Frari: Minor Basilica

Today the Franciscan and parish community is reminiscent of a happy event: on February 1, 1926, the Basilica S.Maria Gloriosa dei Frari was given the title of Minor Basilica by Pius XI. In that year the Franciscan Friars remebered the 7th centenary of the death of St. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226) and the Friars Minor Conventual had recently returned (in 1922) to officiate in the Church they had founded (1230 1st construction, 1250 2nd construction, 1330 3rd construction) and from where they had been hunted by the Napoleonic suppressions in 1810.

Below you can find the extract of the text from the Acta Apostolicae Sedis of 1926 which elevates the Franciscan Church with the title of Minor Basilica.

Haec animo repetentes, cum dilectus filius Minister provincialis hodiernus Regularis Provinciae Patavinae S. Antonii, Ordinis Fratrum Minorum Conventualium, qui in ipsa aede divino cultui inserviunt et digne ac devote ibi sacra implent officia, Nos supplicibus votis deprecatus sit, ut dictum templum S. Mariae Gloriosae ad titulum atque honorem Basilicae minoris evehere dignaremur, hasque preces cumulent atque ornent gravissima commendationis officia tam Procuratoris generalis Ordinis Minorum Conventualium, quam dilecti filii Nostri Petri S. R. E. Cardinalis La Fontaine, ex dispensatione Apostolica Patriarchae Venetiarum, Nos optatis his annuendum ultro libenterque existimavimus.