Niccolò Paccanari

Niccolò Paccanari (1773 – ) was an Italian Catholic priest and the founder of the Society of the Faith of Jesus.

Early life Paccanari was born in 1773 in Borgo Valsugana, Trentino. In his youth, he had little formal education; he became a soldier and was engaged in business.

Religious life In 1795, he became gravely ill and spent 14 months in prayer and recuperation with a confraternity at the Oratory of San Francesco Saverio del Caravita in Rome. At the end of this period, Paccanari established a religious congregation called the Society of the Faith of Jesus on 15 August 1797, His four confrères elected him as the first superior of the new congregation.