with the secular clergy and since the midcentury with other religious orders that settled in the Slovenian society. In spite of their well established place and a significant number of houses from the previous period they had to adapt and to look for their own answers to the new challenges brought around by the time and the changes both in the Church and in the Slovenian society. They demonstrated a high level of adaptability.