Roman Catholic Cardinal. The son of a goldsmith, Angelo Raffaele Gennaro Falconio was born in Pescocostanzo and upon joining the Order of Franciscan Friars Minor in 1860, received the religious name of Diomede. Taking his solemn vows on October 12, 1864, he moved to the United States of America in the fall of the following year and was ordained priest there in Buffalo, New York, by the local ordinary in January 1866. Lecturing philosophy at St. Bonaventure's College and Seminary of Alleghany, New York, between 1865 and 1868 and again from 1869 till 1871, he served as its president through the 1869-1869 period. Rendering ministry in Terranova, New York and Connecticut, he went on to serve as secretary of the American Franciscan province of the Immaculate Conception and administrator, chancellor and vicar general of diocese of Harbor Grace between 1871 and 1882 and was about to become its ordinary were it not for the opposition raised by the Irish Benevolent Society for the appointment of an Italian bishop. This move led his superiors to recall him to his native Italy, where he was soon elected provincial of his Order in the province of San Bernardino. Prosynodal examiner of the archdiocese of Aquilea, in October 1889 he was elected procurator general of his Order, being named visitor general to the provinces of Naples and Pouilles, France. Pope Leo XIII elected him bishop of the diocese of Lacedonia on July 11, 1892, receiving his episcopal consecration six days later at the church of Sant'Antonio in via Merulana, Rome, from Cardinal Raffaele Monaco La Valletta. Promoted to the metropolitan see of Acerenza e Matera on November 29, 1895, Falconio was named as the first permanent apostolic delegate in Canada on August 3, 1899, being transferred to the titular archbishopric see of Larissa in Thessalia on the following September 30. In spite of loosing a first episcopal appointment in the United States years earlier, Falconio eventually found himself again in the country as apostolic delegate. Being appointed to this office on September 30, 1902, during his tenure he promoted ethnic spiritual assistance to the various emigrants to the country. Called to Rome by Pope Pius X, the latter had him created cardinal in the consistory of November 27, 1911 with the title of Santa Maria in Aracoeli. Opting for the order of cardinal bishops and the suburbicarian see of Velletri on May 25, 1914, Pope Benedict XV appointed him prefect of the Sacred Congregation of the Affairs of Religious on February 26, 1916, remaining in office until his death nearly a year later.