Friars Minor in America.—The very discovery of America is due, under God, to the children of St. Francis, inasmuch as Christopher Columbus, the discoverer, and Queen Isabella, who furnished the means, were members of the Third Order, and Father Juan Perez, the counsellor of both, was the superior of the Franciscan monastery of La Rdébida in Andalusia. Father Juan Perez, with other Franciscan friars, moreover, accompanied his illustrious friend on the second voyage in 1493. A few miles west of Cap Haitien, most probably on 8 December, he celebrated the first Mass in the New World in a chapel constructed of boughs. At the town of Isabella he erected the first convent. In 1496 the place was abandoned, and a monastery of stone was ordered built by Columbus at Nueva Isabella, afterwards replaced by Santo Domingo. It was finished in 1502. A second Franciscan convent arose in the interior at La Vega about the same time. In connexion with both houses the first schools in America were opened, where Indian boys were taught reading, writing, and singing. While the secular clergy attended to the spiritual needs of the Spaniards, the Franciscans and a few Hieronymites devoted themselves to the conversion of the natives. Cardinal Ximenes, himself a Franciscan, sent thirteen of his brethren to Hispaniola in 1502. They took with them the first bells and the first organ. Before the lapse of ten years after the discovery, nineteen Friars Minor had landed on the Isle of Hispaniola. About the year 1500 the Franciscans passed over to the island of Cuba, and founded the first monastery in honour of St. James (Santiago) for the conversion of the Indians. At the general chapter of the order held at Tours, France, in 1505, the convents of Hispaniola and Cuba were united in a province under the title of Santa Cruz. It was the first organization of its kind in the Western Hemisphere. At the request of the king, Pope Julius IJ, on 15 November, 1504, appointed the Franciscan Friar Garcia de Padilla first Bishop of Santo Domingo, the first diocese in the New World. The bishop-elect was consecrated in May, 1512, but died on 12 November, 1515, before reaching his see. In 1511 the king sent twenty-three Friars Minor to the island of San Juan or Porto Rico. Before the end of the same year the Indian missions of the Greater Antilles and most of the Lesser Antilles were in charge of the Franciscans. Their first martyrs fell victims of apostolic zeal among the cannibal Caribs in 1516, when Fathers Fernando Salcedo and Diego Botellio, with an unknown lay brother, were captured, killed, and devoured by the savages.
The Franciscans were also the first religious on the mainland or continent of America, as they landed on the Isthmus about the year 1512. When King Ferdinand heard of it, he named the Franciscan Father Juan de Quevedo Bishop of Santa Maria de la Antigua (Darien) and sent him with a band of his brethren to the newly erected diocese. Pope Leo X, on 28 August, 1513, approved the nomination. Quevedo reached the scene of his future activity on 12 April, 1514. Fathers Juan de Aora and Juan de Tecto entered Honduras with Cortés about the year 1525, and the first convent was erected there in 1526 or 1527. Father Toribio de Benavente (Motolinia) reached Guatemala about 1533. Thereafter missions and convents arose at various places, until in 1550 they were organized into a custody under the title of Nombre de Jesus. In 1565 the custody, comprising 7 monasteries and 30 friars, was made a province. During the years 1571— 1573, 66 friars arrived there from Spain, and in 1600 the province reported 22 convents. .Father Motolinia is said to have visited Nicaragua before 1530. The first bishop of the country was the Franciscan Pedro de Zimiga. The twelve convents of Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Talamanca were organized into the province of San Jorge (St. George) in 1576. Yucatan received the first Friars Minor in 1534. The custody of San José was established in 1550, and it became a province in 1565. In 1600 the report showed the existence of 6 regular monasteries and 16 minor houses. The first Bishop of Yucatan, Juan de la Puerta, was a member of the Franciscan Order.
