FRIARS
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FRIARS
renowned Bernardino della Chiesa (d. 1739), including
Basilio Rollo da Gemona (d. 1704) and Carlo Orazio da
Castorano. At the beginning of the eighteenth cen-
tury the ItaUan Franciscans began missions in the
interior of China — first in Shen-si, then in Shan-si,
Shan-tung, etc. ; numbers were martyred, particularly
towards the close of the century. Despite the edict of
persecution, Ludo\ico Besi began in 1839 a new mis-
sion to Shan-tung. The Franciscans continued to
work persistently in most of the districts in China,
where, in spite of persecution, they now hold nine of
the thirty-eight vicariates. Every land, almost every
province, of Europe and many divisions of America
are represented in China by one or more missionaries.
Of the 222 Franciscans at present (beginning of 1909)
labouring there, 77 are Italians, 27 Dutch, 25 Gennans,
25 Belgians, 16 French.
The first missionaries reached the Philippines in 1577 and founded the province of St. Gregorj'. Their leaders were Pedro de Alfaro (1576-79), Pablo a Jesu (1580-83), and St. Peter Baptist (1586-91), the first Franciscan martyr in Japan. From the Philip- pines they extended their field of labour to China, Siam, Formosa, Japan, Borneo. In the Philippines their activity was tireless; they founiled convents, towns, and hospitals; instructed the natives in manual labour — the planting of coffee and cocoa, the breed- ing of silk-worms, weaving; and planned streets, bridges, canals, aqueducts, etc. Among the best- known Franciscan architects may be included Lorenzo S. Maria (d. 1585), Maximo Rico (d. 1780), and a Joseph Balaguer (d. 1850). Here as elsewhere they studied the languages and dialects of the natives, and even to the present day continue to compile much- sought-after and highly prized grammars, dictionaries, etc. The occupation of the Philippines by the United States brought many alterations, but the missions are still under the province of S. Gregorio in Spain.
On 26 May, 1592, St. Peter Baptist set out from Manila for Japan with some associates, erected in 1594 a church and convent in Meaco, but on 5 February, 1597, suffered martyrdom on the cross with twenty- five companions, of whom three were Jesuits. The missions of the Franciscans were thus interrupted for a time, but were repeatedly renewed from the Philip- pines, and as often the list of martyrs added to (e. g. in 1616, 1622, 1628, 1634, etc.). In 1907 some Franciscans again settled at Sappora on the Island of Yezo, thus forming a connecting link with the traditions of the past.
In 1680 Australia was visited by Italian Francis- cans, who also preached in New Zealand, but in 1S7S the missions were transferred to the Irish Franciscans. From 1859 to 1864, Patrick Bonaventure Geoghegan was Bishop of Adelaide, and was succeeded by another Franciscan, Luke Bonaventure Shell (1864-72).
In Northern Europe, which in the thirteenth cen- tury was not yet completely converted to Christianity, the Franciscans established missions in Lithuania, where thirty-six were butchered in 1325. The first Bishop of Lithuania was Andreas Vazilo. During the fifteenth century John, surnamed "the Small", and Blessed Ladislaus of Gielniow laboured most success- fully in this district. In Prussia (now the Provinces of West and East Prussia), Livonia, and Courland (where the Minorite Albert was Bishop of Marien- werder (1260-90) and founded the town of Reisen- burg), as well as in Lapland, the inhabitants of which were still heathens, the Reformation put an end to the labours of the Friars Minor. Their numerous houses in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, which formed the province of Denmark (Dania, Dacia), and the pro- vinces of ICngland, Scotland, and to some extent those of Holland and Germany, were also overthrown. After the year 1530, the Franciscans could work in these lands only as missionaries, in which capacity they laboured there from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century and still continue to a certain extent.
A few words may here be devoted to those Friars
Minor who stood forth as fearless defenders of the
Faith in the Northern countries during the Reforma-
tion period. The Franciscans and Dominicans supplied
the greatest niunber and the most illustrious cham-
pions of the Church, and comparatively few yielded
to temptation or persecution and deserted their order
and their Faith. As in the case of the scholars,
artists, missionaries, and holy men of the order, only a
few names can be mentioned here. Among the hun-
dreds of names from Great Britain may be cited: John
Forest of London, burned at the stake in 1538, God-
frev Jones (d. 1598), Thomas BuUaker (d. 1642),
Henry Heath (d. 1643), Arthur Bell (d. 1643), Walter
C'olman (d. 1645), whose heroism culminated in every
case in death. Similarly in Ireland we find Patrick
O'Hely (d. 1578), Cornehus O'Devany (d. 1612),
Boetius Egan (d. 1650), etc. Among the most dis-
tinguished Danish defenders of the Faith is Nikolaus
Herborn (Ferber), mockingly called "Stagefyr" (d.
1535) ; in France, Christophe de Cheffontaines (d. 1595)
and Fran(jois Feuardent; in Germany Thomas Mur-
ner (d. 1537), Augustin von Alfeld (d. 1532), Johannes
Ferus (Wild) (d. 1554), Konrad Ivling (d. 1556),
Ludolf Namann (d. 1574), Michael Hillebrand (d.
about 1540), Kaspar Schatzgeyer (d. 1527), Johann
Nas (d. 1590), etc. Between 1520 and 1650 more
than 500 Minorites laid down their lives for the Church.
On the Black and Caspian Seas the Franciscans instituted missions about 1270. The following Fran- ciscans laboured in Greater Armenia: James of Rus- sano in 1233; Andrew of Perugia in 1247; Thomas of Tolentino in 1290. King Haito (A)'to) II of Lesser Armenia, and Jean de Brienne, Emperor of Constanti- nople, both entered the Franciscan Order. Fran- ciscans were in Persia about 1280, and again after 1460. About this time Louis of Bologna went through Asia and Russia to rouse popular sentiment against the Turks. The Franciscans were in Further India by 1500, and toiled among the natives, the St. Thomas Christians, and the Portuguese, who made over to them the mosque of Goa seized in 1510. The order had colleges and schools in India long before the arrival of the Jesuits, who first came under the Fran- ciscan Archbishop of Goa, Joao Albuquerque (1537- 53).
Since 1219 the Franciscans have maintained a mission in the Holy Land, where, after untokl labours and tunnoil and at the expense of hundreds of lives, they have, especially since the fourteenth century, recovered the holy places dear to Christians. Here they built houses for the reception of pilgrims, to whom they gave protection and shelter. Friars from every country compose the so-called custodv of the Holy Land, whose work in the past, interrupted by unceasing persecutions and massacres, constitutes a bloody but glorious page in the history of the order. In the territory of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, reinstituted in 1847, the Franciscans have 24 convents and 15 parishes; in Syria (the Prefecture Apostohc of Aleppo), to which also belong Phcpnicia and Armenia, they have 20 convents and 15 parishes, while in Lower Egj'pt they occupy 16 convents and 16 parishes. As all these (with numerous schools) are included in the custody of the Holy Land, the total for the mission is: 58 convents, 46 parishes, and 942 religious. The Catholics of Latin Rite in these districts number 74, 779: of Oriental Rites 893.
Under the greatest diificiilties and frequently with small fruit, in consequence of the recurrent devastat- ing wars and insurrections, the Franciscan mission- aries have laboured in south-eastern Europe. Al- bania, Montenegro, Bosnia, and Bulgaria received many Minorites in the thirteenth centur_v, about which period many of the order occupied the archiepiscopal See of Antivari, and in 1340. Peregrinus of Saxony was nominated first Bishop of Bosnia. In these dis-
