Francis, Saint, of Paola

FRANCIS, SAINT, OF PAOLA: Founder of the Order of Minims; b. at Paola (13 m. w.n.w. of Cosenza), Italy, 1416 (according to the Bollandists),1438; d. at Plessis-lee-Tours (1 m. sm. of Tours) France, Apr. 2, 1507. His parents dedicated him at an early age to St. Francis of Assisi, to whose intercession they attributed his birth. At the age of twelve he entered the Franciscan monastery of San Marco in Calabria, and quickly surpassed the strictest monks in his rigid observance of the rule. After spending a year as novice he accompanied his parents in a pilgrimage to Assisi, Rome and other holy places, and after his return to Paola lived for six years in a cave on the seashore, gradually gathering about him a band of disciples. After a few years the archbishop of Cosenza gave permission for the erection

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of a monastery and church, probably about 1454, although the date is usually given as 1435. This marks the establishment of his order, which assumed the title of "Eremites of St. Francis" and strove to surpass the Franciscans by a more rigid application of the vow of poverty and by extreme asceticism. The fame of the miracles of St. Francis soon attracted the attention of Paul II. who sent a chamberlain in 1469 to test them. The result was favorable, and the rule of the new order was confirmed by Sixtus IV. in a bull issued May 23, 1474, their founder himself being appointed corrector-general. The rule was slightly modified by Innocent VIII., Alexander VI., and Julius II., the second changing the name of the order to Minimi fratres ("Least of the Brethren"), probably in allusion to Matt. xxv. 40. Numerous miracles are recounted of St. Francis, many of them closely resembling those of Christ. As a consequence, Louis XI. of France, when near death. summoned him to his court, but was obeyed only at the command of the pope, St. Francis declining to attempt to prolong the dying monarch's life by his prayers. The new king, Charles VIII., induced him to remain in France, consulted him both in spiritual and secular matters, and built for him two monasteries in France, one at Plessis-les-Tours and the other at Amboise, as well as a third at Rome, to be occupied solely by French monks. Francis was canonized by Leo X. in 1519.

The Minims are bound, in addition to the three monastic vows, by a fourth which devotes them to a vita quadrigesimalis, or perpetual fast, enjoining abstinence from all meat and lacticinia, and permitting only bread and water, oil, vegetables, and fruit to be used for food. The appointed fasts of the Church are intensified by the Minims, who are also bound by strict rules of silence. The rule of the Minimite nuns, whose first convent was established at Andujar in Spain in 1495, closely resembles that for the monks, but the Tertiaries of both sexes are subject to far less rigid restrictions, especially with regard to diet. During its period of greatest prosperity, from the death of its founder to the end of the sixteenth century, the order had 450 houses, and extended its missionary activity as far as India. It now has only nineteen cloisters, the mother house at Paola, Sant'Andrea della Fratte in Rome, fourteen in Sicily, and one each in Naples, Marseilles, and Cracow.

(O. Zöckler.)

Bibliography: The earliest life of the founder is in ASB, April, i. 105-234. Other lives are by Hilarion de Coste, Paris, 1655; I. Toscano, Venice, 1704; C. du Vivier, Dousi, 1722; Rolland, Paris, 1874; J. Dabert, Paris, 1877; and in KL, iv. 1824-26.

Early accounts of the order are: L. de Montoia, Cronica general de la Orden de los Minimos, Madrid, 1619; Louis Doni Datichi, Hist. generale de l'ordre des Minimes, Paris, 1624; F. Lanovius, Chronicon penernle ordinia MinimOmm, ib. 1835. Consult: Helyot, Ordres monastiques, vii. 428-452; Heimbucher, Orden und Kongregationen, ii. 527 sqq.; Currier, Religious Order, pp. 288-270. On the Rules consult: C. Passarelii, StaNta fratrum Minorum, Naples, 1570; Les fles des fr&es et sa;urs et des fd&a . do l'ordr des Minim", Paris, 1832; Digestum sapientif Minimitanm tripwtitum, ad. P. Baltas d'Avila, Lille, 1867; Traduction nouvelle des raglet . . . de 1'ordre des Minimes, Paris, 1703.

FRANCIS OF PARIS. See Jansen, Cornelius, Jansenism, § 7.

FRANCIS, SAINT, OF SALES: Saint Francis of Sales, noted preacher and devotional author; born at the chateau of Sales near Annecy (25 m. s. of Geneva) in Savoy, Aug. 21, 1567; .d. at Lyons Dec. 28, 1622. He was a member of a noble family of Savoy and at the age of twelve entered the Jesuit college in Paris, where he devoted himself to the study of philosophy, the classics and Hebrew, leading at the same time a life of stern asceticism in fulfilment of an early vow to the Virgin. From 1584 to 1590 he studied civil and canon law at Padua, but gave himself up more and more to theology under the guidance of the Jesuit Possevin. During a severe illness he determined to enter the priesthood, and carried out his purpose in 1591, in spite of the opposition of his family.

Activity in Chablais, Gex, and Geneva.