In 1516 the King of Spain sent fourteen Friars Minor to the northern coast of South America, later called New Granada and now known as Colombia. In 1550 the convents of this district were united in a custody, and in 1565, when there were twelve monasteries, the general chapter raised the custody to the rank of a province under the title of Santa Fé de Bogota. Even at this early date there were two convents of Poor Clares in that region; they were subject to the jurisdiction of the Franciscan provincial. In 1587 this province reported 25 convents and 44 Indian missions. In 1519 some Franciscan friars reached the coast of Paria or Venezuela, founded missions, and opened schools for Indian boys whom they taught reading, writing, and singing. The famous Father Marcos de Niza, who with Francisco Pizarro penetrated to Ecuador and Peru in 1532, founded the first convent at Cuzco. It was in this country that St. Francis Solanus laboured among the Indians and Spaniards from about 1589 to 1610 when he died. Eleven of the religious houses of Peru were organized into the province of San Francisco de Quito in 1565. A convent of Conceptionist Sisters, a branch of Poor Clares, existed within the jurisdiction of this province. Another province, that of the Twelve Apostles of Lima, was formed of eleven other monasteries and seven minor convents among the Indians in 1565. It had been a custody since 1553. Both provinces are still in existence. The first Franciscan community in Chile was founded at Santiago in 1535. The first Bishop of Santiago, Martin Robleda, of the Friars Minor, was the founder. A custody was organized in 1553, and in 1565 the twelve convents of the country were united into the province of Santisima Trinidad. A convent of tertiaries existed at the same time. The territory along the Rio de la Plata (Argentina and Paraguay) became the scene of Franciscan activity as early as 1538. The Franciscan Juan Barrott was appointed first Bishop of Rio del Platain 1554. In 1592 a custody was organized, and in 1612 it was raised to the rank of a province under the invocation of Nuestra Sefiora de la Asuncién. Brazil is said to have been visited by Portuguese Franciscans as early as 1499 or 1501. Certain it is that three Friars Minor reached that country in April, 1584, and a custody was organized in the same year: In 1657 it became a province under the protection of San Antonio. In 1678 the province of the Immaculate Conception was established in the same territory. At present the order there is in a most flourishing condition. Bolivia was entered by the Friars Minor in 1606. A monastery was founded at Tarija in honour of St. Francis. A missionary college for the training of missionaries for the Indians was erected in the same city in 1755. Distant Patagonia saw the eee Friars Minor in 1578. There are no reports extant.
The Franciscans first landed in the Philippines on 24 June, 1577. Nine years later they had erected six monasteries and reported fourteen missions among the natives. These houses were united in the province of San Gregorio in 1586.
Father Pedro Melgarejo appears to have been the first Franciscan to enter Mexico. He arrived during the siege of the capital in 1521, but returned to Spain in the next year to defend Cortés. The first missionary work among the Indians was done by the three Flemish Franciscans, Fathers Juan de Tecto and Juan de Aora and Brother Pedro de Gante, who arrived in 1523. Father Martin de Valencia, with eleven friars, came from Spain to the Mexican capital on 13 May, 1524. These are known as the Twelve Apostles of Mexico. The impression they made all over New Spain was so deep that the natives were accustomed to date occurrences from the arrival of these twelve friars, under the caption “the year when the Faith came”. Two months after landing, Father Martin, as Apostolic delegate, convoked the first ecclesiastical council in the New World. Five secular priests, seventeen Franciscans, six secular doctors of canon law, and Hernando Cortés himself took part in the deliberations which opened on 2 July, 1524. On the same occasion the Franciscans were organized in the custody of the Holy Gospel, the first on the mainland, and the whole country divided into four missionary districts, which were Mexico, Texcoco, Huexocingo, and Tlascala. To each of these Father Martin assigned four friars. The secular priests as usual confined themselves to the spiritual wants of the Spaniards. In connexion with the principal convents the Fathers conducted the first schools in Mexico for Indian boys. A part of the buildings was generally set apart for the boys who made their home with the friars. Oftentimes as many as 600 and 800 children received instruction, food, and clothing from these religious. The instruction, besides Christian doctrine, comprised reading, writing, singing, instrumental music, and mechanical arts. These institutions were the first free boarding and manual labour schools on the American Continent. One of the Franciscan pupils, Father Alonzo de Molina, O.F.M., whose mother was a Spaniard, in 1555 published the “Vocabulario Castellan-Mexicano”. This work, containing 518 folio pages, is still regarded as a standard. Father de Gante himself translated hymns into the language of the Aztecs. The spiritual fruit was so abundant that Soléranzo y Pereira, according to Father Harold, claims that every one of the original twelve friars baptized no fewer than 100,000 Indians. Down to the year 1531, according to a report sent to the general chapter at Toulouse, one million natives had been baptized. The first high school for Indian youths was erected by the Franciscans at the Indian town of Tlatelulco, now a part of the capital. In the course of time the number of friars grew so rapidly all over Mexico that about the close of the sixteenth century the following fully organized provinces existed: Santo Evangelio de México, established in 1534; San José de Yucatan, organized in 1559; San Pedro y San Pablo de Michoacan, formed in 1565; San Francisco de Zacatecas, organized in 1603; San Diego de México (Alcantarines), established in 1606; and Santiago de Xalisco, organized in 1608. Fifty years later these provinces together reported two hundred monasteries and convents.
