Visionaries Mystics and Stigmatists Part II

Visionaries Mystics and Stigmatists Part II

Bob and Penny Lord

Published by Bob and Penny Lord at Smashwords

Copyright 2011 Bob and Penny Lord

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Visionaries Mystics and Stigmatists Part II

Table of Contents:

Saint Joseph of Cupertino

The Flying Saint and Patron Saint of Students and Aviators

Save My Church Which is in ruin

Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha

Lily of the Mohawks -

Mystic of the New World

Fruit of the Martyrs

Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque

Mystic and Visionary of the Sacred Heart

Specially chosen by the Lord to bring the Message of His

Sacred Heart to His children.

Saint Louis Marie de Montfort

Slave of Mary

Prophet of the Last Days

Saint Veronica Giuliani

Visionary,

Mystic and Stigmatist,

Mystically married to Jesus

Saint Joseph of Cupertino

The Flying Saint and Patron Saint of Students and Aviators

Save My Church Which is in ruin

The Church in the 16th century received a devastating blow, unlike any attack the enemy could level. Oh, he had been working hard at destroying the Church, what with all the heresies1 which kept cropping up. But Mother Church, perfect mother that she is, always set her children straight through her sons, the princes of the Church on earth - the Popes, down through the centuries, writing Bulls, convening Councils, condemning and dispelling these errors, once and for all, only to have them resurface, again, with a different face but the same disobedient heart (sadly, often using our priests, the Church’s own ambassadors of Christ as instruments). Not even the devil’s fondest dream of fracturing the Church through the Schism in the East in the Eleventh Century could deal the death blow.

But, the day came when the bells tolled mournfully, Mother Mary crying, as her dear children in Europe left the Church founded by her Son. What one priest (Luther) began, one former Defender of the Faith (King Henry VIII) would complete, the procession of 6,000,000 unsuspecting Faithful from the Church that flowed from the Heart of her Son on the Cross, robbing them of the Sacraments.

Through the betrayal of King Henry VIII, the attack on the Church, which had failed under Martin Luther, began to spread throughout Europe. Would Hell prevail against His Church? No! Jesus had made a promise and He would keep it to the end of the world; He would return and head the Church Himself. Whenever our Church has been in danger, the Lord has raised up powerful men and women. In the 16th century, he raised Saint Teresa of Avila and Saint John of Cross (to mention a few), to save His Church. And now, in the 17th century the battle not yet won, Our Lord chooses another precious soul from a humble family and a little-known village, Joseph of Cupertino.

To us, a Saint is born

Our story takes us to Cupertino, a tiny farming village near Lecce, at the heel of the boot of Italy. Farming has always been a hard life, but in the south of Italy you can keenly see the ravages of weather and disappointment on the farmers’ leathery faces, furrowed and cracked by the merciless, unrelenting beating of the sun’s rays.

Conditions were no better in the year 1603 when Our Lord sent a son to Felix Desa and Frances Penara.2 Felix was a carpenter, a very good one. His only problem was his heart was bigger than his pocketbook. He guaranteed loans for friends. When they could not pay, creditors demanded restitution from Felix. Since he could not satisfy the debts, the creditors seized his home as part payment and then threatened poor Felix with imprisonment, to satisfy the rest. Without the possibility of help forthcoming, Felix fled to a holy place and asked for asylum. In those days soldiers could not enter any Church property, as it belonged to the Vatican which was considered another State (equivalent to a separate country with the Pope as head or prince).

Frances, in the last days of her pregnancy, heavy with child, without the aid of her husband, had to flee as well. But do not let me paint a false picture of Frances, mother of a future saint. She was no delicate flower that the slightest wind would blow away. The women of Italy, especially peasant stock of Southern Italy, are strong, the real power and force behind their husbands; they are the heart and strength of the family which keeps it together. Running from the authorities, unable to reach a friend’s home before Baby Joseph made known his urgency to be born, Frances found shelter in a stable. Here, as with Jesus before him, Joseph would be born June 17th, 1603, with only farm animals as witnesses. He was later baptized in Our Lady of Snow Church. Although not present, you can be sure his father was close by, looking on.

