At Osimo in Picenum, Italy, Saint Joseph of Cupertino, priest of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual, who amid the harsh circumstances of life was conspicuous before God for his poverty, humility, and charity toward the needy.
Lifespan: 1603–1663
Beatified: 24 February 1753 by Pope Benedict XIV
Canonized: 16 July 1767 by Pope Clement XIII
Memoria liturgica: 18 September
Quando ti metti a studiare o a scrivere ripeti: Signor, tu lo Spirito sei / et io la tromba. / Ma senza il fiato tuo / nulla rimbomba.
“When you sit down to study or to write, repeat: Lord, you are the Spirit / and I am the trumpet. / But without your breath / nothing resounds.”
Giuseppe Maria Desa was born on 17 June 1603 in the small town of Copertino, in the province of Lecce. His family was going through a difficult time: his father, Felice, had been caught up in the financial ruin of an acquaintance to whom he had lent money, and had fallen into poverty. And so Joseph came into the world in a stable, just as Jesus did, and from childhood he had to roll up his sleeves to help support the household, working as a shop assistant.
Joseph also tried to attend school, but was struck by a gangrenous ulcer that kept him away from his studies for five full years. His mother, Franceschina Panaca, a strong and vigorous woman, tried to give him a basic formation by recounting the lives of the Saints, such as Saint Francis. In Joseph there grew the desire to follow in the footsteps of the “Poor Man of Assisi,” so much so that, having turned sixteen, he asked to enter the order of the Conventual Franciscan Friars at the convent known as the “Grottella.”
But his poor schooling worked against him, and he was forced to turn back. He then approached the Reformed Franciscans and the Capuchins of Martina Franca, but the answer was the same: his inadequate education, combined with the first manifestations of ecstasy during which he would drop everything from his hands, made him unsuitable for community life.
In the meantime, the Supreme Tribunal of Naples ruled that, upon reaching adulthood, Joseph would be obliged to work without pay until his deceased father’s debt was settled. Faced with this sentence — in effect, a form of outright slavery — the young man returned to request admission to the Convent of the “Grottella.” The friars took his situation to heart and helped him undertake a proper course of studies.
Through a thousand difficulties, but by dint of great willpower, the young man reached the examination for the diaconate. Here a prodigy occurred: Joseph had thorough knowledge of only one passage of the Gospel — and it was precisely that passage which, as chance would have it, the examining bishop asked him to comment on. A similar extraordinary event was repeated three years later, at the examination to become a priest: the bishop questioned several candidates and, finding them particularly well prepared, extended admission to the priesthood to all the remaining candidates. At last, in 1628, Joseph was ordained a priest.
Joseph’s humility, however, remained proverbial: aware of his own cultural limitations, he did not disdain the simplest manual tasks, and devoted himself to the service of the poorest. He even gave himself the self-deprecating nickname “Brother Donkey.”
Joseph lived his love for the Church unconditionally, placing Christ at the center of his existence and nurturing a profound devotion to Mary, Mother of God. Yet those who heard him speak recognized in him the light of a mature theology, which he expounded with great depth: it was the gift of infused knowledge that made him so wise.
Meanwhile, in Joseph the phenomena of ecstasies and levitations intensified, in particular when he pronounced the names of Jesus and Mary. “When the gunpowder in a musket is ignited and produces that boom and roar,” he explained to a confrère, “so the ecstatic heart is set alight with the love of God.”
These episodes did not escape the notice of the Inquisition of Naples, which summoned him in order to determine whether the young man from Copertino was abusing popular credulity. Before the very judges assembled at the Monastery of San Gregorio Armeno, Joseph levitated. He was therefore acquitted of all charges, but the Holy Office confined him in isolation, away from the crowds.
The future Saint was then moved from one convent to another — Rome, Assisi, Pietrarubbia, Fossombrone — until he arrived at Osimo, near Ancona. Here, at last, he was sent in 1656, at the wish of Pope Alexander VII, and here he found peace. He remained there without interruption until his death, always living a humble life in the service of his neighbor, and in conversation with God at the summit of the Eucharistic celebration. “This is what must be done,” he explained to a confrère, “leave the world, continue in prayer, and prepare the little grotto of our heart to offer Jesus Christ our intellect, our memory, and our will.”
Death came to him on 18 September 1663, at the age of sixty. Benedict XIV beatified him in 1753, while it would be Clement XIII who proclaimed him a Saint on 16 July 1767. Today his sacred remains rest in a gilded bronze urn in the crypt of the church in Osimo dedicated to him. A shrine has also been erected in his honor in Copertino, over the stable in which he was born.