FRANCISCAN SAINTS

St. Joseph of Cupertino was an Italian Franciscan friar who is honored as a great Christian mystic to whom God gave exceptional gifts due to his humility and simplicity of heart. Among his most amazing gifts was that of levitation and his intense visions and ecstasies that left him completely paralyzed.

"If now you long to know how this (mystical communion with God) happens, ask grace, not doctrine; desire, not intellect; the cry of prayer, not the study of the letter; the bridegroom, not the teacher; God, not man; the mist, not clarity; not light, but the fire that inflames and transports everything in God with strong unctions and vehement affections.... Let us enter, therefore, into the mist, let us silence the anxieties, the passions and the phantasms; let us pass with Christ crucified from this world to the Father, to say with Philip after having seen him: this is enough for me" (Itinerario della mente inDio, VII, 6).

Anthony was a great preacher. He was sent as a missionary to numerous cities in Italy and France. He converted many sinners, especially by his good example. It is said that while he was praying in his room, Jesus appeared to him, put his little hands around his neck and kissed him. Anthony received this extraordinary grace because he kept his soul clean of even the smallest sin and loved Jesus very much.

Benedict was beatified by Pope Benedict XIV in 1743 and canonized in 1807 by Pius VII. It is also said that his body was found incorrupt when it was exhumed a few years later. Patron saint of African Americans, Benedict is remembered for his patience and understanding when faced with racial prejudice.

St. Francis was a saint who lived through difficult times of the Church and helped her a lot. He renounced his inheritance, giving more importance in his life to spiritual goods than to material ones. He was faithful to the Church and to the Pope. He founded the Franciscan order according to the requirements of the Church and asked the friars to obey the bishops. He teaches us to live close to God and not to material things. To know how to find joy in poverty, because to love God we do not need anything material.