 This extended to his friend Cardinal Giuseppe Maria Tomasi and to popes Innocent XII and Clement XI who both offered him the cardinalate, which he refused.Paoli's beatification was celebrated on 25 April 2010 in the Basilica di San Giovanni Laterano, with Archbishop Angelo Amato presiding on the behalf of Pope Benedict XVI.Francesco Paoli was born on 1 September 1642 in Argigliano as the eldest of seven children (three brothers and three sisters) to the peasants Angelo Paoli and Santa Morelli (d. 1654); one brother was Tommaso.