CAPUCHIN
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CAPUCHIN
tured by the Turks. The friars were similarly em-
ployed in the struggles of the German princes against
the Turks in the seventeenth century. St. Laurence
of Brindisi, in 1610, went as chaplain general with the
Christian army, and so did Venerable Mark of Aviano,
in 1687. It is pleasing to note that the friars ob-
tained, from Gregory XIII, power to absolve Chris-
tians who, during the wars, freed or hid captive Turks.
They were moreover not infrequently commissioned to transact affairs of state. St. Laurence of Brindisi was sent as ambassador by the Emperor Rudolph to solicit the alliance of Spain with the Catholic League of Germany. Gregory XIII employed the Capuchins to negotiate for the ransom of Christian captives in Algiers. Father Giacinto da Casale was commis- sioned by Gregory XV to unite the Catholic princes of Germany in defence of the Faith. Sometimes their personal influence, without any official status, enabled them to intervene with success in public mat- ters, as in Switzerland, when the canton of Appenzell was hesitating whether to ally itself with the Catholic cantons or with the Protestant, the Capuchins went in and drew Appenzell to the Catholic side. In simi- lar fashion, in 1637, a Swiss Capuchin acted as arbi- trator in the canton of Aargau. These public acts testify to the great influence acquired by the friars in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; but their in- fluence was gained by hard and strenuous labours both as home and as foreign missionaries. They were to be found everywhere, preaching and minister- ing to the people. Not only were they established in almost every country of Europe, but as foreign mis- sionaries their activity seems almost incredible. At the general chapter of 1662 the list of foreign missions served by the friars included the Congo, Benin, Mo- rocco, Egypt, Ethiopia, Smyrna, Mingrelia, Cyprus, Mesopotamia, Chaldea, Ecbatana, Kurdistan, Persia, Tatary, Brazil, New Granada, Canada, Morea, the Grecian Archipelago, whilst they also had missions, under Propaganda, in Rhtetia, the Grisons, and the Valtellina.
As "home" missionaries they were mainly instru- mental in reforming the pulpit, substituting solid teaching, with burning and convincing piety, for the vapid rhetoric so common amongst the preachers of the sixteenth century. Their object was always to reach the heart of the people. To be convinced of the solidity and piety of their preaching, one has only to consult the many books of sermons and treatises of devotion which the missionary friars have left us. According to Baronius and the chroniclers of the order, the devotion of the Quarant' Ore owes its origin to the missionary zeal of the Capuchins. Father Giu- seppe da Ferno is said to have been the first to expose the Blessed Sacrament for forty hours' prayer, during a mission he was preaching in the Duomo at Milan, in 1637. Giuseppe da Ferno certainly wrote a treatise on the method of the Quarant' Ore, and from this time we find frequent mention of the devotion in the mis- sionary chronicles of the order. But the supreme monument to their missionary zeal is the Congrega- tion of the Propaganda itself. This congregation was instituted by Gregory XV, in 1622, at the suggestion of Father Girolamo da Narni, Vicar-General of the Reform. He was a noted preacher and experienced in missionary labours. When the congregation was established, its first prefect was the Capuchin Car- dinal of Sant' Onofrio; and its first martyr was another Capuchin, St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen, whom the Prop- aganda had appointed Prefect of the Mission of Rhsetia. The friars had already been established for some years in Switzerland, whither they had been called by St. Charles Borromeo in his capacity as Pro- tector of the Catholics in those parts. The saint, backed by Pope Gregory XIII, had requested the general chapter of 1581 to send friars thither, and the chapter had at once acceded to the request. Such
was their success in combating the errors of the Cal-
vinists and in preserving the Faith in many cantons
that to this day they are accorded a privileged posi-
tion in the churches of the Catholic cantons as con-
fessors and preachers. It was in the Grisons that
Saint Fidelis was martyred, in 1622. Here the Cal-
vinists had practically gained over the whole popula-
tion, as also in the Valtellina, and only by heroic
efforts were the friars able to keep alive any remnant
of the Faith. The missions in these parts are still
under the jurisdiction of the Capuchins.
In Savoy the friars, under the leadership of Father Cherubino da Mariana, the friend of St. Francis of Sales, were at work in 1596, and the mission of Thonon was especially given into their charge in 1610. Father Cherubino also introduced the friars into the Vallese in 1610, at which time, as St. Francis of Sales re- ported, the religious condition of that country seemed hopeless. Under St. Laurence of Brindisi twelve Capuchins were sent, in 1599, to combat the influence of Protestantism in Germany, where by their public controversies with Protestants, as well as by their preaching, they did much to win back many to the Faith. They rapidly established houses in all parts of Southern Germany, and in 1611 they were estab- lished in the Rhine Provinces by Father Francis Nu- gent, a distinguished Irish friar.
On the foreign missions they were equally energetic. The first foreign mission was undertaken in 1551, when two friars were commissioned by Julius III to go to Constantinople. They were, however, expelled, after being imprisoned and tortured. But we find them shortly afterwards in Crete, where Father Ignazio d'Apiro established five missionary centres in two years, besides a hospital at Canea. He was a man well versed in Oriental languages. He died in 1569. About this time two Capuchins were put to death in Palestine. But it was at the general chapter of 1581 that the friars put their hand definitively to the matter of foreign missions. They then obtained a faculty from Sixtus V to send missionaries to the East, and a band of friars, amongst whom was St. Joseph of Leonissa, were despatched to Constanti- nople. Imprisonment and torture awaited them; but from that time the friars have held fast to their mis- sions in the Turkish dominions. In 1623 the Propa- ganda commissioned the Capuchins to found missions in Syria, Egypt, and Abyssinia. Six friars were sent to Constantinople, where they at once established a school for the study of Oriental languages; others went to Aleppo, Alexandria, and Armenia. Their method was to open schools wherever they settled, and they were active in publishing books. As a re- sult of their labours in Syria at this time, a schismatic Armenian metropolitan and a schismatic Greek met- ropolitan sought reunion with the Church. In 161S the general chapter, at the request of Paul V, sent missionaries to the Congo. They encountered great difficulties, owing to the Dutch traders, and success seemed hopeless. Yet they struggled on till 1654, when a fresh effort was made, and a new band of mis- sionaries was sent out, including Father G. Antonio Cavazzi, the writer of a well-known work on the Congo.
From Aleppo friars were sent, in 1630, to Cairo, under the leadership of the Blessed Agathange de Vendome, one of the most remarkable missionaries of the seventeenth century. He was an Arabic scholar, and had published hooks in Arabic setting forth the Catholic Faith. On the coming of the friars to Cairo Urban VIII addressed a letter to the Catho- lics in Egypt, bidding them welcome the frinrs and accord them every assistance. But unhappily the friars found that their work amongst the Copts, for whose reunion with the Roman See they more par- ticularly laboured, was hindered chiefly by the scan- dalous lives of the European Catholic merchants.
