Trinitarian Brothers

or ORDER OF THE MOST HOLY TRINITY for the Redemption of Captives, was founded by St. John of Matha, who was born at Faucon, Provence, in 1154. When he first celebrated divine service, after his ordination, he beheld a vision of an angel in white, having a cross of red and blue on his breast, and his hands, crossed over each other, rested on the heads of two slaves who knelt on each side of him. He, with another holy man, Felix de Valois, arranged the institution of a new order for the redemption of slaves. They went to Rome, and received the approval of Innocent III in 1198. They assumed the white habit, having on the breast a Greek cross of red and blue. They returned to France, and received from Gaucher de Chatillon lands in the province of Valois. The pope also gave them at Rome the church and convent of S. Maria della Navicella, on the Monte Celio. Honorius III confirmed their rule, and in 1267 Clement IV approved of a change in their rules permitting them to purchase meat and own horses. They had at one time two hundred and fifty convents in France, three in Spain, forty-three in England, fifty-two in Ireland, besides others in Portugal, Italy, Saxony, Hungary, and Bohemia. In 1594 the Barefooted branch of this order was begun by Jean Baptiste de la Conception in the convent of Valde. Spain. He was granted a bull by Clement VIII in 1598 to establish a reform in his order and lead them back to the ancient practice. The founders of the Trinitarians placed themselves under the protection of St. Radegunda, queen of Clothaire V of France, who afterwards took the religious habit and founded a monastery at Poitiers.) See Jameson, Leg. of Monastic Orders, p.217 sq.; Migne, Dict. des Ordres Relig. s.v.