Francis cans

(frăn-sis'kanz.) (Eccl. Hist.) One of the 4 orders of mendicant friars, otherwise called Grey Friars, Friars-Minor, or Minorites. It was founded ' 1208 by St. Francis of A isi, and received papal sanction in 1210 and 1223. Their rule inculcates complete austerity and absolute poverty, and they form one of the most widely-spread orders in the Catholic Church; being subdivided into several branches, such as the Capuchins, Clares, Frati cell i, . [s. 382]