Saint Francis Caracciolo (1563 – 1608) was a near contemporary of Saint Philip Neri, whom he resembles in some ways, and with whom the Order he began had a connection. He was born Ascanio dei Caracciolo Pisquizi, of a noble family, with his mother descended from the same line as Thomas Aquinas. Falling deathly ill at the age of 22, Ascanio made a promise that he would devote his life to God were he to survive, similar to what Martin Luther did in a violent thunderstorm a century earlier, but with a different end. Ascanio began studies for the priesthood in Naples.
God works in mysterious ways. A letter from Father Giovanni Agostino Adorno intended for another ‘Caracciolo’ was inadvertently sent to Ascanio, with the request to start a religious order. Ascanio took this as a sign, and assisted Father Adorno in writing up a rule for what would become the Order of Clerics Regular Minor, or the ‘Adorno Fathers’, whose motto is Ad Maiorem Resurgentis Gloriam – For the Greater Glory of the Risen Christ, and whose members are still across the world doing work for God’s kingdom. They were ascetical, with each member taking turns doing some sort of daily penance – fasting, hairshirt, and so on. (I know not how much this has continued, nor how orthodox they are – the impression given on their webpage is a favorable one. They’re all wearing cassocks, which is a good sign). Their rule was approved by Pope Clement VIII on June 1, 1592, the same year the same Pope promulgated the official Vulgate Bible after the Council of Trent.
Father Ascanio was ordained on Low Sunday, April 9th 1589, and took the name ‘Francis’ in honour of the saint of Assisi. Father Francis was renowned for his love of adoration, and the spirit of humility and penance. He would spend whole nights before the Blessed Sacrament, repeating the phrase from Psalm 68 ‘Zelus domus tuae comedit me – Zeal for thy house has consumed me!’, and would be found sleeping on the steps outside the church. Upon his death, his heart was found burned up, as though from the fire of the God’s love, with those words inscribed upon that heart. Even when appointed superior upon Father Adorno’s death, he would gladly join in the humblest of chores. He gave all he had to the poor, and was not beneath begging in the streets for them. Father Caracciolo, like the future Curé d’Ars, spent many hours in the confessional, and could read souls.
He knew when his own life would end, revealed to him by Father Adorno from heaven. Sure enough, after a fever, he died on this day, June 4th, 1608, crying out, ‘Let us go, let us go to heaven!’, at the age of 44, which seems far too young. But, like many of the saints, he traveled far in a sort time. Would that we all could have such a death, but we first need such a life, at least in some way.
Francis Caracciolo was canonized by Pope Pius VII on May 24th, 1807.
Ora pro nobis, good and faithful servant. +
