The boy became ill when he was only one month old, and his mother prayed to Saint Francis and promised that her son would spend a year in a Franciscan friary if he were healed.

[4] The definitive version of the rule was solemnly approved by Pope Julius II in the Bull Inter ceteros, July 28, 1506, who also simplified the name of the community to the Order of Minims (Latin: Ordo Minimorum).

[6] This vow is for perpetual abstinence from all meat, eggs and dairy products, except in case of grave illness and by order of a physician.

[7] The Minim habit consists of a black wool tunic, with broad sleeves, a hood, and a short scapular.

[citation needed] The Order of the Minims spread throughout Italy in the fifteenth century and was introduced to France in 1482, and later to Spain and to Germany in 1497.

[10] The Munich friary of the German Minims brewed beer as means of support, but after the friars were expelled, the brewery continued independently.

Francis welcomed their request heartily, and, to this end, he adapted the rule of the friars for them to live as cloistered nuns.

[12] The Federation of Minim Nuns of Saint Francis of Paola includes 14 monasteries in Spain, Italy, Mexico, and the Philippines.

[14] The Minim Daughters of Mary Immaculate is a separate institute founded in 1867 in Guanajuanto, Mexico, by Pablo de Anda Padilla.