Concrete polyvalence: the communio sanctorum

There is nothing I cherish more than belonging to the communio sanctorum. In light of my last post, my dear friend, Fred, offered this list of saints named Francis, in addition to those I wrote about previously:

Saint Francis of Paola (1416–1507), Italian (Calabrian) founder of the Order of the Minims

Saint Francis Borgia (1510–1572), Spanish Jesuit priest; third leader of the Jesuits

Saint Francis Solanus (1549–1610), Spanish Franciscan missionary to South America

St. Francis Borgia, the third Superior General of the Society of Jesus

Saint Francis Caracciolo (1563–1608), Italian priest who co-founded the Congregation of the Minor Clerics Regular

Saint Francis Ferdinand de Capillas (1607–1648), Castilian Dominican missionary; first Roman Catholic martyr killed in China

Saint Francis de Geronimo (1642–1716), Italian Jesuit priest


Since St. Frances of Rome, whose liturgical memorial we celebrated 9 March, was a woman, I think we can rule her out.

More and/and/and.. I think we'd have to agree that among these Sts. Francis of Assisi, Francis Xavier, and Francis de Sales stand out. I also think in the case of Pope Francis we have to narrow it down to St. Francis of Assisi and Francis Xavier. But who knows? I certainly make no claim to have exhausedt the polyvalent possibilities in my last post, or to know the mind of the Holy Father.

It's also fascinating to me that when the Society of Jesus (i.e., the Jesuits) were suppressed in the eighteenth century, it was the Franciscan, Pope Clement XIV, who suppressed them with his papal bull, promulgated in 1773, Dominus ac Redemptor.