Angelus a S. Francisco (b. in Wiltshire

Wiltshire

Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...

, 1599; d. at Douai

Douai

-Main sights:Douai's ornate Gothic style belfry was begun in 1380, on the site of an earlier tower. The 80 m high structure includes an impressive carillon, consisting of 62 bells spanning 5 octaves. The originals, some dating from 1391 were removed in 1917 during World War I by the occupying...

, 30 December 1678) was an English (or Irish) Franciscan

Franciscan

Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....

 writer.

Life

He was ordained priest at Douai four years after his profession in the Franciscan Order (1629). He rapidly became eminent in the order, being created a doctor of divinity and appointed successively to the high administrative offices of definitor

Definitor

A definitor is, in Latin, he who defines. In the Catholic Church, however, this is a title with different specific uses. There are secular definitors, who have a limited amount of oversight over a part of a diocese...

, guardian, and visitor of the province of Brabant

Duchy of Brabant

The Duchy of Brabant was a historical region in the Low Countries. Its territory consisted essentially of the three modern-day Belgian provinces of Flemish Brabant, Walloon Brabant and Antwerp, the Brussels-Capital Region and most of the present-day Dutch province of North Brabant.The Flag of...

.

Elected provincial in 1659, he visited Paris in an unsuccessful attempt to obtain permission for the settlement there of a colony of Franciscan sisters from the convent at Nieuport

Nieuport

Nieuport, later Nieuport-Delage, was a French aeroplane company that primarily built racing aircraft before World War I and fighter aircraft during World War I and between the wars.-Beginnings:...

, Flanders

Flanders

Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...

 to which he had heen confessor. From 1662 to 1675 he lived in England, as domestic chaplain to Henry Arundell, 3rd Baron Arundell of Wardour

Henry Arundell, 3rd Baron Arundell of Wardour

Henry Arundell, 3rd Baron Arundell of Wardour, PC was a Peer of England during the 17th century, and the most famous of the Lords Arundell of Wardour. He served as Lord Privy Seal and Lord High Steward, and was appointed to the Privy Council...

, after which period he retired to the convent at Douai.

Works

He displayed industry in both original composition and the compilation of devotional manuals. The latter include his "Manuale Tertii Ordinis S. Francisci" with a commentary on the Rule, and meditations (Douai, 1643), "The Rule of Penance of the Seraphical Father St. Francis" (Douai, 1644); "Sacrarium privilegiorum quorundam Seraphico P. S. Francisco ... indultorum" (Douai, 1636).

Among his historical writings are "Certamen Seraphicum Provinciae Angliae pro Sancta Dei Ecclesia" (Douai, 1649), a review of distinguished English Franciscan martyrs and polemical writers, and "Apologia pro Scoto Anglo" (Douai, 1656). The last-named work has for its main scope the establishment, against Colgan

Colgan

Colgan is an Irish surname, an Anglicized form of Irish Ó Colgáin meaning ‘descendant of Colga’, a personal name based on colg ‘thorn’, ‘sword’.Colgan may refer to:-People:*Charles J...

, for the thesis that Duns Scotus

Duns Scotus

Blessed John Duns Scotus, O.F.M. was one of the more important theologians and philosophers of the High Middle Ages. He was nicknamed Doctor Subtilis for his penetrating and subtle manner of thought....

, was not an Irishman, but an Englishman.

His "Liturgical Discourse of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass" (s. 1, 1670, dedicated to Henry, Lord Arundell of Wardour, "Master of the Horse to our late Queen Mother Henrietta Maria"), was abridged in the "Holy Altar and Sacrifice Explained" which Father Pacificus Baker

Pacificus Baker

Pacificus Baker , was a Franciscan friar.Baker was the procurator and definitor of his order, and was twice elected provincial of the English province, first in 1761 and secondly in 1770. He appears to have been attached to the Sardinian chapel in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and he certainly attended at...

, O. S. F., published at the request of Bishop James Talbot

James Talbot

James Talbot was the last English Roman Catholic priest to be indicted in the public courts for saying Mass.He was born in Isleworth, Middlesex on 28 June 1726, a younger son of the Honourable George Talbot and Mary FitzWilliam...

(London, 1768).