CAPILLAS, FRANCISCO FERNÁNDEZ de Capillas, blessed. — Spanish Dominican, missionary and martyr, born at Baquerín de Campos on 14 August 1607, died near Fuan (Fo-Kien) on 15 January 1648. After ten years of missionary work in the Philippines (1632–42), where he was also vicar of Cayagan and Tuá, he went to China, where he gathered a rich harvest of conversions despite the raging war and persecutions. Surprised near Fuan, after a torturous imprisonment, he was beheaded. He was beatified by Pius X (2 May 1909), and his feast was assigned to 15 January.
We have an extremely interesting account of the mission in China written by him during his imprisonment.
BIBL.: AAS, 1 (1909), pp. 452–58; A. M. Bianconi, Vita del B. F. da C., Roma 1909; A. Huonder, Baumerträger des Kreuzes, I, Friburgo in Br. 1913, pp. 19–50; B. Bierman, Die Anfänge der neuen Dominikanermission in China, Münster 1927; Streit, V, pp. 787 and 951. Celestino Testore