Francis of the Child Jesus was born in Villapalacios (Albacete - Spain) in 1544 and spent a youth full of hardships as a shepherd.

At the age of twenty he moved to Alcalá de Henares, where he entered the service of the hospital of Antezana; there he worked wonders of charity also confirmed by miracles, particularly through devotion to the Child Jesus, whom he had appointed as his agent and in whose name he asked for alms and help. From this incredible intimacy with the Holy Child, he acquired the name of Francis of the Child Jesus, which he then kept as his own name as a religious, and by this name he was also called by the kings and grandees of Spain, who loved and venerated him.

Moved by divine inspiration to become a Discalced Carmelite, he overcame the repeated resistance of the city of Alcalá and of Philip II himself, who had twice obtained from Rome a dispensation annulling the vow Francis had made to become a religious. On April 12, 1598 in Madrid, he received the habit as a lay brother, making his profession on April 13, the following year.

Later sent to Valenza, at the request of the court, he succeeded with the municipal authorities, to found - as he had done in Alcalá - the house of St. Gregory for converts (1600), supported by the archbishop St John de Ribera, who had already known him in Madrid and who venerated him as a saint. He also took him with him on pastoral visits during which Francis taught catechism and worked wonders. He saved Valenza from the plague, assisted many pious works, setting up there a "custom house of the Child Jesus", a wardrobe and warehouse where he collected what was necessary for his poor.

He was recalled under obedience to Madrid in December 1603. Shortly after, due to the continuous rush of people following Francis, the superiors, who did not view well his popularity and reputation for holiness and miracles that followed him, relegated him to the remote novitiate of Pastrana (Guadalajara) from where, for the same reason, he was transferred to the desert of Bolarque. But soon, besieged there by the crowds, he had to return to Pastrana and, finally, back to Madrid, followed everywhere by hordes of people.

To meet his superiors’ wishes, here he sought to escape from the faithful, in prayer and penance preparing himself for the death that he welcomed holily on December 26, 1604, exactly during the festivities for his Child Jesus.

On January 1, 1769, the decree on his heroic virtue was promulgated.