FRANCISCO FERNÁNDEZ DE CAPILLAS, Blessed. — Spanish Dominican, missionary and martyr, born at Baquerín de Campos on 14 Aug. 1607, died near Fuan (Fo-Kien) on 15 Jan. 1648. After ten years of mission work in the Philippines (1632–42), where he was also vicar of Cayagan and Tuá, he went to China, where he gathered a good harvest of conversions despite the impoverishment caused by war and persecution. Surprised near Fuan, after a harrowing imprisonment, he was beheaded. He was beatified by Pius X (2 May 1909) and his feast assigned to 15 Jan.
We possess an interesting account of his mission in China, written during his imprisonment.
BIBL.: AAS, I (1909), pp. 452–58; A. M. Bianconi, Vita del B. F. da C., Roma 1909; A. Huonder, Bannerträger des Kreuzes, I, Freiburg im Br. 1913, pp. 19–50; B. Bierman, Die Anfänge der neuen Dominikanermission in China, Münster 1927; Streit, V, pp. 787 and 951.