Later some gathered in small communities and developed a life of devotion and fellowship while going out each day to their various occupations. Others who were unmarried and had no dependents gave up their possessions to become hermits or recluses. By the end of the thirteenth century, some of the groups developed into communities of Religious who bound themselves by vows.

In the Fifteenth Century a permanent division was made in the Third Order to accommodate all these lifestyles. The Third Order Secular Franciscans continue to flourish among the laity living at home. Groups who take vows and live in communities either contemplative or devoted to works of mercy, follow the Third Order Regular Rule.

In the history of the Sisters of St. Francis, Anna Dorn who later became Mother Bernadina Dorn, one of the original founders of this Community, was a novice in the Third Order Secular Franciscans in her home town of Gasseldorf, Bavaria. She brought a Third Order Rule Book with her when she immigrated to the United States. In Philadelphia she met Anna Bachman and Barbara Boll who also liked the Franciscan Spirituality it expressed and agreed to follow this Rule as the basis of the Religious Community that they asked Bishop Neuman to found.

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