Franciscan
Today we celebrate the feast of Saint Joseph of Cupertino. Franciscan. Joseph of Cupertino was known for his ungainly appearance and his levitations, he also had an extraordinary humility, gentleness, and patience. He is a great favorite of students who find it difficult to pass their examinations.
Born the son of a carpenter, Joseph was absent-minded and had such an ungainly appearance that he was given the nickname Boccaperta (“open-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.
He practiced 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 any part in public ceremonies.
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.
After his death on 18th September 1663, there was an immediate popular upsurge of veneration for him. When the cause for his canonization was presented almost a century later, the “devil’s advocate”, Prospero Lambertini, who was known to be most skeptical of supernatural events, declared that eyewitnesses 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. He was canonized 14 years later in 1767 by Pope Clement XIII.
Joseph is the patron of aviators and astronauts and of students who find it difficult to pass examinations.
Today, let’s remember Saint Joseph of Cupertino, and ask for his grace and light in the examination of life.
Heaven is our goal.