With no father to discipline the growing Joseph, the task fell to his mother who, fearing he might get into trouble, wielded a heavy hand. As many of that generation, Frances rarely showed the boy affection while he was awake, afraid he might take advantage of her love and judge her weak and incapable of controlling him. Years later Joseph would jokingly say, he had no need of a novitiate as a religious; he had gone through his, under his mother.

Joseph experiences his first ecstasies

To his delight, Joseph’s mother often took him to church. When he was eight, he made a little Altar at home, where he would recite the Rosary and Litanies to Blessed Mother and the Saints, day and night. His ecstasies began at that time. Experiencing them even at school, oftentimes the book Joseph was reading dropped to the floor; his eyes traveled heavenward, his lips parted, his mouth opened and he was in another world. Imagine the fun the other children had, calling him name, one of the kindest being, bocca aperta. [The English translation open mouth loses some of its sting.] Because of this, many mistakenly took him for being retarded.

Joseph developed ulcers on his legs. His only comfort was attending Holy Mass. Unable to walk, his mother carried him to church each morning. Hearing a hermit had the gift of healing, Frances brought Joseph to him. The hermit prayed and then resorted to excruciating surgical means to remove the diseased flesh with forceps heated in fire; still no reprieve from pain, no cure in sight. Throughout all this useless torture Joseph never complained, always seeking his relief in the Blessed Sacrament. When all looked hopeless, as a last resort, the hermit took some hot oil from the lamps burning before the image of Our Lady of Grace and placed it on the sores. Joseph, suddenly free from all pain, walked to a church nine miles from his home, aided only by a cane.

His life more and more became God and His Church. He visited different churches, assisting at Mass, as often as they would allow him. He ceased eating meat, subsisting solely on vegetables he had seasoned with a bitter herb. He fasted sometimes two or three days in a row, abstaining from food of any kind. As he practiced more and more austere forms of penance and mortification, he desired more and more to leave the world and unite himself with things above.

Joseph, a prophet unknown in his own land

The Lord said, A prophet is unknown in his own land. So it was with Joseph. When he asked his uncle, Father Francis Desa to help him join his Order, the Conventuals, he ridiculed Joseph for dreaming he could ever become a priest with his lack of education. Well, as with his Seraphic father Francis, if Joseph could not enter through the front door, he would come through the back door. Joseph went to the Provincial of the Capuchins, Father Antony of Francavilla, and begged him to accept him as a lay-brother. Joseph received the habit in August, 1620.

Joseph’s thoughts were first and foremost on above; he could never have been accused of focusing on things below. This would cost him dearly, as he served white bread when asked for wheat, as he broke dishes when they fell out of his hands, and as he upset pots of food cooking on the open fire when he attempted to add firewood.

God’s ways are not our ways. A sad and wounded Joseph was relieved of his beloved habit and dismissed, actually thrown out of the Order eight months after his joyful entry. His agony was so great that years later he would say, It seemed to me as if my skin was torn off with the habit and my flesh rent from my bones.

As he believed he was entering the Order for life, he and the brothers had taken little notice where his secular clothes were placed on the day of his entry. And so, eight short months later, our little rejected soul walked away from his dreams, his head bare, his hat gone, no shoes or stockings to cover his feet. He thought he would by-pass Cupertino and all the snide and painful remarks he would encounter there. He bleakly walked toward Vetrara and his uncle, Father Francis Desa who was preaching the Lenten services.

When Joseph arrived, his uncle, true to form, received him by lashing out at him, calling him demeaning, derogatory names. Joseph fell prostrate at his feet, humbly responding when asked why he had come, because I am good for nothing. Fr. Desea, softening at his nephew’s apparent sincere humility, allowed him to remain with him until after Easter when he accompanied him to Cupertino to act as a moral support for the moment Joseph dreaded, facing his mother. She did not disappoint him; she greeted him with blows to the head and cuts to the heart. Now do not think for a minute she did not love him. She was afraid for him. Joseph had been safe in the Monastery. Now, he was home; what would happen to him? Her husband dead, Frances pleaded with the authorities not to imprison her son to satisfy his father’s debt.

Next, Frances took on the Order of Conventuals. If you have ever known an Italian mother, she is the persistent woman, Jesus spoke of in Holy Scripture. You can just imagine what the Conventuals were subjected to until they grudgingly accepted Joseph as a tertiary. He was ecstatic over his new apostolate, tending the mules and his other barnyard friends. He whistled happily as he performed all sorts of menial tasks for the brothers and went into town to gather alms for the monastery. He served the brothers humbly and joyfully.

