SAINT JOSEPH OF CUPERTINO

Joseph was born on June 17, 1603 in the small Italian town of Cupertino (Lecce). His parents were very poor. The child came into the world in a poor shed attached to the house, because his father, a humble carpenter, had not been able to pay his house payments and his house had been foreclosed. At the age of 17 he asked to be admitted to the Franciscan order but was not accepted. He asked to be received into the Capuchins and was accepted as a lay brother, but after eight months he was expelled because he was extremely absent-minded. He would drop dishes when he carried them to the dining room. He would forget the offices assigned to him. It seemed that he was always thinking about other things. Because he did not fulfill his duties well, he had to leave the convent. Seeing himself discarded, Joseph sought refuge in the house of a rich relative of his, who declared that this young man was "good for nothing", and threw him out on the street. He was then forced to return to the misery and contempt of his home. His mother insistently begged a relative who was a Franciscan to receive the boy as an errand boy in the friars' convent.

Conversion
It happened then that a change took place in Joseph that no one had imagined. The friars received him as a laborer and put him to work in the stable, and he began to perform with remarkable skill in all the tasks they entrusted to him. Soon with his humility and kindness, with his spirit of penance and his love for prayer, he gained the esteem and appreciation of the religious, and in 1625, by a unanimous vote of all the friars of that community, he was admitted as a Franciscan religious.


Difficulty in his studies.
He was put to study to prepare himself for the priesthood, but when he was going to take exams, everything got stuck and he was not able to answer. One of the final exams came and poor Bro. Jose the only phrase of the Gospel that he was able to explain completely well was the one that says: "Blessed is the fruit of your womb Jesus". He was scared to death, but at the beginning of the exam, the chief examiner said: "I am going to open the Gospel, and the first sentence that comes out, that will be the one you have to explain". Copertino knew perfectly well: "Blessed be the fruit of thy womb". Finally, the definitive examination arrived in which it was decided who would be ordained. And the first ten examined by the bishop answered all the questions so wonderfully well that the bishop suspended the examination, saying: "Why continue to examine the others if they are all so formidably prepared? Joseph, who was next in turn and was frightened, was spared from having to pass the exam. That is why our saint is the patron saint of students, especially those who, like him, encounter difficulties in their studies. The saint is pleased to help them. At his shrine in Osimo, the documentation testifying to his intercession continues to grow.


Priest of prayer and penance
He was ordained a priest on March 18, 1628 and dedicated himself to trying to win souls through prayer and penance. He knew that he had no special qualities for preaching or teaching, but he made up for these deficiencies by offering great penances and many prayers for sinners. He never ate meat or drank any kind of liquor. He fasted on bread and water for many days. He dedicated himself with great effort, devoted to the manual works of the convent (which was the only thing he felt qualified for).

Ecstasies and miracles
His ecstasies, miraculous healings and supernatural occurrences were so frequent that they are not known in such quantity in any other saint.

Levitation. 

More than 200 saints are known to have experienced levitation. This extraordinary gift consists in the elevation of the human body without the participation of any physical force. It has been considered a gift that God gives to certain very spiritual souls. St. Joseph of Copertino had numerous levitations, that is, he flew through the air.
One Sunday, feast of the Good Shepherd, he found a little lamb, threw it on his shoulder, and thinking of Jesus the Good Shepherd, he went soaring through the air. He was often in ecstasy during Holy Mass or when he prayed the Psalms. During the 17 years that he was in the convent of Grotella, his companions in the community observed him in ecstasy 70 times. The most famous one occurred when ten workers wanted to carry a heavy cross up a high mountain and could not do it. Then Friar Joseph took to the air with the cross and carried it to the top of the mountain.

When he was in ecstasy, he was pricked with needles, beaten with sticks, and even had lighted candles placed near his fingers, and he felt nothing. The only thing that brought him back to his senses was to hear the voice of his superior calling him to go and fulfill his duties. When he returned from his ecstasies, he would ask his companions for forgiveness, saying: "Excuse me for these attacks of dizziness that I get".

The animals were especially fond of him. Passing through a field, he would begin to pray and the sheep would gather around him and listen very attentively to his prayers. Swallows in large flocks would fly around his head and accompany him for blocks and blocks.

