Protestants precisely when violence was the usual recourse for religious controversy Francis’s father expected him to be either a lawyer or a military officer and raised him accordingly, sending him to the University of Paris to study rhetoric and humanities under the Jesuits and then to the Padua Law School He was not much interested in the hidebound teachings of the Dominicans and Jesuits, consummate Scholastics who followed the old ideas of Thomas Aquinas He found himself fascinated by the new ideas of the Protestant reformer John Calvin, who taught predestination Struggling with doubts, he finally came to the conclusion, at age 19, that his main concern was to love God in this life and to entrust his eternal fate to the hands of this God During Francis’s days in law school he resolved to become a priest He became involved with the Catholic diocese of Geneva-Annecy, an area particularly hard-hit by Protestant proselytism He was ordained in 1593, and through some papal connections was appointed provost of the diocese Francis’s position allowed him to begin a mission to the resident Protestants He conceived it as based on charity toward the poor, care of the sick, and evangelical preaching instead the conventional CounterReformation tactics of law and military force Francis endured daily hardships of harassment, cold, violence, and threats When offered another diocese by Henry IV, he refused, saying, “Sire, I am married; my wife is a poor woman, but I cannot leave her for a richer one.” Miracles were associated with his mission The area, Protestant for some 60 years, largely returned to the Catholic Church within four years Francis soon became bishop of Geneva, where his patience and mildness became proverbial He often dared to walk the streets of the city where Calvin had his headquarters 50 years earlier In fact he dialogued with the reformed leader and scholar Theodore Beza Though again plagued by doubts, his philosophy was “Love will shake the walls of Geneva; by love we must invade it.” Francis produced a stream of writings that proved that the pen was mightier than the sword Among his most famous books were Introduction to the Devout Life (1608) He also became renowned as a spiritual director, having a profound effect on the founders of two Catholic Counter-Reformation orders, later declared saints, Vincent de Paul and Jane de Chantal Protestant King James of England and Scottish Calvinists in Aberdeen read his literature He had a vast correspondence, perhaps sending out 20,000 letters Franciscans in the Americas 135 He suffered an agonizing death in 1622, was beatified by Pope Alexander VII only 39 years later, and was canonized by 1665 He was declared doctor of the church in 1877 partly for his irenic affects on religious dissent and patron saint of journalists and writers in 1923 Among the organizations that claim direct connection with him today are Visitation Sisters, Missionaries of St Francis de Sales, Oblates of St Francis de Sales, Salesians of Don Bosco, and the St Francis de Sales Association See also Dominicans in the Americas; Loyola, Ignatius of, and the Society of Jesus Further reading: Bedoyere, Michael de la Saint Maker: The Remarkable Life of Francis de Sales, Shepherd of Kings and Commoners, Sinners and Saints Manchester, NH: Sophia Institute Press, 1998; Ravier, André Francis de Sales, Sage and Saint San Francisco: Ignatius, 1988 Mark F Whitters Franciscans in the Americas The Franciscans sent the greatest number of missionaries to minister in the New World This is quite likely due to the fact that they were the largest order in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries In 1493, there were some 22,000 friars participating in various Franciscan observances A large number of them were in Spain By 1517, this number had grown to 30,000, mainly due to reforms initiated by Cardinal Francisco de Cisneros in the simpler more relaxed Observant reform (which retained the name Order of Friars Minor) The Franciscan order has had a history marked by reforms and divisions In 1517, Pope Leo X divided into two independent groups disgruntled Franciscans still unsatisfied by the medieval attempts at reform The result was a Conventual Franciscan group (those resisting change) and the Observant group, which would be called Friars Minor A Capuchin reform surfaced in 1528 and became an independent group by 1619 (Order Friars Minor Capuchin) Among the three groups, the Franciscans had an overwhelming majority of religious representatives in the New World It has been suggested by historians that Franciscan missionaries, Friars Juan de la Deule and Juan de Tisin along with Father Ramón Pané, were the first members of a religious order to come to the Americas These men accompanied Christopher Columbus in 1493 during his second expedition They had been sent by a special