The peculiar character of the natives demanded missionaries specially trained. For this reason Apostolic colleges or seminaries were founded independent of the jurisdiction of the provinces but with the sanction of the Holy See. The first missionary college established and governed under rules approved by the pope was opened in the grand monastery of Santa Cruz at Querétaro, which for that purpose was set apart by the province of Michoacan in 1682. Another was founded at Guadalupe, Zacatecas, in 1707, by the Venerable Antonio Margil, the Apostle of Texas and Guatemala, and a third at the monastery of San Fernando in the City of Mexico in 1734. These three colleges furnished the heroic men who Christianized the Indians of Texas, Arizona, Sonora, and California. Other missionary colleges were those of Orizaba, Zapopan near Guadalajara, Pachuca in the State of Mexico, and Cholula in the State of Puebla. At the present time, owing to the anti-Christian laws prevailing in Mexico, which forbid religious to live in community, the Franciscan provinces and colleges have dwindled so that the number of friars scarcely exceeds the number of convents in the days of religious freedom. Mexico enjoys the distinction of having possessed the first nuns in America. The first convent of Tertiary Sisters was founded at the capital as early as 1525 for the purpose of teaching Indian girls. The Poor Clares were brought over from Spain in 1530 by the wife of the great conqueror Cortés. They occupied convents in the City of Mexico, Texcoco, and at Huexocingo. These Sisters conducted academies for the education of young girls, who in turn made themselves useful as teachers or Tertiary Sisters, or in taking care of altars in their native villages. The first Bishop of Mexico was the learned Juan de Zumérraga of the Franciscan Order. He had been nominated by Charles V on 12 December, 1527, and approved by Pope Clement VII. It was he who, late in 1537 or early in 1538, brought the first printing press to Mexico. The first book, a compendium of the Christian doctrine in both the Mexican and Spanish languages, was printed by his order in 1539. From that date to the close of the year 1600, 118 books were published in Mexico. Of this number the Franciscans alone brought out forty-one, comprising works on Christian doctrine, morals, history, and Indian-Spanish vocabularies or dictionaries. The remainder were published by Dominicans, Augustinians, secular priests, and others. Mexico also produced two Franciscan saints: St. Philip of Jesus, martyred in Japan, and Blessed Sebastian, whose remains are venerated at Puebla. From the earliest days the numerous Friars Minor were engaged’ in literary work. The most noted writers are Toribio de Benavente (Motolinia), Alonzo de Molina, Bernardino de Sahagtin, and Geronimo de Mendieta in the sixteenth century; Augustin de Vetancurt, Antonio Tello, Juan de Torquemada (the Livy of New Spain), Baltasar de Medina, and Pablo de Beaumont in the seventeenth century; Francisco de Ayeta, Isidro Felix de Espinoza, José Arlegui, Hermenegildo de Vilaplana, Juan Domingo Arricivita, and Francisco Paléu in the eighteenth century.
