By Dr. Jeff Mirus, Catholic Culture - Our readers frequently seek to identify good religious communities, especially if their children are considering a vocation to religious life. This puts me in mind of the Franciscan community of men founded by Mother Angelica in 1998, The Knights of the Holy Eucharist… The Franciscans as a whole were founded by St. Francis of Assisi in the thirteenth century and, with the Dominicans, were one of the two new “mendicant” orders which changed the typical forms of religious life at that time. These “friars”, as they were called, were both active and contemplative.