St Joseph of Cupertino (1603-63) Franciscan priest and ecstatic
Known for his ungainly appearance and his levitations, Joseph had also
an extraordinary humility, gentleness and patience.
Ungainly appearance
Born the son of a carpenter, Joseph was absent-minded and had such an ungainly appearance that he was given the nickname Boccaperta
("opend-mouthed" or "the gaper"). He had no real academic ability, but
managed to learn to read the Breviary and the Missal and get ordained as
a Franciscan friar.
Levitation and desolation
He practised
austerities which soon led to him lifting off the ground up in the air -
levitating. Accused by his fellow Franciscans of deception and fraud,
they forbade him to say Mass in public or take part in public
ceremonies. But people came to consult him and, although wonders seemed
to surround him, he felt God had deserted him.
Kept in seclusion
Tried by the Inquisition, they
found him not guilty of any deliberate fraud, but transferred him from
the Franciscans to the Capuchins. Here his levitations were still
disruptive and they kept him in seclusion. Even on his deathbed, when he
heard the bell announcing that they were bringing him communion for the
last time - for the last time he levitated; he rose off the bed and
floated out into the hall to meet the Blessed Sacrament.
Death and beatification
After his death on 18th
September 1663, there was an immediate popular upsurge of veneration for
him. When the cause for his canonisation was presented almost a
century later, the "devil's advocate" Prospero Lambertini, who was known
to be most sceptical of supernatural events, declared that
eye-witnesses reporting incidents about Joseph were trustworthy and that
he was worthy of sainthood because of his extraordinary humility,
gentleness and patience. Lambertini later became Pope Benedict XIV and
beatified Joseph in 1753 and he was canonised 14 years later in 1767.
Patronage
Joseph is the patron of aviators and astronauts and of students who find it difficult to pass examinations.