Franciscan

American  

[fran-sis-kuhn] / frænˈsɪs kən /

adjective

1. of or relating to St. Francis or the Franciscans.

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noun

1. a member of the mendicant order founded by St. Francis in the 13th century.

Franciscan British  

/ frænˈsɪskən /

noun

1. 1. a member of any of several Christian religious orders of mendicant friars or nuns tracing their origins back to Saint Francis of Assisi; a Grey Friar

   2. ( as modifier )

      a Franciscan friar

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Etymology

Origin of Franciscan

1585–95; < Medieval Latin Francisc ( us ) St. Francis of Assisi + -an

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Franciscan

A new San Gabriel mission was being built, five years after Franciscan missionaries had founded the original mission in a flood zone, which flooded.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 2, 2026

Paolo Benanti, a Franciscan Friar of the Third Order and a Catholic priest, teaches moral philosophy at Luiss Guido Carli University and is a professor of ethics of technology at Seattle University.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 29, 2026

The 68-year-old San Franciscan has helped put many Democratic candidates in office as one of the party’s biggest political donors in the past two decades, but has never held public office himself.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 6, 2026

The company, which celebrated its 50th birthday this week, was started by two Steves in a San Franciscan garage.

From BBC ● Apr. 4, 2026

Furthermore, the parish priest arranged for her to travel under the care of a group of Franciscan nuns who were going to Toledo, where they hoped to find dependable people to accompany her to Belgium.

From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez