Portal:Catholic Church/Patron Archive/June 4 2007

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. He decided to adopt a religious life after recovering from leprosy at the age of 22.

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.

Attributes: Monstrance Patronage: Naples and Italian cooks Prayer: