Praised be Jesus and Mary. In the
Franciscan calendar today we celebrate
the feast of Saint Joseph of Leonisa. He
was born in the year 1556 of devout
parents who named him Euphronius, and
that was the name given to him at
baptism. Under their faithful guidance
he made great progress in holiness and
later on, while continuing his studies
at Viterbo,
he attracted the attention and
admiration of everyone by his hard work
and virtuous life, and to such a degree
that a nobleman of that city offered him
his daughter in marriage together with a
large dowry, but Euphronius had already
made a nobler choice.
He left school and entered the Capuchin
Franciscans in the year 1573, and under
the name of Joseph he found happiness
and peace in things which an
undisciplined age abhors, and that would
be mortification and penance.
His room was a poor cell so small and
narrow that he could hardly stand or sit
or lie down. His bed was the bare earth,
a block of wood was his pillow. His
preference was eating food that no one
else wanted or even could eat, such as
stale beans and moldy bread. And in spite
of the great strain associated with the
the life of preaching, he still
persevered in doing such penance even
after he had been entrusted with this
task.
With works of penance, he strove to win over those souls to God
that he could not move with his words.
In the year 1587, his zeal for souls motivated him to go to Constantinople.
He could no longer conceal from the fanatical Turks the good that he was doing,
especially among the Christian captives on the galleys.
They seized him and they pierced his right hand and right foot with sharp hooks.
And hung him up on a high gibbet, then kindled a weak fire underneath of him
to roast him slowly alive and to gradually suffocate him.
And he suffered untold tortures for three days.
And on the fourth day, he was miraculously,
freed by an angel who told him to return to Italy and to preach the gospel to the poor.
And from then on, he traveled untiringly through all the villages and country towns of Umbria.
He strongly denounced the evils of his day.
Such as frivolous dances and plays.
In his associations with the people, however,
he resembled a lamb in his meekness and charity.
His very demeanor won for him the affection of the people
and affected the most.
He observed the most remarkable healing and reconciliation between persons
who had been living at enmity for years.
And between families and communities that had been at variance with each other.
Often, while at work or prayer, he would be wrapped in that ecstasy.
He worked many miracles and was granted the gift of prophecy and reading hearts.
He foretold the day of his death, February 4th, 1612.
It was in the friary at Amatrice.
His body was later taken to his native town of Leonisa,
and it reposes there today, glorified by many miracles.
Pope Clement XII beatified.
Josephus.
Joseph and Pope Benedict XIV canonized him in the year 1745.
And we can, just another saint to remind us of the necessity
of mortifying the appetite and doing penance.
And, you know, a lot of the saints live such holy lives.
And although they realized they still had to atone for the sins
of the world, they still had to atone for the sins of the world.
And they still had to atone for the sins of the world.
And they still had to atone for the sins of the world.
They did commit.
And their greater motivation, though, was the salvation of souls,
the conversion of sinners, to help people get to heaven.
And that's the motivation that we pray for and the motivation that we need
to perform these practices that are so distasteful to fallen human nature.
Thank you for watching.