FALCONIO, DIOMEDE: Roman Catholic archbishop and apostolic delegate; b. at Pescocostanzo (73 m. n. of Naples), Italy, Sept. 20, 1842. He entered the Franciscan Order in 1860, and five years later was sent to the United States as missionary. In 1866 he was ordained priest, and was professor of philosophy and vice-president of St. Bonaventure's College, Allegheny, Pa. (1866), professor of theology and secretary of the Franciscan Province of the Immaculate Conception (1867), and president of the College and Seminary of St. Bonaventure (1868-71). He was secretary and administrator of the cathedral at Harbor Grace, N. F., 1871-82, and after a year in the United States returned to Italy and was elected provincial of the Franciscans in the Abruzzi. He was later reelected, and in 1888 was commissary and visitor-general for the province of Puglia, becoming in 1889 synodal examiner for the diocese of Aquila and commissary and visitor-general for the Franciscan province of Puglia. He was procurator-general of his order and visitor-general in various Franciscan provinces from 1889 to 1892, when he was consecrated titular bishop of Lacedonia, being elevated, three years later, to be archbishop of Acerenza and Matera in Basilicata. He was Apostolic Delegate to Canada 1899-1902, and since 1902 has been apostolic delegate to the United States.