Our Founders
Fr. Francis Marino
Fr. Francis Marino, Founder and spiritual father of the Anawim Community, when he was still a Marist seminarian, received a special grace of insight into the place of Mary in the Liturgy.
In the early 1960s, his efforts to convey this insight to others resulted in his painting of the image now known as the Icon of Our Lady of the Liturgical Life. He had a burning desire to share with others the gift he had received through Mary, the gift of "living the Liturgy" in the heart of Mother Church.
A powerful and challenging preacher and a popular spiritual director, Fr. Francis dedicated many years to giving talks and retreats and he even founded a religious community of sisters. Persevering through many difficulties and rejections, his patience finally bore fruit when, together with Sr. Barbara Brennan, he founded the Anawim Community in 1975.
Fr. Francis spent the rest of his life building up the Anawim Community in the way of the rich charism he had received. He died in 2007, shortly after he celebrated the 50th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood.
Sr. Barbara Brennan
Sr. Barbara Brennan was a religious in the Servants of the Blessed Sacrament, a semi-contemplative community, for more than seventeen years. In 1975, she met Fr. Francis and felt in her deepest being that she had discovered the spiritual "way" her heart had been longing for.
The grace she had received for putting flesh on the Word of God would become fruitful through her following of the Anawim Way. Her many hours spent before the Blessed Sacrament prepared her for the mission to form others in a deep Liturgical, Eucharistic, and Marian spirituality.
Sr. Barbara served as Fr. Francis's closest collaborator until his death in 2007. In her role as Co-Founder and spiritual mother of the Community, she provided wise spiritual direction and practical guidance for hundreds of people.
A gifted counselor, she was intuitive and decisive, strong and compassionate. Her active apostolate was suddenly halted by a severe stroke in March 2019, but she continued to the very end to offer herself to God in silent prayer and sacrifice, until she died in 2021.
