FRANCESCO CARACCIOLO, saint. — Born at Villa S. Maria (Chieti) on 13 October 1563 to a noble family, he lived an exemplary life in his father’s house until the age of twenty-two; he then secretly went to Naples, where he was ordained a priest. Having received by mistake a letter from the ven. servant of God Agostino Adorno and from his kinsman Fabrizio Caracciolo, abbot of S. Maria Maggiore in Naples, who intended to found the new Order of the Minor Regular Clerics, he immediately followed them and together with them drew up its constitutions, obtaining their approval in Rome from Sixtus V on 1 July 1588. At the profession that took place in Naples the following year, he changed his baptismal name, Ascanio, to that of F. After Adorno’s death on 29 September 1591, the general chapter unanimously elected F. C. as his successor general.
His brief life was a miracle of charity and apostolic zeal, of profound and continuous penance. He spread devotion to the Most Holy Eucharist and wished perpetual adoration to be a distinctive feature of his Order. He died in Agnone on the eve of Corpus Christi, 4 June 1608. He was beatified by Clement XIV on 10 September 1769 and canonized by Pius VII on 24 May 1807. His remains are venerated in the church of S. Maria in Monte Vergine at Naples. Of his writings, some letters and a book of devotion entitled Le sette stazioni remain. Feast day: 4 June.