FRATELLI PELLEGRINI. - The designation in the Middle Ages for the missionary friars of the Order of S. Domenico. Since they did not belong to any particular province, they were subject to their own vicar, who, as supreme head of the Dominican missions, governed the society in the name of the master general.
Their origins date back to the beginning of the fourteenth century (1304?). The first vicar seems to have been fra Franco da Perugia, later (1 Apr. 1318) archbishop of Sultinijjah. The F. P. rendered great services to the Asian missions. Their principal convents were those of Pera, Caffa, Chios, and Trebisonda; moreover, they possessed a fluctuating number of residences, that is, missionary stations, especially in Armenia, Persia, and southern Russia.
After the year 1378 they also spread into Galicia, Podolia, and Moravia. At the beginning of the seventeenth century (1603?) the ancient society of the F. P. took the name Congregation of the East, with its principal seat at Costantinopoli. Its definitive suppression took place in 1857. The houses still in existence were assigned to the Dominican province of S. Pietro martire del Piemonte.