FRIAR: A corruption of frater, the distinguishing title of the members of the Mendicant Monks (q.v.).

FRICKE, GUSTAV ADOLF: German Lutheran; b. at Leipsic Aug. 23, 1822; d. in Leipsic March 30, 1908. He studied at the university of his native city, where he 'became privat-docent in 1846. In 1849 he was appointed associate professor of theology in the same university, and in 1851 went to Kiel as full professor of theology. In 1865 he returned to Leipsic as chief catechist at St. Peter's, and in 1867 was appointed professor of New Testament exegesis, ethics, and dogmatics. He wrote Die Erhebung zum Hems im Gebete (Leipsic, 1850); Lehrbuch der Kirchengeschichte, i. (1850); Gottesgriisse (sermons; 2 vols., 1883-86); and Aus dem Feldxuge 1888, Briefs aus dem Fdde and Predigteu and Reden im Felde (1891).

FRIDOLIN (FRIDOLD): Reputed founder of the monastery of SSekingen (on the Rhine, 20 m. above Basel), which is first mentioned as presented by Charles the Fat in 878 to his wife. According to the detailed but unreliable life by Balther, a monk of St. Gallen of the tenth or eleventh century, Fridolin was born in Ireland of noble parents. He

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received an excellent education, and decided to become a priest. After preaching the Gospel in his own country he went to Gaul as a missionary, making his abode at Poitiers. Here he occupied himself chiefly with collecting relics of St. Hilary, and the saint appeared to him in a vision and exhorted him to revive his cult. With the aid of Clovis, the ruler of the Franks, he erected a church for the bones of Hilary, who then commanded him to go to Alemannia to an island in the Rhine. After founding a monastery and several church on the Rhine he finally reached the island (Sackingen), and founded a church and a nunnery there. He was highly esteemed for saintliness and on account of the miracles which he wrought. This report was written about 500 years after the date of the alleged events. Balther claims to have taken his account from an older biography of Fridolin, but this is doubtful, and the whole history seems to have been Balther's invention as it fits into neither the reign of Clovis I. nor that of Clovis II.

(A. Hauck. .)

Bibliography: Balther's life, ed. B. Krusch, in in MGH, Script rer. Merov., iii (1898), 350-369, and with a thirteenth century German transl., in F. J. Mons, Quellensammlung der badiwhhenn Landesgeschichte, i. 1-17, 99 111, Carleruhe, 1848. Consult Rettberg, KD, ii. 29 sqq.; Friedrich, KD, ii. 411 sqq.; Hauck, KD, i. 328; J. H. A. Ebrard, Die irosdwttisc&e Missionakirche, p. 288, Gütersloh, 1873; H. Leo, Der Wigs Fridolin, Freiburg, 1886; Wattenbach, DGQ, i. 620; ADB, vii. 385-387.