St. Francis Caracciolo
Priest · 1563–1608
“Let us go, let us go to heaven.”
Traditional account of his last words, June 4, 1608
Francis Caracciolo was born into a noble family in southern Italy in 1563, and by all accounts he had a comfortable life ahead of him. Then, in his early twenties, he developed a serious skin disease. He took it as a sign. He recovered, got ordained, and never looked back.
He threw himself into ministry among prisoners and the sick, the people most others walked past. Around 1588, he helped co-found the Minor Clerks Regular, a congregation built on two pillars: active apostolic work and serious contemplative prayer. Not one or the other. Both, held together.
What set Francis apart wasn't just what he did but how he did it. He was known for spending hours before the Blessed Sacrament, sometimes through the night. That kind of charity toward God fed his charity toward people. His contemporaries noticed. The phrase that keeps showing up in accounts of his life is that he was 'inflamed by a wonderful charity toward God and neighbor.' That's not hagiographic filler. It's a description of someone whose interior life was visibly on fire.
He died on June 4, 1608, in Agnone, Italy, reportedly saying 'Let us go, let us go to heaven.' He was 44. Pope Pius VII canonized him in 1807, and his feast has been kept on June 4 ever since.