Francis Ferdinand de Capillas

St. Francis Fernández de Capillas, O.P.
Missionary and Protomartyr of China
Born	August 15, 1607 Baquerín de Campos, Palencia, Spain
Died	January 15, 1648 Fu'an, Fujian, China
Venerated in	Roman Catholicism
Beatified	May 2, 1909 by Pope Pius X
Canonized	October 1, 2000 by Pope John Paul II
Major shrine	Dominican Priory of St. Paul Valladolid, Spain
Feast	January 15

Francis Fernández (or Ferdinand) de Capillas, O.P. (August 15, 1607 – January 15, 1648) was a Spanish Dominican friar who went as a missionary to Asia. He died in China as a martyr. He was canonized by Pope John Paul II on October 1, 2000, as one of the 120 Martyrs of China.

Capillas is honored by the Holy See as the protomartyr among the missionaries in China, and is considered the glory and pride of the Dominican Order.

Biography

De Capillas was born in Baquerín de Campos, Palencia, Spain, on August 14, 1607. At the age of 17 he entered the Order of Preachers, receiving the religious habit in the Dominican Priory of St. Paul in Valladolid. While still a deacon he was sent by his Order to do missionary work in the Philippines, landing in Manila during February 1631. Shortly after his arrival he was ordained as a priest.

De Capillas remained there for the next decade, working hard alongside his fellow friars. His own field of labor was the district of Tuao, Cagayan Valley, on the island of Luzon, where he was able to inspire a great flourishing of conversions. An apostolic soul and at the same very ascetic, he was able to join zeal to an extraordinary spirit of penance. He would take his short rest stretched out over a wooden cross and willingly not defending himself from the bites of the many insects infesting the region.

De Capillas considered that time spent in the Philippines as a period of preparation for a mission to China. At the Provincial Chapter held by the friars of the Order in Manila in 1641, he was given permission to transfer to the Order's mission there, soon transferring to that island, along with a friend, Friar Francisco Díez, O.P. He was one of the last Spanish missionaries in Taiwan before they were ousted from the island by the Dutch later that same year.

The two friars arrived in the Province of Fujian, on mainland China, in March 1642, where they joined a fellow Dominican who had survived an earlier period of persecution. They then embarked upon a fruitful period of evangelization among the Chinese people of the region, especially in the cities of Fu'an, Fogan and Ting-Moyang Ten. They were so successful that they were able to establish a community of the Third Order of Saint Dominic. On November 4, 1644, there was a huge change of fortune for the mission. That day, Díez died of natural causes. Later that same day, the Qing conquest of the Ming reached the city of Fu'an, where the missionaries were based. The new dynasty was hostile to Christianity and immediately began to persecute the Christians.

On November 13, 1647, De Capillas was captured while returning from Fogan, where he had gone to administer the sacraments to a sick person. Enduring many insults, he was taken to the worst local prison, where he suffered the torture of having his ankles crushed while being dragged. He was scourged, repeatedly bloodied, but he endured the tortures without cries of pain, so that judges and torturers were surprised at the end. He was moved, almost dying, to a prison where they locked up those criminals condemned to death. His conduct was uplifting, and aroused the admiration of others sentenced to death and even the prison guards themselves, who allowed food to be brought to him, that he not die of hunger.

While in prison, he wrote

I am here with other prisoners and we have developed a fellowship. They ask me about the Gospel of the Lord. I am not concerned about getting out of here because here I know I am doing the will of God. They do not let me stay up at night to pray, so I pray in bed before dawn. I live here in great joy without any worry, knowing that I am here because of Jesus Christ. The pearls I have found here these days are not always easy to find.

On January 15, 1648 De Capillas was sentenced to death on charges of disseminating false doctrines and inciting the people against new Emperor. His death sentence, by decapitation, was carried out at Fogan the same day. He thus became the first martyr within the vast Chinese empire.

Veneration

De Capillas was beatified by Pope Saint Pius X, May 2, 1909, along with 14 Chinese laypeople who had also died as martyrs. He was canonized as part of a group of 120 martyrs of China on October 1, 2000, by Pope John Paul II. Their collective memory is on remembered July 9, while the feast day of St. Francis Fernández de Capillas observed on January 15.

See also

• List of saints