Francis Caracciolo

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Saint Francis Caracciolo

Born	October 13, 1563, Villa Santa Maria, Abruzzi, Italy
Died	June 4, 1608, Agnone
Venerated in	Roman Catholicism
Beatified	4 June 1769 by Pope Clement XIV
Canonized	24 May, 1807 by Pope Pius VII
Major shrine	church of Monteverginella
Feast	June 4
Patronage	patron saint of Naples and Italian cooks
Saints Portal

St. Francis Caracciolo (October 13, 1563–June 4, 1608) born Ascanio Pisquizio, was an Italian Catholic priest who co-founded the Congregation of the Minor Clerks Regular with John Augustine Adorno.^[1] He decided to adopt a religious life after recovering from leprosy at the age of 22.

[edit] Biography

He was born in Villa Santa Maria in Abruzzi, Italy; he belonged to the Pisquizio branch of the Caracciolo and received in baptism the name of Ascanio. From his infancy, he had a reputation for gentleness and uprightness. He vowed himself to an ecclesiastical life, and distributing his goods to the poor, went to Naples in 1585 to study theology. In 1587 he was ordained priest and joined the confraternity of the Bianchi della Giustizia (The White Robes of Justice), whose object was to assist condemned criminals to die holy deaths.

A letter from Giovanni Agostino Adorno to another Ascanio Caracciolo, begging him to take part in founding a new religious institute, having been delivered by mistake to the newly ordained priest, he saw in this circumstance a confidence of the Divine Will towards him (1588). He assisted in drawing up rules for the new congregation, which was approved by Sixtus V, 1 July, 1588, and confirmed by Gregory XIV, 18 February 1591, and reconfirmed by Clement VIII, 1 June, 1592.

The institute thereby founded, entitled the congregation of the Minor Clerks Regular, is both contemplative and active. To the three usual vows a fourth is added, namely, that its members must not aspire to ecclesiastical dignities outside the order nor seek them within it. Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is kept up by rotation, and self-mortification is practised. The motto of the order "Ad majorem Dei Resurgentis gloriam" 'to the greater glory of the resurrected God' was chosen from the fact that Francis and Adorno made their profession at Naples on Low Sunday, 9 April, 1589.

In spite of his refusal Francis Caracciolo was chosen general, 9 March 1593, in the first house of the congregation in Naples, called St. Mary Major's or Pietrasanta, given to the confraternity by Sixtus V. He made three journeys into Spain to establish foundations under the protection of kings Philip II and Philip III. He opened the house of the Holy Ghost at Madrid on 20 January 1599, that of Our Lady of the Annunciation at Valladolid on 9 September 1601, and that of St. Joseph at Alcala sometime in 1601, for teaching science. In Rome he obtained possession of St. Leonard's church, which he afterwards exchanged for that of Sant'Agnese in Piazza Navona, 18 September 1598, and later he secured for the institute the church of San Lorenzo in Lucina (11 June 1606) which was made over to him by a Papal Bull of Pope Paul V, and which was, however, annulled by the Bull "Susceptum" of Pope Pius X (9 November, 1906).

St. Francis Caracciolo was the author of Le sette stazioni sopra la Passione di N.S. Gesù Christo ("The Seven Stations of the Passion of Our Lord", Rome, 1710). He loved the poor. Like St. Thomas Aquinas, a relative on his mother's side, his purity was angelic, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia. Pope Paul V desired to confer an important bishopric on him, but he steadfastly refused it. His frequent motto was "Zelus domus tuae comedit me". Invited by the Oratorians at Agnone in the Abruzzo to convert their house into a college for his congregation, he fell ill during the negotiations and died there on the vigil of Corpus Christi, on 4 June 1608.

[edit] Veneration

Caracciolo was beatified by Pope Clement XIV on 4 June 1769 and canonized by Pope Pius VII on 24 May, 1807. His liturgical feast day is June 4. In 1838 he was chosen as a patron saint of Naples, where his body lies. At first he was buried in St. Mary Major's, but his remains were afterwards translated to the church of Monteverginella, which was given in exchange to the Minor Clerks Regular (1823) after their suppression at the time of the French Revolution. St. Francis is no longer venerated at Naples with the same fervor and devotion as in the 1800s.

He is also patron of Italian cooks.