Five years after he went to Naples, a letter from Giovanni Agostino Adorno of Genoa to another Caracciolo, Fabrizio, begging him to take part in founding a new religious institute, was delivered by mistake to the newly ordained priest, and he saw in this circumstance an assurance of the divine will towards him (1588).
The motto of the order "Ad majorem Resurgentis gloriam" ("to the greater glory of the Risen One") was chosen because Francis and Augustine Adorno made their profession at Naples on Low Sunday, April 9, 1589.
[5] The order's principal founder, Giovanni Adorno, died in early 1593, and despite his refusal, Francis Caracciolo was chosen Superior General on March 9, 1593, in the first house of the congregation in Naples, called St. Mary Major or Pietrasanta, given to the congregation by Pope Sixtus V. Even in his capacity as superior of the order, he insisted on sharing simple tasks: sweeping rooms, making beds, washing dishes.
He opened the house of the Holy Ghost at Madrid on January 20, 1599, that of Our Lady of the Annunciation at Valladolid on September 9, 1601, and that of St. Joseph at Alcalá sometime in 1601, for teaching science.
The position had been a severe strain upon him, not only because of his delicate health, but also because in establishing and extending the order, he found himself and his brethren faced with opposition, misrepresentation, and sometimes by malicious calumnies.
He carried on his apostolic work in the confessional and in the pulpit, discoursing so constantly and movingly on the divine goodness to man that he was called "The Preacher of the Love of God".
[9] He often bathed the ground with his tears when he prayed, according to his custom, prostrate on his face before the tabernacle, and constantly repeating from psalm 68,[10] as one devoured by internal fire,"Zelus domus tuae comedit me", "Zeal for your house consumes me.
On his way he visited Loreto, where he was granted the favor of spending the night in prayer in the chapel of the Holy House, the Basilica della Santa Casa.
As he was invoking Our Lady's help on behalf of his brethren, Giovanni Adorno appeared to him in a dream or a vision, and announced his approaching death.
On the first day of June, 1608, he was seized with a fever which rapidly increased, and he dictated a fervent letter urging the members of the society to remain faithful to the rule.
[9] When his body was opened after death, Francis' heart was found as it were burnt up, and these words imprinted around it: "Zelus domus Tuæ comedit me"—"The zeal of Thy house hath consumed me.
At first he was buried in the Basilica of St. Mary Major, but his remains were afterwards translated to the church of Santa Maria di Monteverginella, which was given in exchange to the Clerics Regular Minor (1823) after their suppression at the time of the French Revolution.