As these rare occurrences could produce real movements of exaggerated fervor among the people, the superiors forbade him to celebrate Mass in public, to go to pray in community with the other religious, to attend the dining room when the others were there, and to attend processions or other public gatherings of devotion.

One day the ambassador of Spain arrived with his wife and they sent for Fray José for a spiritual consultation. He came running. But when he was about to start talking to them, he saw a picture of the Virgin that was on the top of the building, and giving his typical little cry, he went up in the air until he was in front of the face of the sacred image. The ambassador and his wife were excitedly contemplating such an event that they had never seen before. The saint prayed for a few moments. Then he gently descended to the ground, and, as if ashamed, ran up to his room, and did not come down again that day.

In Osimo, where the saint spent his last six years, one day the other religious saw him rise to a statue of the Virgin Mary that was three and a half meters high, and give a kiss to the Child Jesus, and there with the Mother and Child he remained for a long time praying with intense emotion, suspended in the air.

On the day of the Assumption of the Virgin in the year 1663, a month before his death, he celebrated his last mass. While celebrating, he was suspended in the air as if he were with God himself in heaven. Many witnesses witnessed this event.

Many enemies began to say that all this was mere invention and accused him of being a deceiver. He was sent to the Superior General of the Franciscans in Rome and when he realized that he was so pious and so humble, he recognized that he was not pretending anything. They then took him to the Supreme Pontiff Urban VIII who wanted to know if it was true or not what they told him about the ecstasies and levitations of the little friar. And while he was talking to the Pope, Joseph was in ecstasy and rose into the air. The Duke of Hanover, who was a Protestant, upon seeing Joseph in ecstasy, converted to Catholicism.

In the life of St. Joseph of Copertino we can see many gifts with which the Lord adorned his humble and pious soul. He is a saint in whom God poured such an abundance of supernatural gifts that they are countless.
He was chosen by his Superiors to exorcise demons, which he considered himself unworthy to do, and he used this phrase: "Come out of this person if you wish, but do it not for my sake, but for the obedience I owe to my superiors". And the demons would come out.

He also had the gift of reading Hearts, he was a good confessor and when a soul came to confession he could see what was tormenting that soul.

The gift of Bilocation, (being in two places at the same time). When his mother was dying in the small town of Copertino, Joseph was in Assisi and sensed his mother's need. A great light entered the lady's room, it was St. Joseph of Copertino who had arrived. When his mother saw him, she exclaimed, "Oh Father Joseph, oh my son," and died instantly. When his superiors asked him why he was weeping so bitterly, he replied because his mother had just died. There are many who testify that Father Joseph assisted his mother in Copertino.

He multiplied bread, honey, wine, and any food that was put in front of him.

The Gift of Healing He restored his sight even to the blind by placing his cloak on his head. The maimed and lame were healed by kissing the crucifix he placed before them. There was a plague of high fever and the sick were healed by making the sign of the Cross on their foreheads, bringing their fever down to normal temperature. With the sign of the cross, he raised the dead.

He had the gift of prophecy, predicting the day and hour of the death of Popes Urban VIII and Innocent X. He predicted the ascent to the throne of John Casimir.

He also had the gift of touching hearts towards conversion. The best known example was that of Prince John Federick, a Lutheran, who at the age of 25 went to Assisi with two escorts, one Catholic and one Protestant. They entered the church where Father Joseph was celebrating Holy Mass and, at the time of the consecration, when the priest wanted to break the host, it was as hard as a stone and he had to return it to the paten. Father Joseph began to cry in pain and levitated about three feet in the air. When he returned to the altar he tried again to break the host and, with great effort, succeeded.

Later when the superiors asked him why he had taken so long to break it, he replied, "My dear brothers, the people who attended mass today are too hard hearted, that is why the Lamb of God hardened in my hands and I could not break the Consecrated Host."

The next day the prince returned with the two men to Mass and, when Father Joseph elevated the Host, the cross of the Sacred Host changed to black. Causing him great pain and weeping he began to levitate along with the Sacred Host for 15 minutes. The miracle of Father Joseph levitating with the Host on high moved the prince's heart to convert to the Catholic Faith, as did his companions.

Father Joseph never accepted any credit for his miracles, he always credited them to his Mother Mary, to whom he always had a great devotion.

Pope Benedict XIV, who was very rigorous in accepting miracles, carefully studied the life of Joseph of Copertino and declared: "all these facts cannot be explained without a very special intervention of God".