St. Joseph of Cupertino

St. Joseph of Cupertino (17 June 1603 – 18 September 1663) was born Giuseppe Desa in a stable at Cupertino in Apulia, southern Italy, to a poor family. Slow at learning, absent-minded, and prone to fits of abstraction, he was at first rejected by religious orders, but was eventually accepted by the Conventual Franciscans, first as a servant and then, after remarkable perseverance and a near-miraculous ease in his examination, ordained a priest.

He became famous throughout Italy for the ecstasies and levitations that seized him during Mass and prayer — he was reported, before many witnesses including cardinals and princes, to rise into the air at the mention of holy things — so much so that his superiors kept him secluded to avoid crowds and disturbance. Humble, obedient, and penitential, he bore this notoriety and long periods of enforced isolation with patience. He was canonized in 1767, and because of his flights he is honored, with gentle appropriateness, as the patron of students taking exams, of pilots, and of air travelers.