Being such a religious town, Canterbury had more than its fair share of friars. This is shown on the map. There is a street called Blackfriars, a Greyfriars Garden, and a Whitefriars Shopping Centre. Whatr are all these friars?
Blackfriars refer to the Dominican order because they wear a black cape over a white habit. Founded by (later Saint) Dominic de Guzman (a Spaniard born 1170 in Caleruega in Burgos, Old Castille, Spain with an interesting name that suggests his family might have been conversos, that is ex-Moslems who had converted to Christianity during the Spoanish Reconquista) the Dominicans were founded in 1216 to preach the gospel and oppose heresy; they were stalwarts of the Inquisition and nicknamed the dogs of God a pun on the Latin domini canis.
The Greyfriars are the Franciscans (the Greyfriars Garden is next to the Franciscan Garden). The Franciscans were founded in 1209 by St Francis of Assissi; their hallmark was poverty. The word friar itself is a version of 'Fransiscan).
The Whitefriars are Carmelites and derived from a monastery on Mount Carmel in what was at the time the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem but is now near Haifa in Israel.
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