St Francis Caracciolo: 400th Anniversary of His Death

When finishing Matins late last night, I realized that it was the 400th anniversary of the death of St Francis Caracciolo, joint founder of the Clerks Regular Minor (not to be confused with the Minims): for, as Guéranger confirms, he died on the day before the Nones of June, at the hour of first Vespers of Corpus Christi, at the house of some Oratorians in Agnone, being taken by a violent fever. He had ever loved the Blessed Sacrament, keeping all-night vigils of adoration: how fitting he should die at such an hour of such a day. His collect is instructive:

Deus, qui beátum Francíscum, novi órdinis institutórem, orándi stúdio et pœniténtiæ amóre decorásti: da fámulis tuis in ejus imitatióne ita profícere; ut semper orántes, et corpus in servitútem redigéntes, ad cæléstem glóriam perveníre mereántur. Per Dóminum...

(O God, who didst endow blessed Francis, institutor of a new Order, with a striving for prayer and love of penitence: grant to thy servants to so profit by his imitation, that ever praying, and bringing the body into subjection, they may merit to attain to heavenly glory. Through...)

The three proper lessons for his feast (read as one, abbreviated, in the '62 Breviary) may be consulted here.

Interestingly, the motto of the Clerks Regular Minor is Ad Majorem Resurgentis Gloriam: "For the Greater Glory of the Risen One".