Father Juan Sudrez (Judrez, Xudrez), one of the Twelve Apostles of Mexico, was the first Franciscan to set foot within the present territory of the United States. He had been named Bishop of Florida. and Rio de las Palmas in 1527 along with the first Bishop of Mexico, and on 14 April, 1528, landed on the northwestern coast of Florida with three companions, for the purpose of converting the Indians. The whole expedition, which consisted of six hundred men under P&nfilo de Narvaez, was destroyed, and only four men are known to have escaped. The bishop-elect and his companions were most probably drowned in the gulf. In 1538 the Franciscan Juan de Torres, who had joined De Soto with eight secular priests, two Dominicans, and one Trinitarian, perished in the same territory like the others of that unhappy expedition. The Dominicans and Jesuits by turns made heroic efforts to win the natives, but after several of their number had been massacred by the savages, they abandoned the task as hopeless. The Friars Minor, beginning with the year 1573, made renewed attempts and laboured with such success that in 1610 the numerous missionary houses were united with those of Cuba in a custody, which two years later was elevated to the rank of province under the title Santa Helena de la Florida. It was the first organization of its kind in America north of Mexico. Juan de Copila was chosen first provincial. In 1634 there were reported 35 friars in charge of 44 Indian missions and mission stations, around which gathered as many as 30,000 converted Indians. This result was not achieved without much hardship and loss of life. Five of the Fathers were killed at their post by the savages, and one was held as a slave. In 1646 there were fifty friars scattered all over Florida. In 1702 and 1704 Governor Moore of the English Protestant colony of Georgia fell upon the flourishing missions, destroyed the buildings, killed or scattered the converts, or carried them into slavery, and butchered seven of the devoted missionaries in such a horrible manner that the historian John Gilmary Shea exclaims: “The martyrdom of the Franeiscans of Ayubale has no parallel in our annals, except in the deaths of Fathers Brébeuf, Lalemant, Daniel, and Garnier in the Huron country; but the butcheries perpetrated there were not enacted before the very eyes and by the order of the governor of a Christian (?) colony.” In 1763 Spain ceded Florida to England to recover Havana. The destruction of the Indian missions, which “under the rule of the Franciscans had been the diadem of the Church in Florida”, as Shea declares, and the subsequent cession of the territory to the hostile English, forced the Franciscans to leave the country along with most of the Spanish colonists. A few reappeared later, but no permanent settlement was again established. Their principal monastery in the city of St. Augustine had been confiscated, and is now a United States Government barracks. The last friar seems to have resided in Florida about the year 1795. These missionaries are also noted for the fact that one of their number, Francisco Pareja, in 1612 published a catechism in the language of the Timuquanan Indians. A “Confesario” by him was printed in the next year; a grammar in the Indian tongue followed in 1614, and an abridgment of Christian doctrine in 1627, the first books printed in the language of North American Indians, with the exception of Fr. Zumdarraga’s Compendium mentioned above.
In 1685 three French Franciscans and three Sulpicians accompanied Robert de la Salle into Texas as the first missionaries; the friars came exclusively for the Indians. With the exception of Father Athanasius Douay, the Rev. Cavalier, and a few of the men who escaped to Canada, all the members of this expedition were massacred, and the buildings destroyed. In 1689 the Spanish Franciscan Damian Mazanet arrived with a guard of soldiers. In the course of:time a large number of missions were established on the Gulf coast, in the region of San Sabe, and notably on the Rio San Antonio, but the War of Mexican Independence put an end to these establishments. The most noted among the friars were Antonio Margil, declared Venerable by Pope Gregory XVI, in 1836, and Isidro Espinoza, the author of the “Crénica Serdfica y Apostélica”, the standard work on the missions of Texas. Altogether about 160 Fathers and lay brothers toiled among the Texans under the most disheartening cir‘cumstances down to the beginning of the nineteenth century. Six of the friars were killed by the savages, and six are said to have perished in prairie fires. Since then the mission buildings have been deserted or turned to the use of parishes, and the Indian converts have disappeared.
