Background
Forbes was the second son of John Forbes, 8th Lord Forbes, by his first wife, Lady Margaret Gordon, eldest daughter of George Gordon, 4th Earl of Huntly, the leader of the Scottish Catholics at the time of the Reformation.
Forbes was the second son of John Forbes, 8th Lord Forbes, by his first wife, Lady Margaret Gordon, eldest daughter of George Gordon, 4th Earl of Huntly, the leader of the Scottish Catholics at the time of the Reformation.
Having changed clothes with a shepherd boy, John Forbes crossed over the sea to Antwerp, where he was arrested by a soldier of the Spanish army and imprisoned as a spy in the citadel. On recovering his liberty he learned Flemish and Latin. And on 2 August 1593 became a novice in the Capuchin monastery at Tournai.
A year later he took the solemn vows.
He lived in the houses of his order at Bruges and Antwerp. lieutenant is related that at Dixmude he converted 300 Scottish soldiers to the catholic religion.
His mother ultimately came to Flanders, and a pension was granted to her by the king of Spain. He was buried in the nave of the Capuchin Church at Termonde.
The life of John Forbes was written in Latin by Faustinus Cranius of Diest, under the title of Alter Alexius, natione Scotus, nobili familia oriundus, nuper in Belgium felici South. Spiritus afflatu delatus, et in familiam Seraphici Patris South. Francisci Cappucinorum adscriptus, sub nomine F. Archangeli, Cologne, 1620.
lieutenant was translated into Italian as Narrativa della Vita d"un Figlio et d"una Madre, Modena, 1634. An English version, with Forbes"s portrait prefixed, engraved by J. Picart, was printed at Douay, 1623, together with a memoir of Father Benedict Canfield, and The of the Reverend Fa. Angel of Ioyevse, Capvchin Preacher.
These three biographies had previously appeared in French at Paris in 1621.