Basil of Saint Francis

BASILIO di SAN FRANCESCO. — Discalced Carmelite (in the world Francesco de Quintal), missionary; born in 1595 at Santarem (Portugal) and professed at Montecompatri (Rome) in 1618. He founded (1623) the convent of Bassora, an outpost of the Carmelite mission in the East. He was the first to concern himself seriously with the Mandaeans (the so-called Christians of St John the Baptist), arranging for very many of them to be transferred to the Portuguese colonies in order to save them from extermination by the Turkish government. Sent as vicar to Mount Carmel (1654), he died there on 19 December of the same year. In addition to numerous letters, there is a report by him on the beginnings of the mission of Bassora (1623–36), published in the periodical Etudes Carm., vols. 12–14.