Francis Fernández (or Ferdinand) de Capillas (15 August 1607 – 15 January 1648) was a Spanish Dominican friar who went as a missionary to Asia.

[1] De Capillas is honored by the Holy See as the protomartyr among the missionaries in China, and is considered the glory and pride of the Dominican Order.

At the age of 17 he entered the Order of Preachers, receiving the religious habit in the Dominican Priory of St. Paul in Valladolid.

[3] De Capillas considered that time spent in the Philippines as a period of preparation for a mission to China.

[4][5] The two friars arrived in the Province of Fujian, on mainland China, in March 1642, where they joined a fellow Dominican who had survived an earlier period of persecution.

[2]On 15 January 1648 De Capillas was sentenced to death on charges of disseminating false doctrines and inciting the people against the new Emperor.

Their collective memory is remembered on 9 July, while the feast day of Francis Fernández de Capillas is observed on 15 January.