The study presented to our readers analyzes the diverse activities of the "Ordo Fratrum Minorum" in the 13th century, which took place within the Kingdom of France. The characteristics of the stages of transformation of the Order from an apostolic religious movement, not limited by institutional frameworks, into a medieval scientific corporation are clarified; it turns out that one of its main properties was to reproduce the features of those structures into which, following the principle of apostolic ministry, it was integrated. The author shows how, depending on the stages of the Order’s inclusion in the Roman and Royal Curia, as well as the University of Paris, the internal history of the community, expressed in the lives of its founder, St. Francis of Assisi.