Father Marcos de Niza, the same who founded the missions of Peru, discovered the territories of Arizona and New Mexico in the very heart of the continent in 1539, eighty-eight years before any English settlement was made on the sea-coast. One year later the same Father, in company with Fathers Juan de Padilla, Juan de la Cruz, and Brother Luis de Escalona, led Francisco Vasquez de Coronado to Zuni and to the Rio Grande del Norte near the present city of Santa Fé. When Coronado and his soldiers, disgusted at not finding the precious metal in quest of which they had come, abandoned the country in 1542, Padilla, La Cruz, and Escalona remained behind and established missions near Bernalillo and Pecos. Father Padilla after some success proceeded to the north-east and was killed by savages, possibly on the banks of the Platte River. Father Juan de la Cruz and Brother Escalona were murdered at the instigation of medicine men. Two Fathers and Brother Rodriguez re-entered New Mexico from the south in 1581 only to obtain the crown of martyrdom at the hands of some Pueblo Indians near Bernalillo. It was Brother Rodriguez who gave to the territory the name of New Mexico. At. ∗ the end of the sixteenth century concerted efforts on the part of the Franciscans protected by military guards resulted in numerous missions all over the territory and in northern Arizona among the Moquis. At most of these places the Fathers conducted schools for the Indian boys. During the revolt of August, 1680, sixteen Franciscans were massacred at their post in New Mexico and four others were put to death by the Indians of northern Arizona. Twelve years later other friars of the same province of the Holy Gospel, Mexico, succeeded in restoring most of the destroyed missions, but not till six of their number had been martyred by the treacherous savages. In all thirty-eight of the friars were killed for the Faith in New Mexico and northern Arizona. Three others were lost and probably suffered the same fate. From 1539 to about 1840 upwards of three hundred Franciscans laboured among the Indians in that territory. In October, 1897, at the request of the Most Rev. Peter Bourgade, the Cincinnati province accepted missions in New Mexico, and at present these Fathers are stationed among the Navaho Indians, among the Pueblos at Cochiti, Santo Domingo, San Felipe, and Jemes. In addition they have charge of parishes at Pefia Blanca, Carlsbad, and Roswell. In southern Arizona the Fathers of the missionary college of Santa Cruz, Querétaro, took charge of the Indian missions after the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767. In 1780 the famous Father Francisco Garces with three companions founded two missions near the mouth of the Gila River on the California side of the Rio Colorado; but all four were horribly butchered by the savages in July, 1781. Other friars, however, continued the missions among the Papago below Tucson, and towards the close of the eighteenth century erected the beautiful church at Del Bac which still commands the admiration of travellers. When Mexico won independence, the leaders, who hated the religious and more particularly the Franciscans, insisted on the expulsion of those of Spanish birth, and thus wrecked the missions, as nearly all the missionaries were Spaniards. The Franciscan proyince of St. Louis towards the close of 1895 agreed to the urgent appeal of the Right Rev. Peter Bourgade, Vicar Apostolic of Arizona, and accepted the parish in the city of Phoenix with all the surrounding missions among the Pima and other Arizona tribes. They conduct a large and flourishing school on a reservation near the Salt River.
California after the secularization (see CALIFORNIA Missions) retained most of the Fathers until their death. The missions fell into ruins or later came into the hands of the secular clergy. In 1840 the first Bishop of the two Californias was appointed in the person of the Franciscan Garcia Diego y Morena. In 1884 only the mission of Santa Barbara was still in charge of the friars who conducted a college there. To prevent the community from dying out it was incorporated into the province of the Sacred Heart of St. Louis. Since then the houses and friars have multiplied so that on the Pacific Coast the commissariat, which was organized in 1898, comprises 3 monasteries, 8 residences, 1 classical college for aspirants to the order, 1 orphanage for boys, 50 Fathers, 15 professed clerics, 45 lay brothers, and 4 novices.
