Diomede Falconio

Diomede Angelo Raffaele Gennaro Falconio, O.F.M. (20 September 1842 – 8 February 1917) was an Italian Cardinal of the Catholic Church. He served as Prefect of the Congregation for Religious from 1916 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1911. He was Apostolic Delegate to the United States from 1902 to 1911.

Biography

Diomede Falconio was born in Pescocostanzo as one of the five children of Donato Antonio Falconio, a goldsmith, and his wife Maria Giacinta Buccigrossi. He received the Sacrament of Confirmation on 5 September 1852, and entered the Order of Friars Minor, more commonly known as the Franciscans, on 2 September 1860. Upon entering, he also changed his baptismal name from Angelo Raffaele Gennaro to Diomede from Pescocostanzo. Falconio studied at the Franciscan convents of Magliano and Carpineto, making his first vows on 17 September 1861 and his perpetual vows on 12 October 1864.

In the autumn of 1865, he traveled to the United States, where he was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop John Timon, CM, on 4 January 1866, in Buffalo, New York. Falconio taught philosophy at St. Bonaventure's College and Seminary in Alleghany from 1865 to 1871, serving as its President from 1868 to 1869. After doing missionary work in Terra Nova, Canada, he received American citizenship. In 1867 he was made Secretary of the American Franciscan province of the Immaculate Conception. and opted to be promoted to Cardinal Bishop of Velletri on 25 May 1914. He was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 1914 papal conclave, which selected Pope Benedict XV, who named Falconio Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for Religious on 26 February 1916.

Falconio died in Rome on 8 February 1917. He is buried in the Franciscan church of his native Pescocostanzo.