The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (807 page)

 
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Franciscans
.

Christian religious orders derived from
St Francis
and St Clare of Assisi. Basic to them is the initial determination of Francis that they should be brothers and sisters ‘living according to the form of the Holy Gospel’.

 
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Francis
(François de Sales)
(Christian bishop and spiritual director)
:

see
DE SALES
.

 
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(1506–52).
Spanish
Roman Catholic
(
Jesuit
) priest and missionary to Asia, canonized, 1622: feast day 3 Dec. Xavier was won over by his Basque fellow countryman,
Ignatius
Loyola, to become one of the original band of the Society of Jesus (he was one of those who took vows with him at Montmartre in 1534). Xavier committed himself to obey the pope's command to serve in the already vast and growing overseas colonies of Portugal and sailed for India on 7 Apr. 1541, arriving in Goa a year later.
Xavier's commission from both the king of Portugal and the pope extended to the whole of Asia, and he spent some months of 1546 and 1547 in what is now Indonesia. His primary goal, however, was Japan, and with a Japanese convert and a small band of co-workers landed on Kagoshima on 15 Aug. 1549. Xavier remained in Japan only two years and three months, leaving about 2,000 Christians to the ministrations of fellow Jesuits, after which he returned to Goa and then came back to die on an island near the coast of China on 3 Dec. 1552. His body was taken to Goa, where it is still venerated.
Among Xavier's greatest contributions to the mission to Japan was his deep and growing respect for the Japanese as persons and as bearers of a high culture which could be the foundation of Christian life.

 
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Francke, A. H.
(Pietist devoted to the poor)
:

see
PIETISM
.

 
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(1726–91).
Founder of a Jewish sect. Born in Poland, Frank declared himself to be
messiah
and the successor of
Shabbetai Zevi
. He was
excommunicated
in 1756 after he had attracted many disciples and had been accused of encouraging sexual immorality. Jacob appealed to the bishop of Kamenetz-Podolsk who offered protection in exchange for the Frankists renouncing the
Talmud
. The Frankists also declared their belief in the Trinity of the three ‘equal faces’. Initially Frankists only married within the sect, but by the mid-19th cent., the number of mixed marriages increased and many of their descendants became prominent members of the Polish nobility.

 
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