"This volume makes available the results of a unique conference held at the Franciscan Institute in April 2009 to celebrate the 800th anniversary of the founding of the Order of Friars Minor through the confirmation of the propositum vitae of the early friars by Pope Innocent III on April 16, 1209. This conference brought together for a brief but intense period of time two groups of people who do not often dialogue with each other: scholars of the Rule and practitioners of the Rule--those who study the Rule in an academic manner and those given the responsibility by their provinces of teaching and modeling the practice of the Rule in daily life. To that end, this volume presents six scholarly essays and nine interventions offered by friars from nine different areas of the globe who shared the challenges of living the Rule in diverse cultural, national and religious contexts"--Publisher.