“We who work with them think that the members of the ‘third order’ are a gift from heaven. They are present everywhere, where ever they are needed, in happiness and sadness, at the prayers… All 35 members of the ‘third order’ that I described in the book are real people and I knew them all”, said OFM Dane.

According to him, members of the Secular Franciscan order had a huge role in preserving the Catholic faith in Herzegovina.

“Thanks to the members of the ‘third order’, especially after the Second World War, thanks to their engagement, their fearlessness and their prayers, the faith of this people was preserved. Since I was a child, they say that the first members of the ‘third order’ came to the deadly site at the monastery in Široki Brijeg, to the place where 12 friars were killed and burned, while the smoke was still visible. They came and prayed for the serenity of their souls”, OFM Dane said.

He added that in 1952., the Communist government banned food to the surviving friars, and the members of the ‘third order’ were carrying food to them under the cover of the night. At the moment in Široki Brijeg, the Secular Franciscan order has more than 250 members who

operate through different sections and who annually assist more than a thousand people that are in need.