HISTORY OF ADORNO FATHERS AND BROTHERS
The Clerics Regular Minor : 400 years of service in to the Church

Saint Francis Caracciolo was born Ascanio Caracciolo on October 13, 1563 in Villa Santa Maria, Abruzzi, Italy. At twenty-two, Ascanio Caracciolo was a young man enjoying the exceedingly comfortable life available to an Italian nobleman of the sixteenth century. More pious than his comrades, he still did not allow religion to interfere with his other activities especially hunting. Then the unthinkable happened: he contracted a terrible skin disease, similar in appearance to leprosy, and apparently was going to die. Facing death was a fruitful experience for the youth; he vowed that if he recovered he would give the rest of his life to God, and after his miraculous recovery he immediately began studying for the priesthood and was ordained in 1587 at the age of twenty-five.

Ascanio's first work was in Naples, with a confraternity that looked after the spiritual welfare of prisoners and those condemned to death. His real work was revealed to him, however, in 1587, when he mistakenly received a letter addressed to a relative of the same name; he learned from it that the writer- a priest call Augustine Adorno- was planning to found an association of priests whose work would combine both active and contemplative life. The project appealed to Ascanio, and he soon joined forces with Augustine Adorno. After making a forty-day retreat to prepare themselves for their work, the two men recruited ten companions and began their foundation. On July 1 of the same year Pope Sixtus V approved the new group, and on April 9, 1588, the co-founders made their solemn vows, Ascanio taking the name Francis, the name by which he was subsequently known.

Members of the congregation, call the Clerics Regular Minor, took the usual vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, plus a fourth: not to seek any ecclesiastical office either within or outside the order. The priests kept perpetual adoration before the Blessed Sacrament and conducted missions, helped the inmates of hospitals and prisons, and established hermitages for those who felt called to a life of contemplation. Francis was elected the order's first general, and although a very self-effacing man accomplished a great deal for it. He made three trips to Spain, where he founded houses in Madrid, Valladolid, and Alcala. He was popular among people as a confessor andpreacher, his fervent sermons making him known as "the Preacher of the Love of God."

In 1607 Francis sensed the approach of death and went into retirement to prepare for it. Since most of his adult life head been directed to God, he now had little to do except to await God's call with confidence. His health declined rapidly, and on June 4, 1608, the end came. Those who watched at his bedside that evening heard him murmur, "Let us Go! Let us Go!" When asked where he wanted to go, Francis replied, "To heaven, to heaven!" Scarcely had the saint uttered these words when the wish was fulfilled. Francis' body was take to Naples, where it is now venerated.

Venerable Augustine Adorno, born John Augustine Adorno, is considered the first founder and the first father of the Clerics Regular Minor. He was born in Genoa in 1551 to Michele Adorno, and Nicoletta dei Campanari. His father was a senator of Genoa and was a respected personage of this city. His father's family was very much involved in the political affairs of Genoa. His mother was a woman of virtue and religious piety.

Augustine received his education in diplomacy, commerce as well as classical studies. In 1573 Augustine Adorno was sent to the court of Philip II by his father, Michele, where he stayed for several years. Augustine was a kind of envoy of Genoa to the King of Spain while at the same time he attended to the financial affairs of the family in Spain. He was a banker in the court of Philip II, lending money to the King and his associates. It was in Valencia, Spain that Augustine met St. Louis Bertrand who prophesied that he would establish a religious order. Two events could be said to have contributed to Augustine's decision to abandon his career as a banker and financial manager of the family's business in Spain: he lost a big amount of money to gambling and the death of his father in 1578. These events led Augustine to the realization of the importance of the 'things in heaven' and that everything on earth soon 'comes to an end.'

Augustine resolved to abandon the world and decided to devote himself to spiritual matters. Upon his return to Genoa, Augustine had time to reflect on his vocation in life and in order to ascertain the fact that God was really calling him, he meditated and prayed over it with the help of his spiritual director, Don Giustino Barnaba. Augustine studied theology and petrology of the Church Fathers in the seminary of Genoa. It was also in Genoa that Augustine thought of establishing a religious order. At 36 years of age, Augustine was ordained a priest on September 19, 1587 in the Church of Saint Restituta. He continued to exercise his pastoral ministry as a member of the Confraternity of the While Robes of Mercy in Naples, reaching out to the prisoners. Augustine also frequented the Hospital of the Incurabili, where he ministered to the sick and the dying. It was in the course of Augustine's pastoral work in this hospital that he met Fabrizio Caracciolo, a relative of Saint Francis Caracciolo.