FRANCESCO da PAMPLONA. - Known as “The Spanish Capuchin,” a singular figure both as a man of arms and as a Capuchin lay brother, in the world Tiburcio de Redin, born in Pamplona on 11 Aug. 1597, died at La Guayra (Venezuela) on 31 Aug. 1651.
Of noble family, by ability and valour he became a great admiral and commander-in-chief; in 1637 he converted to the penitential life of the Capuchins and promoted the missionary movement through his influence and example. Through his good offices with Filippo IV, the expedition of p. Bonaventura da Alessano, which he joined, founded the first mission in the Congo in 1645. Having returned to Europe, in 1646 he sought aid and gave support to the missions in London, Rome, and Madrid. In 1647–48 he collaborated in the establishment of the Capuchin mission in the region of Darién (Colombia-Panama); in 1650 he carried out missionary activity in the Cumaná region (Venezuela). After his death on the return journey, the fame of his life, which had become almost legendary, and of his virtues kept his tomb an object of veneration for a long time.
Bim.: Matheo de Anguiano, Vida y virtudes de el Capuchino Español, el V. siervo de Dios F. de P., Madrid 1904; Rocco da Cosinale, Storia delle missioni dei Cappuccini, III, Rome 1873, pp. 527–44, 577, 712–16; Clementa de Terzorio, Le missioni dei Min. Cappuccini, X, ibid. 1938, pp. 370–98; Melchor e Pobladura, Historia generalis Ordinis Min. Capuccinarum, part 2°, II, ibid. 1948, pp. 354–55, 505–07; Documentos históricos: Fray Francisco de Pamplona. La misión del Congo, in Boletín oficial de la provincia capuchina de Navarra-Cantabria-Aragón, 3 (1948), pp. 67–73. Ilarino da Milano