Frankism

https://www.cdamm.org/articles/frankism 

 

Introduction

Frankism was a spiritual movement that flourished in the second half of the eighteenth century in central Europe. Its founder, leader, and supposed messiah, Jacob Frank, was born around 1726 in Podolia (in today’s Ukraine). Frank grew up in the Sabbatean religious community and later incorporated its teaching into his own belief system, inspired by Jewish Kabbalah and Catholic Marian mysticism. Like the Sabbateans, the Frankists saw the messiah in the figure of Sabbatai Zevi (1626–76), sometimes referred to as Amira in the writings of the Prague Frankist circle. The leader of one of the branches of the Turkish Sabbateans, Baruchya Ruso (1695–1740), known as Señor Santo, was considered another incarnation of the messiah. The final incarnation of the messiah was thought to be Jacob Frank, or the ‘Holy Father’ (Scholem 1991, 641–43). After his death in 1791, the role of the messiah (or rather the role of the messiah’s mother; discussed below) was taken over by his daughter, Eva Frank (1754–1816), whom the Prague texts refer to as Gevirah or the Virgin: ‘She is the Messiah who did not come to mind. No one thought of it, but it is this Virgin, who is Gevirah, who will bring redemption!’ (Scholem 1991, 644).