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Saint Joseph of Cupertino

Priest of the Friars Minor Conventual

Feast Day
September 18
Life
1603–1663
Canonized
1767
Order
Order of Friars Minor Conventual (Franciscan)
Born
Cupertino, Kingdom of Naples (modern Italy)

Joseph Desa was born in 1603 in the small village of Cupertino in the Kingdom of Naples. He was an extraordinarily poor student and was widely thought to be slow-witted; in his early years he was dismissed from one religious community after another for inability to learn. After years of rejection he was finally accepted as a stableboy by the Conventual Franciscans at Grotella, and from there as a lay brother and eventually, against all expectation, as a candidate for the priesthood.

At his oral examination for ordination — the moment of greatest dread in his life — the examining bishop, who was hearing each candidate in turn, opened the New Testament at random and his eye fell on Luke 11:27, 'Blessed is the womb that bore thee.' Joseph had spent his life meditating on precisely that text. He gave a brilliant answer and was passed. The remaining candidates were ordained without examination, since the bishop trusted that the others were equally well prepared. Joseph took this as a sign and ever afterward attributed the answer to the prayers of the Blessed Virgin.

He is, however, far better known for the phenomenon that accompanied much of his adult life: the friars at Cupertino, Assisi, and Osimo testified under oath, during his canonisation process, to having seen him on numerous occasions rise into the air during the celebration of Mass, during prayer, and at the sound of sacred music. The Roman authorities, concerned for the public order, eventually moved him quietly from house to house and confined him to a private chapel for the last decade of his life.

Joseph died on September 18, 1663. Pope Clement XIII canonised him in 1767. The unusual combination of his struggles as a student and his subsequent miracles led, by a kind of holy logic, to his designation as patron of students facing examinations.

Joseph of Cupertino is invoked by students preparing for difficult examinations and by all whose memory or intellect fails them in the moment they most need it. The traditional prayer to him asks that, just as the bishop opened the book to a verse Joseph knew, so the student may receive the questions for which he or she is best prepared. The same saint is also patron of air travellers and astronauts, by analogy with the levitations attested at his canonisation.

Patronages

students · test takers · exams · studying for exams · pilots · astronauts · air travelers · those with learning disabilities

Catholic Churches Named After Saint Joseph of Cupertino

20 parishes on Catholic Church Times share Saint Joseph of Cupertino's name. Find their Mass times, confession schedules, and adoration hours:

Sources