FRANCESCO DI PAULA, or SAINT FRANCIS OF PAOLA, Italian monk: b. Paula or Paola, Calabria, 1416; d. Plessis-les Tours, 2 April 1507. At the age of 13 he was the inmate of a Franciscan convent; and at 19 retired to a cave where he inflicted on him self every species of self-mortifioation. The fame of his piety having attracted to his cell several emulators of his austere life, he ob tained permission to erect a convent, and the new community received from Pope Sixtus IV the title of the Hermits of Saint Francis of Assisi; but the title was changed by Alexander VI to Minim-Hermits of Saint Francis of Paola. The founder established numerous com munities in Italy, Sicily, France, Spain and Germany, but the Minims were never settled in Great Britain or Ireland. To the usual con ventual vows, Francesco added one of the most rigorous abstinence — flesh, eggs, cheese and milk being strictly forbidden the entire year, except in illness. In Spain they were called
the Brothers of Victory, in commemoration of the deliverance of Malaga from the Moors. Twelve years after his death he was canonized by Leo X, and the Roman Catholic Church celebrates his festival on 2 April.
fransh-kom'ti, a province of Old France, now formed into the departments of Doubs, Haute-Saone, Jura and part of Ain. It was the homeland of the ancient Sequani. It had a chequered history throughout the entire period of the Middle Ages, passing from one robber-baron to an other, until it passed to Lotus XIV by the Treaty of Nimeguen in 1678. Cuvier and Victor Hugo are among its famous sons. Besancon, the ancient Vesontio, was the capi tal of the province. See FRANCE - HISTORY.