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Patron Saint for People With Developmental Disabilities
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St Joseph of Cupertino is the patron saint for people with developmental disabilities but he also had a disability. He was born in 1603, in the shed behind his house at Cupertino, a small town in southeast Italy. He grew up poor and did not have enough to eat. He was sick quite often and all of his odd behavior made things worse. Joseph knew he was different. He was absentminded, forgetful and supposedly a slow learner. He was said to frequently wander aimlessly, with his mouth gaping open. He had a bad temper, so, he was not at all popular. He tried to learn the trade of shoemaking, but failed. No matter how hard Joseph tried, he just didn’t seem to fit in. He found it difficult to find a community that accepted him. Joseph was grateful, never complaining, for the job his uncle gave him working in the stables. In his spare time, he would go out begging, on behalf of the friars. The friars noticed that people were accepting of Joseph, looking beyond his behavior and seeing the kind-hearted, joyful man he was. The friars gave Joseph enough education for him to become a priest. Even though Joseph was forgetful, easily distracted, people began to see how holy he was. The slightest thing made him marvel at how awesome it was that God created it and he was able to see that God was reflected in it. Sometimes, he would be lost in thought for a whole day! People began to see this as a special gift from God and not a disability.
He fell so deeply in love with God that everything he saw only drew him into a deeper union. The mere mention of God or a spiritual matter was enough to take him out of his senses; at Mass he is said to have frequently floated in the air in rapture. Once as Christmas carols were being sung, he soared to the high altar and knelt in the air, in ecstatic prayer. His life was marked by ecstasies and levitations. Joseph became so famous for miracles curing the sick and disabled. There were people who didn’t believe this so he was kept hidden from the public. He couldn’t write letters to anyone and wasn’t allowed to leave. Even though he was cut off from the world, he knew what was happening in the outside world without being told. He predicted his death would occur on the first day that he didn’t receive Holy Communion, and that was exactly how it happened. He died on September 18, 1663. And today we celebrate his feast on that date every year!
