St. Joseph of Leonessa

St. Joseph of Leonessa, O.F.M. Cap.
Saint Fidelis of Sigmaringen and Saint Joseph of Leonessa, by Tiepolo
Martyr
Born	1556 Leonessa, Italy
Died	February 4, 1612 Amatrice, Italy
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church
Canonized	1746 by Pope Benedict XIV
Feast	February 4

Saint Joseph of Leonessa, O.F.M. Cap., (Italian: Giuseppe da Leonessa) (1556 – February 4, 1612) is a saint of the Catholic Church. He was born Eufranio Desiderio at Leonessa, a small town then in Umbria, now in the Lazio. It is said that from his infancy he showed a remarkably religious bent of mind; he used to erect little altars and spend much time in prayer before them, and often he would gather his companions and induce them to pray with him.

Whilst yet a boy he used to take the discipline on Fridays in company with the Confraternity of the Holy Savior. He was educated by his uncle, who had planned a suitable marriage for him, but in his sixteenth year he fell sick of a fever, and upon his recovery, without consulting his guardian, he joined the Capuchin reform of the Franciscan Order. He made his novitiate at the friary of the Carcerelle near Assisi.

As a friar he was remarkable for his great abstinence. "Brother Ass", he would say to his body, "there is no need to feed thee as a noble horse would be fed: thou must be content to be a poor ass." In 1599, the year before the Jubilee year, he fasted the whole year by way of preparation for gaining the indulgence.

In 1587 he was sent by the Minister General of his Order to Constantinople to minister to the Christians held captive there. Arrived there he and his companions lodged in the Galata district in a derelict house of Benedictine monks, actually the St. Benedict high school. The poverty in which the friars lived attracted the attention of the Turks, who went in numbers to see the new missionaries. He was very solicitous in ministering to the captive Christians in the galleys of the Ottoman Empire's navy. Every day he went into the city to preach, and he was at length thrown into prison and only released at the intervention of the Venetian agent.