The Capuchins were first allowed to cross the Alps in 1574, since then the order has experienced constant expansion not only in Europe. The 19th and 20th century marked a numerical redistribution and spread all over the Globe, especially in the mid ‘900 when shifted the axes from north to the south, especially Brazil and India. Also experienced by many other religious institutes, this phenomenon has enriched the Capuchin family through new cultures and mentalities with the charisma received from the ancient fathers. After nearly 500 years, the Capuchin friar continues his work with the inmates of hospitals and prisons.
Photo: Füsun Kavrakoğlu, Rome, 2026.
Alongside the history, some have also resorted the hypothesis dictated by the imagination. One story tells that some Capuchins took refuge in Rome during the period of the Terror in France (1793-1794) in order not to deny their faith and to save their lives. They were segregated in the crypt – cemetery.
After some time, one of them, who was highly talented and skilled in the decorative art, requested and obtained the permission to arrange all the bones in the cemetery (used to bury the friars up to then). This patient work, selecting the various parts of bones and the decorous arrangements on the walls and ceiling, was soon completed. It is said that the artist was granted the wish to rest in a niche of his own creation.
Another story is that “an artist, escaping justice in the sanctuary of the friary, adorned these chambers of death during his long period of atonement”.
The decoration has also been described as the work of a “grotesque and hermit genius”, “monk patience” or “a man of an ardent faith almost joking with death and joyfully thinking of Resurrection”.
Source
Information panels in the Convent of the Immaculate Conception in Rome.
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