Although Joseph never felt worthy, evidently God did, as He went executing His plan to make Joseph a priest. On June 19th, 1625, Joseph entered the novitiate in the Monastery in Grotella. The other brothers testified that the qualities Joseph most exemplified as he walked closer to God and farther from man and his approval, were humility, patience and obedience. Although their respect for him grew, he insisted he was the most to be despised of all sinners, and he most assuredly received his habit out of pity. As with Jesus before him, he never defended himself, when accused falsely, accepting punishment although innocent. He willingly submitted to every trial imposed on him to test his virtue. The brothers of his Order ultimately came to recognize Joseph as a true man of holiness in their midst. Because of his obvious virtue, although not having the required education, he took his solemn vows and made his profession as a Franciscan, his heart bursting, his eyes shedding rivers of joy. He was home!

Joseph received minor orders without the necessary preliminary evaluation on January 30, 1627, was admitted to the subdeaconate February 27th, barely a month later, and became a deacon on March 20th of that same year. God was with him all the way. When interviewed for the diaconate, he was questioned3 on the only Gospel passage he could remember and explain. It began, Blessed is the womb that bore thee.4 On the day of his examination for the priesthood, the Prelate, who was impressed with the answers given by the first friars he cross-examined, passed the rest of the candidates, assuming they had the same grasp of Theology. And so, Joseph was ordained March 18, 1628.

Joseph begins to Levitate

Joseph returned to the Monastery at Grotella after his ordination. As soon as he entered, he ran to the Image of Our Lady to thank her for intervening for him, worthless and least of all her sons. During his first Mass, at the moment of consecration, when he touched Our Lord in the Holy Eucharist, he was so overcome with his unworthiness that he begged the Lord to purify his heart and cleanse his hands of all impurity. Each day, after his work was done, Joseph would steal away to a tiny room or remote hideaway. As he meditated on the Lord and the real world above, he would become engulfed in ecstasy and find himself levitating in mid-air. The brothers later testified at his Beatification, his ecstasies and levitations recurred so frequently, Father Joseph was not allowed to take part in spiritual exercises with the other brothers or walk in processions, lest he disturb the proceedings.

Father Joseph’s life, through his own design, became more and more austere, as he deprived himself of all eating utensils and all but one poor garment. Throwing himself before the Crucifix, he cried, Look upon me, Lord; I am divested of all things; Thou art my only good; I regard all else as a danger and ruin to my soul. The Lord’s response was to take away all His consolation from Father Joseph, plunging him into the Dark Night of the Soul.5 His agony became so unbearable one day, he cried out in anguish, the cry of his Savior before him, My Lord, why hast Thou forsaken me? A religious appeared to Joseph, someone he had never seen before. He handed him a new habit. Upon donning it, suddenly Joseph was no longer alone; he could feel the presence of his heavenly companions. Who was this stranger? Was he an Angel? Father Joseph believed so.

Father Joseph chastised his body through means of mortification to tame and empty it of all earthly consolation, so he could be free to accept the graces poured down upon him by the Holy Spirit. During his priesthood, he felt so keenly the responsibility and the privilege of his vocation that he ate no bread for five years, drank no wine for ten years, and subsisted on herbs, dried fruits and beans flavored with the most bitter powder. One of the brothers tasting it, later testified that he got so sick to his stomach, for days all food made him nauseous. Joseph fasted almost unceasingly, observing 7 fasts of 40 days each (280 days), the same fast observed by his founder Saint Francis before him, eating no food on Thursdays and Sundays. Living solely on the Eucharist, after receiving his Lord, color would return to his face and renewed strength to his weakened body.

Saint Joseph of Cupertino is called before the Inquisition

He became famous, people of all stations in life flocking to him for spiritual direction. A Vicar-General, unaware of his holiness, brought Joseph before the Inquisition, charging he performed miracles, attracting the faithful to himself as a Messiah and Healer rather than to Jesus. Nothing could have been farther from the truth. There was suspicion about anyone having visions and what appeared to be phenomena, the Church always prudently investigating: Were they of man, of the devil, or truly Divine? Father Joseph willingly agreed to appear before