February 19, 2014

Global Seminars & Invited Speaker Series

CONVENTUAL PAMPLONA

Franciscanism in Pamplona. Three typical convents

P. Tarsicio de Azcona.
O.F.M. Cap.

The speaker begins by analyzing the terms Franciscanism, seraphic tree and Franciscan family. It explains the acronyms of each branch of this tree and family that arose in the classical period and makes reference letter to the hundreds of modern institutes inspired by St. Francis. Entering in subject, it exposes the identity of the three typical convents chosen, projecting modest illustrations.

I. CONVENT OF SAN FRANCISCO: He analyzes his status in San Pedro ad ripas or ribera, in the grove of the Taconera, destroyed in 1521 during the conquest of Navarre and inside the city in the place of his name. It studies with documents this location by will of Carlos V and the administrator Juan Rena. It emphasizes its disentailment in 1835, as a result of which it was converted into the city's public schools. The Franciscan Friars Minor, its owners, returned to Pamplona, but with another mission statement. The remodeling of the place and the building in 1926 as a result of the XVII centenary of the death of St. Francis, as well as the inauguration of the monument to St. Francis, in which the head of the Government, General Primo de Rivera, was present, are mentioned at length.

II. CONVENT OF SANTA ENGRACIA, considered as the first monastery of Saint Clare beyond the "ultra montes" mountains. Its location in the Rochapea is pointed out on the basis of military plans, the growth of its patrimony on the basis of generous alms and the category of the same for the whole neighborhood of Jus la Rocha. It is documented its destruction in the war of the Convention of 1795, the search for a new location and the transfer to the abandoned convent of the Hospitaller Order of San Antón. They took to it their rich file, religious and civil.

III. CONVENT OF CAPUCHINOS, EXTRAMUROS OF PAMPLONA. Dedicated in 1606 to the Immaculate Conception. It has a documented monographic study. The author exposes the Franciscan identity of the Capuchin family. He synthesizes the action of the founder Gabriel de Amasa, an important merchant of Pamplona. When he died without a family, he founded a board of trustees for the dozen charitable works to which he bequeathed his fortune of more than 80,000 ducats, with priority for the Capuchin convent, with whom he lived in his "casica" during the last years of his life. The board of trustees met there once a year, attended to their needs and studied the status of the other charities.

The characteristics of the Capuchins were that they could not own urban or rustic property, the austerity of their physiognomy and their life and to help them to die well. They were men of the people. They had a vegetable garden for domestic vegetables, as well as another piece of land on the other side of the Arga, which was crossed with a boat, attached to a metal towrope. The convent was renovated in 1998-2000, although it preserves original 17th century spaces in the church and in the walls of the building.

These three convents are test of the early proximity of Franciscanism to Pamplona, including the lay Franciscanism of the Venerable Third Order (VOT), now the Secular Franciscan Order (SFO).

Capuchin convent outside the walls of Pamplona (1898-1903)
Unknown author
(file Municipal of Pamplona)