Feast day: March 5
St. John Joseph of the Cross
An Italian Franciscan known for extreme penance and humility who founded a friary, served as a wise confessor, and was reputed to read hearts and work cures.
John Joseph of the Cross was born Carlo Gaetano Calosirto in 1654 on the island of Ischia, near Naples. Drawn from boyhood to a life of penance, at sixteen he entered the Franciscans of the strict reform of St. Peter of Alcántara, becoming the first Italian to join that austere Spanish movement.
Remarkable for his humility and rigour, he was sent while still young to found a new friary at Piedimonte, where he insisted on doing the lowliest labour himself, working as mason and servant. Though he wished only to be hidden and obscure, his evident holiness drew notice, and he was obliged to serve as novice-master and superior.
He guided his brethren with severity toward himself and gentleness toward others, and was credited in his lifetime with gifts of prophecy, miracles, and even bilocation. Through long internal divisions in his order he laboured patiently for peace.
He died at Naples in 1734 and was canonized in 1839. He is remembered as a model of Franciscan humility and penance.
He joined the strict Franciscan reform at sixteen and helped build the friary with his own hands before he was even ordained.
Image: Unknown authorUnknown author (Public domain), via Wikimedia Commons.
Source: newadvent.org/cathen/08466a.htm
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