St. Joseph of Cupertino, CONFESSOR, A.D. 1663.
by VP
Posted on Wednesday September 18, 2024 at 12:38AM in Saints
Ludovico Mazzanti (1686-1775)
"Mary, thou refuge of sinners, be mindful of me" St. Joseph of Copertino By Angelo Pastrovicchi
"The parents of this saint were poor, but virtuous. From his infancy he gave signs of extraordinary virtue. He was very attentive to the divine service, wore a hair shirt, and mortified his body by various austerities. Having finished his novitiate among the Franciscans near Cupertino, he made his vows as a lay brother. Though employed in the meanest offices, he performed them with perfect fidelity. He redoubled his fasts and austerities, prayed continually, and slept only three hours every night. His humility, sweetness and love of mortification and penance gained him so much veneration, that he was admitted among the religious of the choir, that he might qualify himself to receive Holy Orders.
Being ordained priest, he celebrated his first Mass with inexpressible sentiments of faith, love, and respect. He chose a retired cell that was dark and inconvenient. He divested himself of every thing that was allowed by his rule, and cried out, prostrate before his crucifix: "Behold me, O Lord, bereft of all earthly things: be thou, I beseech thee, my only good; I look upon every other thing as a real danger, and as a loss to my soul."
After having received the priesthood, he increased his austerities; and his desire of mortification made him invent different instruments of penance. He suffered many interior trials and severe temptations; and was treated with great harshness and severity by the superior of the convent at Assisium, where he was sent by the general of his order. But he soon experienced a return of heavenly consolations. His raptures were as frequent, as extraordinary. He had a singular talent for converting the most obdurate sinners, and quieting the minds of those who labored under any trouble. He explained the most profound doctrines of our faith with the greatest clearness; and this sublime knowledge he owed to the intimate communication which he had with God in prayer. His miracles were not less remarkable than the other extraordinary favors which he received from God. Many sick owed their recovery to his prayers.
The saint falling ill of a fever, foretold that his death was near at hand. The day before his death, he received the holy Viaticum, and after it Extreme Unction. He was heard often to repeat those aspirations of a heart inflamed with the love of God: "O that my soul was freed from the shackles of my body, to be reunited to Jesus Christ! Praise and thanksgiving be to God! The will of God be done! Jesus crucified, receive my heart, and kindle in it the fire of thy holy love." He died on the 18th of September, 1663, at the age of sixty. His body was exposed in the church, and the whole town came to visit it with respect; he was afterwards buried in the chapel of the Conception at Osimo, where he died; and his sanctity was attested by many miracles." The Catholic Year; Or Daily Lessons on the Feasts of the Church by Rev. Fr. John GOTHER 1861
