devotion) though relented at a later point. Di Francia loved music since his childhood as well as poems and in 1869 composed a short song in honor of Francesco di Paola (his patron saint). Di Francia received the clerical garb (in secret from his mother since she was still opposed to his vocation at that stage) in the San Francesco church on 7 December 1869. But he soon experienced doubts about the strength of his vocation and so left his studies to discern his future. His passion for music saw him twice pursue paths down a musical career in Naples but these did not work out in the end. He returned to his studies after determining God's plan for him and on 19 March 1877 received the tonsure in 1877. He received his ordination to the priesthood on 18 December 1880 in the San Paolo church in Messina from the metropolitan archbishop Cardinal Giuseppe Guarino. His pastoral duties extended to all, though his brother's activities as a priest inspired him to focus on the poor in more depth than he had before. In the late summer of 1887 a cholera epidemic hit Messina and Guarino granted di Francia permission to tend to the ill sufferers of the disease in the most affected areas despite his mother's concerns that he would contract the disease himself (she died in 1888 after the epidemic ended). He also was motivated to help when he saw few doctors offering their support to the victims. He worked among the ill for the duration of the epidemic and following this in 1888 began tending to ill children in the civic hospital. For a time di Francia taught moral theological studies to seminarians in Messina. In 1896 he first met Natala Briguglio and she inspired him to found an order catering to female religious. In 1897 in Messina he founded a religious congregation called the Poor Sisters of the Sacred Heart which later became titled the Capuchin Sisters of the Sacred Heart; Briguglio became a professed religious as "Veronica di Gesù Bambino" and was the first to join this order. He and his brother helped in the rescue and reconstruction efforts following the violent earthquake that struck Messina on 28 December 1908. On 28 February 1912 the archbishop Letterio D'Arrigo Ramondini appointed him as the archdiocesan vicar general in a move that meant he had curial responsibilities to