Minor

or FRANCIS CAN FRIARS. The founder of the Mi ion of the Minor Friars in China was John of Monte Corvino who is mentioned by several contemporary writers but is chiefly known to us by his own letters. He was born about the year 1247. In 1272 he was already a Minorite and employed in diplomatic service. About 1280 he seems to have gone as a mi ionary CO Persia. In 1289 he left Europe as Papal envoy to Khubilai, and reached Khanbalig (Peking) in 1294, after Kiiubilai's death. There he made friends with and converted to the Catholic faith the Nestor i an king George (v. Nestor i an Christians), and, perhaps in consequence 'of this, suffered persecution from the Nestor i ans until George's death in 1298. When he wrote his first letter in 1305 he had built one Church at Khanbalig and was beginning a second. He had bought forty small boys whom he had baptized and trained to sing the services, and had translated both the Psalms and the New Testament into Mongol or, more probably, Uighur. His second letter was written in 1306. About 1304 he had been joined by a German brother named Arnold. As a result of the reception of his letters seven bishops were sent by the Pope in 1307 to consecrate JcHN and make him Archbishop and to help him in hie work. After immense hardships three of these— Gerard, Peregrine, and IMG:p387_1.png:Chinese characters of Perugia— seem to have reached Khanbalig in the year 1313. They consecrated John, and then we hear no more of them except as bishops succe ively of Zaitun or Ch'iian-chou IMG:p387_2.png:Chinese characters in Fukien, where two or three Churches were built. From Zaitun, in 1326, Andrew wrote a most interesting letter which is preserved with John's two letters in a contemporary Chronicle (MS. Latin 5006 in the Bibliotheque Nation ale, Paris) which has not been printed in full. John of Monte Corvino died at Khanbalig about the year 1329, and was buried there. The Mi ions both at Khanbalig and at Zaitun are mentioned by Odoeic, c, 1326, and by » Wen Hsicn T'ling K'ao. John de Marignolli, 1342-47, but nothing more of importance is known of them. A succe or to John, named Nicholas, was appointed in 1333, but died, c. 1339, before he reached Khanbalig; James of Florence, Archbishop of Zaitun, suffered martyrdom in central Asia in 1362; and the mi ions did not survive the Mongol dynasty. Near Ch'iian-chou three stones engraved with cro es were found in the 17th century. The woodcuts of these published at Hang-chou in 1644, and the photograph of one which still survives IMG:p387_3.png:Chinese characters 1914) show very marked Buddhist features combined with the cro es. The fruit of this heroic effort of the Minor Friars seems to have been small. Numbers of heathen, Andrew tells us, were baptized, "but being baptized they walk not rightly in the way of Christianity." Francis can Mi ions are of three divisions; (i) Spanish Mi ions. P. Pierre de Alfaro founded the Convent of N. D. des Anges in' Macao in 1580. There was also a convent in Formosa from 1636 till the taking of the island by the Dutch in 1642. Spanish Francis cans came to Fukien in 1635 and only left it finally in 1863. At Chi-nan fu in Shantung the church of N. D. des Anges was built in 1661. They had a chapel in Kuangtung in 1674. They worked also in Hainan, in Kiangsi (1687), in Chekiang (1700). and in Kiangnan. (ii) Italian Mi ions. Italian mi ionaries were sent by the Propaganda, first in 1680, then in 1697. They penetrated as far as Lan-chou fu in Kansu. Many Vicars-apostolic of the north-west were drawn from their ranks. (iii) Portuguese Francis cans. They had an establishment at Macao, but little is known of their mi ionary work. They furnished a bishop to each of the three dioceses, Macao, Nanking and Peking. See Vicariats; Congregations. Wadding: Annates Minorum, 2nd ed., 1733, etc., and other collections of letters, etc., from the Papal Registers; Ytjle: Cathay and the Way thither, new ed., London, 1913-16; Pelliot: Chretiens d'Asie Centrale et d' Extreme-Orient, in T'oung-pao, 1914; Moxjle: The Minor Friars in China, in R.A.S. Journal, 1914, 1917.