The bigotry of some of the English settlers prevented the Franciscans from securing a-foothold in the Thirteen Colonies, though at the invitation of the Jesuits several friars came from England between the years 1672 and 1699. Persecutions at home made it impossible to train and supply successors. Individual friars found their way to New York, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky, but no permanent foundation was effected. Michael Egan, who became first Bishop of Philadelphia, arrived from Ireland in 1803 and tried to establish a house, but failed for want of subjects. A convent of Poor Clares enjoyed a short life at Pittsburg early in the thirties. In the great North-West and West, Belgian Franciscans penetrated to Michigan, Minnesota, and Illinois, but they too disappeared after a time, except at Detroit, where they continued until the close of the eighteenth century, and where one became a martyr. i
Not fill near the middle of the nineteenth century did the sons of the seraphic saint find it practicable to branch out from Austria, Germany, and Italy into the States. In 1844 the province of St. Leopold, Tyrol, resolved to grant the petition of the Right Rev. J. B. Purcell, Bishop of Cincinnati, and sent Father William Unterthiener. He was given charge of the newly organized German parish of St. John the Baptist. Many other Fathers and Brothers joined him, so that on 4 October, 1858, St. Francis. College could be founded for the education of aspirants to the order. In the following year the ten existing convents were united in an independent custody under the invocation of St. John the Baptist. In 1885 it became a province which at present numbers 5 monasteries, 31 residences, 137 Fathers, 50 professed clerics, 80 lay brothers, and 7 novices. The Fathers conduct an ecclesiastical college attended by 75 students, and are in charge of 84 parishes, 22 mission stations, including several Indian missions in New Mexico and Arizona, 41 parish schools attended by 9000 pupils and one Indian boarding school. They also publish ‘“ Der Sendbote”, a German monthly periodical for the Apostleship of Prayer, “ Der Franziskusbote”, “St. Anthony’s Messenger” for the German and English-speaking members of the Third Order, and “The Sodalist”, a monthly for the young.—At the urgent request of the Right Rev. Henry Damian Juncker, Bishop of Alton, Illinois, the province of the Holy Cross, Germany, in 1858 sent three Fathers and six lay brothers to Teutopolis. In the course of time many others followed, notably in consequence of the persecution inaugurated by Bismarck in Prussia, so that in 1879 the various convents were separated from the jurisdiction of the mother province and formed an independent province under the title of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. The mother-house is at St. Louis, Missouri. At present the province, including the commissariat of California which has convents in California, Arizona, and Oregon, is one of the largest in the order. It comprises 13 monasteries, 33 residences, 250 priests, 80 professed clerics, 190 lay brothers, and 12 novices. The Fathers are in charge of 42 parishes, 110 mission stations, including the Indian missions of Michigan, Wisconsin, California, and Arizona, 2 ecclesiastical colleges, with about 200 students, 1 classical and commercial college, attended by 150 students, 97 parish schools frequented by 17,500 children, 1 boys’ orphanage which cares for 250 children, 5 Indian boarding schools, and 4 Indian day schools. In addition to their missionary and scholastic labours, several Fathers have been engaged in literary work. They have published catechisms and prayer books in the languages of the Chippewa and Menominee, a Chippewa Indian grammar and exercise book, books of devotion, biographical works, several historical volumes, and a well-known Latin ceremonial. They also publish at Harbor Springs, Michigan, from their own press, the “ Anishinabe Enamiad” in the language of the Chippewa, and “The Messenger of the Holy Childhood”. Both are eight-page monthlies—Owing to the persecution of religious in Prussia, a number of friars from the province of St. Elisabeth, Thuringia, settled at Paterson, New Jersey, in 1875. In 1901 the several communities, joined by the English-speaking friars of the Italian custody, were united in a province under the protection of the Holy Name of Jesus. It now has 4 monasteries, 7 residences, 64 priests, 19 professed clerics, 46 lay brothers, and 3 novices. The Fathers are in charge of 10 parishes, 30 mission stations, 1 seminary and college (Allegany, N. Y.), 1 college for postulants, the College and Commissariat of the Holy Land, Washington, D.C., and 10 parish schools attended by 2200 children. They publish the “Pilgrim of Palestine” and “St. Anthony’s Almanac”. Father Paschal Robinson of the province published “The Writings of St. Francis”, “The Sayings of Blessed Giles”, “Introduction to Franciscan Literature”, and “The Life of St. Francis”.—At the request of the Right Rev. John Timon, Bishop of Buffalo, some Italian friars arrived at Buffalo in 1855. They established several convents in the States of New York, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. The custody of the Immaculate Conception was organized in 1861. It now comprises 2 monasteries, 5 residences, 28 Fathers, 1 professed cleric, and 4 lay brothers, in charge of 7 parishes, 7 mission stations, and 5 parish schools attended by 2400 pupils. The most noted of these Fathers was the Father Pamfilo da Magliano, the author of “St. Francis and the Franciscans”. He also founded the Missionary Sisters of St. Francis, who follow the Rule of the Third Order of St.Francis.—The Commissariat of Polish Franciscans in Wisconsin is composed of 8 Fathers, 2 professed clerics, 20 lay brothers, and 3 novices, who occupy 1 monastery and 2 residences. The Fathers have charge of 3 parishes, 1 mission station, 1 college attended by 25 students, and 4 parish schools frequented by 650 children.
