The poor, the sick and the supplicant of alms of the Venerable Third Order of Saint Francis of Coimbra, Portugal (1861-1926)The secular Franciscan orders guaranteed spiritual and material assistance exclusively to its members, in particular by giving alms to brothers who were poor and helping the sick and the elderly. This work aims to characterize the brothers who requested an alm to the Third Order of Coimbra and, among these, those who simultaneously resorted to the hospital of the institution, analysing comparatively the Portuguese monarchical (1861-1910) and republican (1911-1926) periods. The 697 requests for alms made to the Third Order of Coimbra are a privileged source for the study of poverty among its brothers, since they reflect in the first person the problems, vicissitudes and causes of the impoverishment of the secular Franciscan brothers, not infrequently associated with reasons of illness or old age, in the majority impediments of the guarantor of subsistence through work.
Keywords:
alms; poverty; hospital