He started his religious life with the Capuchines in the province of Palermo, and after he became a priest, he went on studying to become a preacher but in 1591 he was chosen as the provincial Father.
At the end of his office he asked to leave for the missions and so in 1599 he left with Lawrence of Brindisi for Bohemia and Persia where Protestant doctrines were very widespread,[2] in order to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and defeat heresies.
[3] There are few anecdotes proving his reputation for holiness which spread at his coming back to Sicily, while from his Latin letters sent to his friend and schoolmate Sebastiano Bagolino, we learn that the mission was successfully proceeding, thanks to the collaboration given by the emperor Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor, and that he was completing a collection of sermons with the title In orationem Dominicam seu Mare oceanum concionatorum pauperum.
This veneration for the Virgin Mary was reinforced by his certainty that he had got some graces (he thought he had been released from temptations and dangers),[3] and by the vision of Our Lady of Stellario[1] which he said he had once had in the friary of Alcamo after his return from Bohemia.
[2] In 1608, after he settled in the Capuchin province of Palermo, he had a certain reputation for holiness: for some months he daily preached in Palermo cathedral and then he went to Trapani, where there was the viceroy marquess Juan Fernández Pacheco de Vigliena, who he was asked to pray for, and to preach for another period of time in Sanctuary of Maria Santissima Annunziata of Trapani.