The Franciscans (Recollects) first appeared in Canada in June, 1615, when the French Fathers Joseph le Caron, Denis Jamet, Jean d’Olbeau, and Brother Pacificus du Plessis arrived at Quebec. They at once devoted themselves to mission work among the Algonkin and Wyandot or Hurons along the Great Lakes. For commercial reasons the French traders were opposed to the civilization of the natives and gave the missionaries considerable trouble. After labouring amid incredible hardships, and finding that their forces were too weak, the friars invited the Jesuits to share the field with them. The first Jesuit missionaries arrived in 1625 and toiled side by side with the Franciscans. One of the friars, Nicholaus Viel, was killed by a savage and thus became the protomartyr of Canada. In 1629 the English captured Quebec and forced both the Franciscans and Jesuits to leave the country. Brother Gabriel Sagard, who had come in 1623, composed an Indian vocabulary of 132 pages, and’ described the country and its missions in two volumes. Some Franciscans in 1619 started a mission in Acadia or Nova Scotia. A few were still serving there in 1633, but nothing more is on record. Near the middle of the seventeenth century several French-Belgian Franciscans arrived in Canada, the most noted of whom, Father Louis Hennepin, passed Niagara Falls in December, 1678, and was the first to describe them in his “Description de la Louisiane” (Paris) and “Nouvelle Découverte” (Amsterdam). Hennepin penetrated beyond the Mississippi and in 1680 discovered St. Anthony’s Falls. Father Emanuel Cres- - pel and others came to Canada in 1726. He passed Great Falls and travelled as far as Fox River in Wisconsin. He seems to have been among the last Franciscans who toiled in Canada during the Colonial period. In 1888 the Very Rev. Frederic De Ghyvelde, of the French province, and one lay brother arrived at Three Rivers. Other Fathers followed, and now the three monasteries of Three Rivers, Montreal, and Quebec number 46 Fathers, 38 professed clerics, 47 lay brothers, and 7 novices. The Fathers are engaged in giving missions among the faithful.
Wanppine, Annales, XVI (Rome, 1740); Gonzaga, De Origine Seraphice Religionis, II, pt. LV (Rome, 1587); Prrusint, Chronologia Historico-Legalis, I (Naples, 1650); Harold, Epitome Annalium (Rome, 1662), sec. 2; Mmnpvipra, Historia Eclesiastica Indiana (Mexico, 1870); Torqurmapa, Monarquia Indiana (8 vols., Madrid, 1723); Vprancurt, Cronica (Mexico, 1697); Ipmm, Menologio Serdfico (Mexico, 1697); TELLo, Cr6nica Misceldnea, II (Guadalajara, 1891); Medina, Cronica (Mexico, 1682); Braumont, Cronica (4 vols., Mexico, 1873-74); ARLEGUI, Cronica (Mexico, 1851); Espinoza, Cronica Serafica (Mexico, 1746); Iprem, Cronica de Michoacan (Mexico, 1899); Arricivita, Cronica Apostolica (Mexico, 1792); V1ILAPLANA, Vida del Fr. Ant. Margil (Madrid, 1775); Icazbaloeta, Lr. Juan de Zumérraga (Mexico, 1881); Barcra, Ensayo Cronoldogico (Madrid, 1723); Vera, La Florida (Madrid, 1723); Co, Colon y La Rdbida (Madrid, 1892); Sacarp, GrandVoyage (Paris, 1632); Ippm, Histoire du Canada (Paris, 1636); HmnNnrEPin, Description of Louisiana (tr., New York, 1880); Marcelling pA CiVEZzA, Storia Universale delle Missioni Francescane, V-VII (Rome, Prato, Florence, 1861-1894); Vittorest, Il Collegio Francescano di Tarija (Quaracchi, 1885); Mageurano, St. Francis and the Franciscans (New York, 1867); Suna, The Catholic Church in Colonial Days (New York, 1886); Iprm, Catholic Misstons (New York, 1854); Enapiuarpt, The Franciscans in California (Harbor Springs, 1897); Ippm, The Franciscans in Arizona (Harbor Springs, 1899); Idem, The Missions and Missionaries of California (San Francisco, 1908).
Zephyrin Engelhardt.