Placed under the authority of the bishop of Geneva, who was then riding at Annecy, Francis began to play an important part in the movement for bringing back to the Roman faith the inhabitants of the province of Chablais and of the district of Gex, lying on the Lake of Geneva. Conquered in 1536 by the Bernese and converted to Protestantism, Chablais and Gex were restored to Philibert Emmanuel of Savoy by the Treaty of Lausanne in 1564 with the assurance of religious freedom. This pledge, faithfully kept by Philibert, was broken by his son Charles Emmanuel, who succeeded in 1580; and discerned in the close connection prevailing between the people of the two regions and the inhabitants of Bern and Geneva a menace to his political authority. Peaceful methods were at first decided upon, and to Francis of Sales the mission was confided. In spite of his zeal, courage, patience and remarkable gifts of persuasion, Francis met with absolute failure at Thonon, the capital of Chablais, whose inhabitants entered into a compact to refuse even a hearing to the eloquent preacher. Only among the peasantry and the nobility could he point to a few isolated conversions. Convinced that nothing was to be accomplished by peaceful means, he abandoned the field of his labors in the winter of 1596-97, and at Turin in the ducal council declared himself for a policy of forcible conversion, calling for the expulsion of the Protestant clergy, the prohibition of Evangelical literature, the re-establishment of the Roman Catholic parishes, the foundation of a Jesuit college, and the restoration of the mass in the city of Thonon. The plan was adopted, priests and monks were sent into the country, soldiers were quartered upon the inhabitants; and with the additional weapon of exile the Roman reaction was speedily triumphant. Encouraged by their success, the authorities turned their eyes to Geneva, whither Francis went in 1597 at the instance of Pope Clement VIII. There he came into repeated contact with the aged Beza, and, convinced that the great Huguenot could not be gained over by argument, attempted bribery-- an act which roused Beza to great indignation. To his very last day Francis retained an irreconcilable hatred for Geneva, which he designated as the home of the devil and of heretics.

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Bishop of Geneva.

In 1602, on the death of the bishop of Geneva, Francis succeeded to the see, of which he had for some time been coadjutor. In the performance of the duties of his office he lived up to the very highest standard of pastoral obligation. His fame as a preacher caused him to be summoned repeatedly to France, where he enjoyed great influence. With the aid of Madame de Chantal he founded in 1604 the order of the Visitation (see Visitation, Order of The) devoted to the care of the sick and later also to the education of the young.

His Works and Doctrine.

In 1618 Francis composed his Introduction a la vie devote, one of the most popular books among Roman Catholics to the present day, the object of which, as he explained in his preface, was to meet the pious needs of those whose calling lay in the spheres of active life. The book is in the form of a discourse addressed to a certain Philothea, and treats in five chapters of repentance, prayer, the various virtues, temptations, and pious practises. "The world," he says," often looks with contempt upon piety because it pictures the pious as men of downcast and sorrowful faces, but Christ himself testifies that the inner life is a soft, sweet, and happy one." In his indulgence to the demands made by the world he often goes to extremes. His views find their systematic expression in his Traite de l'amour de Dieu. Proceeding from the principle that the will, appointed by the Lord as ruler of all the powers of the soul, finds its highest expression in the love of God, he finds two principal manifestations of this love, one passive, revealing itself in attraction toward the divine, and one active, finding expression in the performance of the will of God. The first consists primarily in prayer, by which is understood not merely verbal utterance of devotion but the inner approach of the soul toward God. The inner form of prayer is of two degrees, the lower, meditation, the higher, contemplation. Its highest degree is the total absorption of the soul into its God, ecstasy. In Francis we find an undisguised exposition of the doctrines of Quietism. As a counterpoise to the evil consequences that might possibly follow on the extreme interpretation of his mystic doctrine, Francis sets up the active love of God, which consists in the fulfilment of the divine will. In three books he gives a detailed account of the various virtues in which this active love manifests itself, a love which in Francis himself revealed itself throughout his life. He was canonized in 1665, and in 1878 was declared a doctor of the universal Church.

(J. Ehni.)

Bibliography: The Euvres of St. Francis appeared 16 vols., Paris, 1821; 8 vols., Lyons, 1868; ed. H. B. Mackey, An necy,1890-97; also an ed., Paris, 1908; lEuvres choisies, ed. M. Pag6s, 3 vols., Paris, 1890; Selection from Spiritual Letters, by H. L. S. Lear, London, 1892; a selection in Fr. by F. Pracht, Paris, 1893. Several of his works are constantly reproduced in English, e. g., Practical Piety, London, 1851; Spiritual Letters (or selections from them), ib., 1871; Spiritual Conferences, ib., 1862; Introduction to a Devout Life, Oxford, 1875. For his life or phases of it consult: Baroness Herbert of Lea, Mission of St Francis in the Chablais, London, 1868; J. P. Camus, The Spirit of Francis of Salsa, ib., 1880; A. Peratd, La Mission de François de Sales dams le Chablais, Rome, 1886: G. Porter, The Heart of St. Francis, London, 1887; J. F. Gouthier, La Mission de S. Franfois de Sales daps . .

Chablais, Annecy, 1891; H. B. Mackey, St. Francis de Sales as a Preacher, London, 1898; F. Strowski, S. Franr,ois de Sales, Paris, 1898; A. Delplanque, S. Francois de Sales, humanists et ecrivain latin, Lille, 1908; Marsollier, Vie de S. Franois de Sales, Tours, 1908; R. Ornsby, Life of St. Francis de Sales, London, GA.; KL, iv. 1826-36.