Capuchin

a branch of the monastic order of St. Francis. The order was a seceding body of men who desired to reform the Franciscans by a return to greater austerity of life. By a bull of Pope Clement VII, Capuchins obtained leave to wear a pointed hood or capuccio, from which comes the name Capuchins. "Consistently with the austerity of their professions, their churches were unadorned, and their convents built in the simplest style. They became very serviceable to the Church, and their fearlessness and assiduity in waiting upon the sick during the plague, which ravaged the whole of Italy, made them extremely popular." In the United States they have houses in New York, Milwaukee, and elsewhere.