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504 BENEDICT VADAKKEKARA ing his two uninterrupted twelve-year terms in office, that is, from 1884 to 1896 and from 1896 to 1908, in all twenty-four years 2 • In keeping with the institute's long-standing tradition, the incumbent general Minister together with the definitors decided on 30 October 1907 to formally convoke the Order's 67 th general Chapter to be held on 18-20 May 1908. The Order's centre for the training of its would-be missionaries, the Collegio San Fedele, on Via dei Santi Quattro Coronati, Rome, was to be the venue of the Chapter. The letter of convocation dated 17 December 1907 was duly sent out to all the friaries and houses of the Order 3 • The document ofconvocation also spelt out the specific scope ofthe upcoming general Chapter. It was primarily intended to elect the new team ofgeneral superiors to replace the outgoing one whose twelve-year-office was drawing to its preset close. And secondarily the Chapter was to attend to the general affairs of the Order, prin– cipally that of revising its constitutions 4 • The letter also goes to explain the reasons why the question of revising the constitutions was so very important and urgent. 5 It quotes from a nine-year old instruction of the Sacred Congregation for Bishops and Regulars specifying the modus procedendi for doing so: the general definitory was to appoint a commission of six members chosen "from the more judicious and prudent" friars, whose nomination then had to be approved by the Holy See. To– gether with the general definitory, this commission was to draw up a new draft ofthe constitutions. However, the new draft was not to introduce any changes regarding 2 There are two works that are particularly focused on the background and life of Fr Ber– nard of Andermatt and his service as Capuchin general Minister: H. Felder, Ministro generale e arcivescovo Bernard Christen da Andermatt e il rinnovamento dell'Ordine dei Cappuccini (Va– ria, 26), Roma 2010, and Bernardo Christen da Andermatt a cent'anni dalla morte (Bibliotheca Seraphico-Capuccina, 96), a cura di B. Vadakkekara, Roma 2012. While the first is the Italian translation by Dr Patrizia Morelli of the original in German (1943), the second is the acts of an international symposium held at Collegio San Lorenzo, Rome, on 11-13 March 2010. See also Helvetia Franciscana 41 / 1 (2012), which is wholly dedicated to the Swiss friar. 3 See Analecta OFMCap 24 (1908) 10-11. 4 The priority attached to the task of revising the constitutions is underscored by the letter of convocation. Analecta OFMCap 24 (1908) 10, "... ad eligendos novos superiores generales, et ad pertractanda alia Ordinis negotia, quorum praecipuum atque gravissimum erit Constitutio– num nostrarum revisio". 5 Vincenzo Criscuolo's paper delivered at the above-mentioned symposium of 11-13 March 2010 gives a thumbnail sketch ofthe main events and the undercurrents that openly evidenced in the revision ofthe constitutions attempted by Fr Bernard ofAndermatt. See V. Criscuolo, Bernar– do Christen da Andermatt e la revisione delle costituzioni dell'Ordine dei Cappuccini, in Bernardo Christen da Andermatt, 259-270; Felder, Ministro generale e arcivescovo Bernard Christen, 261- 282.