St Joseph of Cupertino: The Saint Who Took to the Air
At exam time, students may call on the help of St Joseph of Cupertino, a holy man who was treated poorly for most of his life but was regarded by many as a saint in his own lifetime.
St Joseph at a glance
Name at birth: Giuseppe Desa
Born: June 17, 1603 in Cupertino, Kingdom of Naples
Died: September 18, 1663 (aged 60) in Osimo, Marche, Papal States
Beatified: 1753
Canonised: 1767
Feast: September 18
Patronages: Examinations, students, aviators, astronauts, mental disabilities
He was unloved, bullied, abused, and poor, and even his later admirers described him as “remarkably unclever”. And yet, St Joseph of Cupertino came to inspire people around the world and over centuries.
His story begins sadly. He was born as Giuseppe Desa in a shed on June 17, 1603, in Cupertino, a small town on the heel of Italy, near Brindisi. By then his father, a poor carpenter, had died, having left his wife Francesca with a mountain of debt and no home.
From an early age, Joseph faced various physical and intellectual challenges, as well as exhibiting a fiery temper, all making him an object of ridicule and exclusion by his peers. Worse, his mother, though very religious, regarded her son as a nuisance and treated him poorly.
Joseph was known to wander absent-mindedly through Cupertino, mouth hanging open, and was widely known by the mocking nickname Boccaperta, meaning “The Gaper”.
The boy found solace in God and his deep devotion to the Virgin Mary. From a young age, he experienced mystical visions. These often left him in a state of ecstasy, even to the point of losing consciousness. But even these experiences marked Joseph out for the scorn of others.
With no academic prospects, he was apprenticed as a shoemaker, but struggled in that trade. After encountering a mendicant Franciscan preaching in Cupertino, Joseph had a desire to enter the religious life, since begging couldn’t be that difficult. His mother, keen to get rid of her son, encouraged that vocation.
A painting shows St Joseph of Cupertino levitating during Mass.
At 17, he applied to join the Conventual Franciscan friars, but despite having two uncles in that order, he was rejected because of his lack of the required education and his unconventional behaviour. He had better luck with the Capuchin friars who accepted him as a lay brother, but soon he was told to leave because his ecstasies interfered with his duties.
He returned to his family, and was mocked for his failure. So Joseph tried again with the Conventual Franciscans, offering to work in their stables. Over the next few years he performed his menial labour diligently in the stables. All the while he impressed the friars so much with his religious devotion, humility and simplicity that he was allowed to join the order as a friar — with a view to becoming a priest.
Passing his exams
There was a hitch in that plan: Joseph had little education and was not very bright. But since he could remember little bits of information at a time, he prayed that the examiner would ask him only questions to which he knew the answers. His prayers were heard, and Joseph passed. For this reason he is popularly invoked as an intercessor by and for students writing exams.
Joseph was ordained to the priesthood on March 28, 1628. For the next few years he was based at the convent of Santa Maria della Grotella, just outside Cupertino.
He embraced a life of poverty, obedience and sacrifice, happily taking on menial tasks within the monastery. Having grown up in poverty, Joseph had a special love for the poor. His holiness was evident in his daily actions, inspiring some of his fellow friars and the community alike.
Although the simple friar was not an intellectual, he had the sort of divine knowledge that made him capable of solving some of the most complicated theological questions.
The ‘Flying Friar’
Joseph is most famous for his levitations (or being elevated above the ground). Witnesses attested to seeing him levitate during Mass or prayer and remain suspended in mid-air for extended periods. It is said that the mere mention of God would lift him off the ground. After his death but within living memory of the friar, there were 70 such reported instances at Grotella, all attested to by people of credible character.
In addition to his levitation, Joseph performed numerous miracles throughout his life. He was known for his gift of healing through touch or prayer.
Joseph also had the ability to read hearts, discerning the thoughts and intentions of others. This made the friar widely known, and drew people from all walks of life seeking his intercession and blessings.
St Joseph of Cupertino wearing his Franciscan habit, in a glass coffin in the church dedicated to him in Osimo.
Isolation by the Inquisition
That was all too much for his superiors and the Church authorities, with the Inquisition even investigating whether the levitations were the result of witchcraft. That investigation could find no manifestation of witchcraft. When he was taken to see Pope Urban VIII, Joseph went into ecstacy, impressing the pontiff.
Eventually the Inquisition sent him to the Franciscan monastery in Assisi. There Joseph was not allowed to attend any communal functions — even daily meals with his confreres — or public meetings of his order or the Church, including Mass.
Worse was yet to come. In 1653, the Inquisitor of Perugia ordered that Joseph, by now depressed and suffering spiritual aridity, be confined to a cell in solitary isolation in the remote Capuchin monastery of Pietrarossa. But pilgrims soon found him there and flocked to see him. The same happened after he was moved to the Capuchin monastery of Fossombrone.
In 1655, the Conventual Franciscans requested that Joseph be returned to their care in Assisi, but Pope Alexander VII scoffed that “we don’t need another St Francis of Assisi”. Two years later he relented and Joseph was finally allowed to return to his order — but not in Assisi but Osimo, a town near the Adriatic port city of Ancona. The terms of his seclusion were not eased.
He died there six years later, on September 18, 1663, at the age of 60, after an illness of five weeks.
Joseph’s tomb in the church of St Francis of Assisi in Osimo soon became a popular site of pilgrimage, with many pilgrims attributing miracles to his intercession. Over time, Joseph’s body was moved to a more prominent place in the church, which eventually was named after him. Since 1963, his remains are kept in a glass sarcophagus in the crypt of the church.
St Joseph of Cupertino was beatified in 1753 by Pope Benedict XIV and canonised in 1767 by Pope Clement XIII. He is the patron saint of aviators, students, and those taking exams. His feast day is September 18.
Published in the September 2023 issue of The Southern Cross magazine
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