The Friars Minor in Sicily. Ways and timing of a problematic settlement

The contribution deals with the problem of the establishment of a community of Friars Minor in the city of Catania during the 1350s, starting from a broad reflection, also of a historiographical nature, on the arrival of the Franciscans in Sicily (Italy). The study arises from the review of previous research and from the analysis of unpublished documentary sources, traced in the historical archives of the city of Catania. However, the events surrounding the arrival of the Friars Minor on the island are still difficult to reconstruct, as they were marked by the multiple conflicts with the Emperor Frederick II and with his son Manfredi and by the sudden changes in the bishop's policies in the context of citizenship sometimes in favour, and sometimes against the Franciscans. Revealing these events is the case of the arrival of the Franciscans in Catania, supported by the prelates of Catania until the third quarter of the fourteenth century and opposed in the following decade by Bishop Angelo Boccamazza, a relative of the future Pope Honorius IV, who ordered against the minor friars even a punitive expedition. Finally, the Franciscans were able to reside peacefully in the city only from the mid-13th century thanks to the support obtained by the Queen of Sicily Eleonora d'Angiò and that of her daughter-in-law Elizabeth of Carinthia, the consort of Peter II. They became interpreters of a new pro-Franciscan policy which determined the definitive rooting of the Friars Minor in Catania, who actively contributed to the resolution of the real problems of the city.